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Home > CANADA > Business events in Italy
ITALIAN PUBLISHING ARRIVES AT THE LONDON BOOK FAIR
Rome (Ign) -The world of publishing will be the protagonist at the 36th edition of the London Book Fair 2007 (www.londonbook fair.co.uk), scheduled for 16-18 April at the prestigious Earls Court Exhibition Centre. This is one of the most important English events in the publishing sector, but also a forum of international relevance, that this year will focus the attention of participants on the issue of copyright. This is an event of particular relevance in the European panorama, which last year involved over 1800 exhibitors in exhibition space of over 12,000 square metres, and a public of 80,000 visitors from 111 countries. The London Book Fair, in addition to being one of the events in the sector which brings together new initiatives capable of positively conditioning the future of European publishing, above all in the digital sector, is also an important opportunity to set up international co-operation projects aimed at reinforcing the presence of companies on foreign markets. This is why the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE) has decided to organise an Italian delegation in collaboration with the Italian Publishers' Association (AIE - www.aie.it). In addition to being a showcase for Italian publishing, this will be able to display national examples of excellence in the sector, and bring them closer to those of the rest of Europe.
Italian publishing is in fact in good health: according to data from the trade associations, the overall turnover in 2006 for paper, publishing, print and transformation (accounting for a total of 256,000 jobs), was worth € 42.136 billion, of which 8.27 billion regarded exports (growth in 2005 was respectively of 1.5% and 2.1%), with a trade surplus of € 2.6 billion.
In detail, the Italian industry has been experiencing a good period in recent years, seeing that today the Italian market is worth over €4 billion. Development has been boosted since 2005, when the subsector of books sold in combination with newspapers and periodicals reached a value of €537 million with 75 million books sold, and acted as a driving force for the entire sector. Publications sold with newspapers and periodicals represent 34% of total sales and 15% of national turnover. Similarly, the bookshop market in the same year accounted for 35% of the total publishing sector, which ended up in fourth place in Europe. Breaking down the figures on preferences, we see a clear dominance of contemporary literature (39%), followed by classics (32%).
The situation is clearly rosy, and a good starting point to project the sector towards foreign markets. Moreover, an increasing number of publishing houses have decided to focus on international collaboration in order to move into new geographical areas, especially now that digital publishing is growing exponentially. This is a new business and a great opportunity, which requires new marketing strategies, and which also allows companies that aim their products at a more traditional market to invest without compromising their image. Also here, participation in the London book Fair may play an important role, insofar as it is an ideal event for dealing with and discussing the prospects involved in the digitalisation of publishing, which will soon become of fundamental importance also for the sector in Italy.
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