READMAGINE 2024

Readmagine has been organised continuously by the Germán Sánchez Ruipérez Foundation in collaboration with Fande and IPDA, as a forum exploring unusual paths to innovation in reading and the book industry. Each year, general topics are sought that spark a dynamic of discovery and dialogue between speakers and the rest of the participants.

Readmagine took place over three morning and afternoon sessions, with 54 speakers and an international audience of more than 200 professionals from the fields of creation, publishing, distribution, marketing, design, production, digitalization, and academia. This is the first time the PARIX alumni community has been invited to attend.

One of the first sessions was titled «Publishing in the Age of Anxiety» and brought together four heavyweights from the global book scene: Madeline McIntosh (recently resigned as CEO of Penguin Random House in the United States and focused on the launch of Authors’ Equity), Michael Tamblyn (CEO of the digital book giant Rakuten Kobo), Richard Charkin (founder of Mensch and former director of Bloomsbury and former president of the IPA, among a host of other leadership positions), accompanied by Porter Anderson, director of Publishing Perspectives. This conversation served as a high-level review of all the challenges facing the book world during this time.

Previously, McIntosh had presented her new venture, «Authors’ Equity,» a new publishing business model to better serve authors, emphasizing profit-sharing and strategic marketing, meaning that authors receive a majority share of the profits while Authors Equity handles the strategy and marketing. In order to expand revenue streams, Authors Equity is exploring additional revenue streams beyond book sales, such as licensing intellectual property for educational programs.

As is customary at Readmagine, these sessions focused on reading, audience development, and a prospective examination of market trends.

Regarding readers, perhaps one of the most interesting approaches was the debate chaired by Marta Martínez (CEO of Anaya) with John Martin (Director of ILT Education) and Mexican expert Karla Paniaguia, as they addressed the impact of challenges and innovations in the field of education. Likewise, in this area of ​​boosting audiences among new readers, Marifé Boix (Vice President of the Frankfurt Book Fair) led the session with Eva Orúe (Director of the Madrid Book Fair), Piero Crocenzi (Director of the Turin Book Fair), and Jürgen Boss (President of the Frankfurt Book Fair). Specifically, audiences were the focus of the new section created in 2024: «Readmagined by Bookwire,» a new addition to the series and curated by Bookwire on the final day of this edition. References were made to linking methods and new audiences.

Along with reflection on systems to expand the number of readers interested in devoting time to books, there was much discussion about new ways of managing data for the book sector in a stimulating discussion by Raúl Pérez, Michael Then, and Andrew Rhomberg.

In the area of ​​data, there were also two classic presentations by Enrico Turrin, on the European book market last year, and by Rüdiger Wischenbart, on the new trends that are signaling notable transformations in the global book landscape.