Foreign rights manager at Éditions La Fabrique Ernest Moret, who was arrested ahead of the London Book Fair for his role in protesting the raised pension age in France, was released after about 24 hours of detainment. Verso editor Sebastian Budgen told PL that Moret’s phone and work computer remain confiscated, with no guarantee when he will get them back, and that he must return to London in mid-May at the request of England’s anti-terrorism unit. Budgen said Moret’s lawyer expects that date to be pushed back and potentially “abandoned, as there’s no real case.” (Moret was released on “police […]
International News
French Rights Manager Arrested Before LBF
Foreign rights manager for the French publisher Editions La Fabrique Ernest Moret, 29, was arrested on Monday at St Pancras Station in London on his way to the London Book Fair. When Moret arrived at the train station from Paris, two plainclothes London police officers stopped him on suspicion of terrorism, related to his participation in protests in Paris over Emmanuel Macron’s change to the pension age. The officers confiscated Moret’s phone and computer and he was arrested when he refused to give them the passcodes, the Guardian reports. Moret remains in custody. In a joint press release, Editions La Fabrique […]
Forthcoming: A Bond In Honor of King Charles
Ian Fleming Publications announced a newly-commissioned short novel, reusing the title ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE from 60 years ago, to be published in the UK on May 4. It is billed in celebration of the coronation of King Charles on May 6. “Young Bond” author Charlie Higson wrote the new 144-page book, though he didn’t have much time: “When Ian Fleming Publications came to me with the idea of writing an adult Bond story a little more than a month ago I was thrilled – until I realised it had to be ready for the coronation in May. Getting […]
London Book Fair May Move 2024 Dates to Avoid Bologna
The London Book Fair is “investigating” moving their 2024 dates, after the Bologna Children’s Book Fair announced it would hold its fair less than a week before, the Bookseller reports. LBF announced in October that the next fair would be April 16 – 18, 2024. BCBF announced this month that it would hold its 2024 fair April 8 – 11. A change to the LBF dates would be contingent on availability of the venue, the Olympia London. “In any event, we will strive to ensure minimal disruption to our visitors,” LBF director Gareth Rapley told The Bookseller. “It is a shame that […]
Lagardere Board Approves Radio Spinoff
As Lagardere and Vivendi both take steps to ease the path towards approval of their pending merger by the European Commission, Lagardere’s board has approved a plan floated earlier to preserve the independence of their radio division. The company intends to spin the radio division (comprising Europe 1, Europe 2 and RFM) into a separate, limited-partnership holding company. Arnaud Lagardère would be “indirectly the general partner and personally the managing partner,” and he “would be solely responsible for supervising the managers and teams of the radio division and would be the ultimate decision-maker on editorial policy.” There had been longstanding […]
New Strategy: Vivendi Will Sell Editis Outright
Vivendi announced it is abandoning its plan to spin off publishing company Editis into an independent, publicly traded company, and instead they are negotiating to sell the division outright. Vivendi “received several offers for the sale of 100 percent of the shares of Editis,” and has “decided to enter into exclusive negotiations” with International Media Invest (IMI), a subsidiary of billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s Czech Media Invest (which owns a number of prominent French magazines). Kretinsky’s portfolio also includes stakes in the newspaper Le Monde and the TV group TF1. The sale of Editis is designed to win approval from regulators […]