2024-07-16 15:29:28
BPublishers have been under economic pressure in recent years. Increased costs, decreased sales. In a Research by “Börsenblatt”A business magazine for the book industry, among the independent publications in the fall of last year, it turns out that one of the four publications evaluates their own economic situation with a school level of 5 or 6.
Bastei Lübbe is unique among independent book publishers of the group. Founded 70 years ago by Gustav and Ursula Lübbe in Bergisch-Gladbach, now based in Cologne, the company is something of an innovation driver in the industry. The company went public eleven years ago, which is still a bold step for a large company that manages with a turnover of about 100 million euros and a business that is not self-initiated.
For a long time, Bastei Lübbe probably laughed a little because of books like “Jerry Cotton” and “John Sinclair” and all kinds of kitsch stories, but then came exposure to popular books with big names like Ken Follett, Stephen. The King, Betty Mahmoody (“Not without my daughter”), even the Dalai Lama has the German edition of the “Book of Freedom” published by Bastei Lübbe. In the 2000s, best sellers by authors such as Andreas Eschbach, Dan Brown and Jeff Kinney (including “Greg’s Diary”) were added. Soheil Dastyari, CEO from 2022 said “We are a major publisher of popular entertainment and think that is a good thing.
Fast forward to the present: On July 16th, Bastei Lübbe presented the balance sheet for the financial year 2023/24 – and it is very good. An increase in sales around 10 percent to 110 million euros, a doubling of operating profit by 14 percent to 14 million euros, that is something to be proud of. What is particularly interesting here is that the number of books sold increased by 4.3 percent compared to the previous fiscal year, but the total market lost 2.3 percent. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe was apparently able to achieve price increases of 10.8 percent, while the total market only increased prices by just under 5 percent.
One growth driver stands out: so-called “local-driven business models”. These are novels that are not promoted single-handedly by a specific target group, but are promoted strongly by the main female readers themselves on social media such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Bastei Lübbe has launched three publishing brands here, with a fourth following in the fall. Lyx is a brand for young women, the genre is called “New Adult” and the shining model here is the author Mona Kasten, whose trilogy “Save me” has just been filmed for Amazon Prime Video under the title “Maxton Hall”. Licenses have been sold in 23 countries – and a “major licensing deal” with an American publisher is said to be imminent.
Books as the “companion culture” of the Internet
“For many, the book has become the next trend of the Internet,” said publishing boss Dastyari in an interview with WELT. “There is a very young, internet target group that now swears by books and movies in their bookcases, see the BookTok genre on TikTok. We are, of course, the big driving force behind this trend in Germany. Even unknown authors can now be promoted by Lyx, Dastyari said, because readers have built trust in the Lyx brand.
What is really amazing is how the recommendations spread and reinforce themselves through social media – but then you almost buy books that are printed exclusively, beautifully decorated with beautiful floral trim, these are the page that can be seen from outside. The Young Adult category, which is offered under the One brand and is dominated by fiction and fantasy, is up to 18 years old, for example “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” by Holly Jackson, which was also made into a movie . What is on display here is a kind of revival of the sad novel, but with very strong women at the center.
The publishing label “Local Creations” represents influencers who want to publish a book, including YouTuber Paluten with children’s books and fitness star Pamela Reif with cookbooks. The new Pola brand, which is aimed at 30 to 45 year old women, will be launched in autumn. In the presentation, the novel “Return” by Ella Berman, which will be published at the end of September, was mentioned. These books are intended to show the “truths of life”; words such as “power abuse”, “fire” and “harm control” are used as keywords – by describing such a problem, but it is clear-to-history, Bastei Lübbe believes that they have discovered a gap just in the market. President Dastyari sees “unstoppable energy” in this section.
“We are essentially a publisher of popular sports and think good things”: Soheil Dastyari is CEO of Bastei Lübbe
Source: Federico Gambarini/dpa/picture alliance
The second major growth driver is audio distribution, especially streaming and downloading audiobooks, whose physical sales in the form of CDs have fallen noticeably. “As a company, we want to try things out, embrace innovation and technology,” said Soheil Dastyari. “This comes from a time when perhaps many things were started and wanted at the same time. But that’s also why we started audio streaming early, we were the first advertiser. ”
In fact, Bastei Lübbe went through a great valley between 2017 and 2020, in which the publisher started many projects but had little success, for example its entry into the game business failed. The change began about four years ago. From one year ago, i.e. July 2023, the share price has risen by almost 50 percent, to the present around 8 euros. In the opinion of the board of directors, the distribution is now to increase from 16 to 30 cents per share .
Good news for publisher Birgit Lübbe, who holds almost a third of the shares, and shareholder Dirk Rossmann, whose investment GmbH has a good 20 percent of the shares. Conveniently, the “Oktopus” magazines by Rossmann, who made billions from his drug stores in his day job, were published by Bastei Lübbe. About a third of the shares are freely traded on the stock exchange. Rossmann, says CEO Dastyari, is “very committed” as an author and always brings many ideas with him to appointments. And then it’s always about your novels and not about the company’s strategy. Sounds like a good deal.
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