“The war in Ukraine opens a new era of unknowns, marked by galloping inflation and rising energy prices that threaten consumption and savings, but fortunately it’s catching up with the book industry in a very healthy way, especially for the growth of comics, manga and picture books” confirmed this Tuesday Patrici Tixis, President of Gremi d’Editors of Cataloniaat the opening of the seventh edition Forum Editing, Organized by Gremi d’Editors and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, ​​two days will reflect and re-discuss the world of books and publishing. A “hopeful” assessment reinforced by the avalanche of data in the first speech of the morning, Ignacio López, head of Market Intelligence at consulting firm GfK, reference for the industry
According to his data, the publishing industry is “in good shape”. It grew by 5.6 percent in 2021. That’s 3.5 by June 2022, 501 million, much more than in any other European country (the mythical 2011 had its best year of the century, 514) in the same period. “July has been stable, somewhat negative in terms of physical book sales, but August has been positive. Due to the great uncertainty we have experienced and what is to come, we predicted a slowdown in the last part of the year. and nobody knows what will happen. We expected it to drop to -1 compared to last year, but we’re already leaning towards +1. based on how sales are developing. This means that the year will close over one billion euros. If the magic number of 1.091 million is reached in 2011, Why can’t 1,100 be reached in 2022?”.
López emphasizes that “inflation has not been affected so far”. average price of the book”, not rising (15.37 euros), and selling more than 2019. With 25% experiencing the highest growth in the entire sector on a species basis squad. On this, the analyst agrees with Tixis in emphasizing that Japanese comics “could be a gateway for a teenager to include in reading.” Far behind, children’s and youth literature (4%) and fiction (3%) have grown a bit. In contrast, non-fiction fell to -1.
booksellers
Regarding distribution channels, bookstores continue to grow: They collect 42% of Spain’s total sales (40% in 2021), exceeding 2014 figures. Shopping centers and chains continue to dominate somewhat (51%). attribution online sales represented 30% of sales in the first half of 2022, while it was 35% in 2021; although it has fallen slightly, it still exceeds 23% of 2019. The GfK analyst emphasized “the good development of bookstores that need to be strengthened and continue to look for new ideas”: a 200 million turnover in the first half of 2022, improving the figures from 2014 and approaching that “magical 2011”.
López pointed to the “fundamental and distinctive role”. Catalonia In the purchase of books”: 22% of total sales in the first half of Spain were generated here, in addition “bookstores are the most important sales channel (55%), a figure to be defended”.
Sant Jordi wait
It also presented data from the past Sant Jordi. Despite this 2022, the 2021 figures were not exceeded, which was “a historic explosion of 46.1 million euros”., yes they arrived 42.9 million, 26% more sales than in 2019 (34.1 million). The best-selling thing in ‘Dad’, fiction -novel in general, 18% and crime and adventure novels, 8%. López highlighted the weight of Sant Jordi in Catalonia, which managed to collect almost 50% of all Spain’s sales that week, which translates to 20.6m euros, “a disgrace; very few businesses reach those figures in seven days” . 40% of sales were made from books in the Catalan languageThis highlights “the role of the plan to promote reading and the richness of languages” for the analyst.
in Madrid
A comparison was made with the Madrid community, saying, “It is also a basic engine in buying books with 23%. We can say that the cake is shared with Catalonia, which has a weight of 22%”. Distribution is completely different: “large department stores and chains outnumber bookstores” with 64% of sales compared to 30% of retailers. The success of the genres is also different: more nonfiction is sold in Madrid than fiction. However, Lopez The impact of the three weeks of the Madrid Book Fair (26%) does not reach the levels of the week of Sant Jordi (48%).
Consumption and internet
The head of Market Intelligence at GfK sees the Internet as an opportunity, not a threat, as a complement to the publishing world, which includes not only downloading or reading “e-books”, but also searching, blogs, networks and discussions, information. .. In Spain, digital consumption per person and per day per person before covid was 165 minutes, but during the pandemic it jumped to 208 and now we are at 184. 29% of the population enters the internet in the category of books and literature or browses the internet.: “11 million people”. According to the segments, those aged 45-54 and over 65 are the ones who explore the network the most. The under-24 will be below average: “the ‘target’ of the “future reader”, someone to watch out for, he warns.
Source: Informacion
