A great challenge was posed to Santos Palazzi, Chantal Restivo-Alessi and Marie-Pierre Sangouard during their participation in Readmagine 23: neither more nor less than predicting the evolution of the major trends in the industry of books over the next 5 or 10 years, from the perspectives or senior professionals of the publishing industry. The result of this challenge can be followed in this video.
Santos Palazzi (Grupo Planeta) structured the conversation with Chantal Restivo-Alessi (Harper Collins) and Marie-Pierre Sangouard (Editis) in a very organized way. This session managed by the moderator and filled with intelligent answers by the two senior publishers that could overcome the challenge posed and become a very useful source of ideas and inspiration for the audience.
The session began with a brief presentation by Santos Palazzi, whose objective was to focus the main topics of the debate with the general framework of the conversation: What will be the scenario of the world of books 5 to 10 years from now?
On the one hand, it is necessary to talk about how is the demand behaving today. As an example on this ground, Palazzi used data from the latest report on reading behaviour in Spain (2022): 35% of the population does not read books as a form of leisure, among the remaining 64.4%, 37.2% only read in printed format, the 19% read on paper and digitally and 8.2% exclusively on digital. The situation is different in each market, but we should take into account the general trends.
Regardless of the evolution of the reading behaviour, the new digital tools will also pose challenges for the publishing industry professionals. As an example, Palazzi presented some predictions on the degree of impact of AI on jobs across the industry: among the most impacted professions would be translators, authors and proof-readers. Along with this technological factor, Palazzi also shared some of the latest news that appeared in the media, referring to the role of Tik-Tok, self-publishing, AI-based publishing and content creation.
From that landscape, Palazzi structured the conversation on three main levels:
- The role of publishing
- The retail and sales
- The readers (and book buyers)
The conversation on the role of the publishing industry during the next decade was addressed through the following issues:
- Embracing AI to assist most editorial processes like editing, translation, cover design…
- New skills will be needed: how do we attract talent?
- Will creation and storytelling remain “human centred”?
- Short form reading content: will it succeed as it did in audio format (podcast)?
- Audiobooks AI narration: Is it here to stay and will match human voice?
- Book transformation to suit the “thinking formatting”
- Movies and series from books: should publishers take an active part in this? How?
- Self-publishing, AI & copyright content: Squaring the circle?
The conversation on the situation and evolution of the retail and sales for next years was addressed through the following issues:
- Print on Demand (POD) becoming more important for environmental reasons?
- Growth of eCommerce vs resilience of traditional bookstores
- In fixed-price policy countries (Spain, France, Italy), does eCommerce have a growth ceiling?
- Used books/second hand books: new platforms and new buyers?
- Logistics & Sale Forces: How will environmental awareness affect?
Finally, Palazzi organised the conversation on the situation of readers and book-buyers by asking several issues:
- New genres will emerge (like “romantasy” today) and “create” new readers?
- Different type of reading, everywhere: Webtoon, Tapas, Wattpad, TikTok…
- Digital business models: will subscription be massively adopted, like in music?
- Digital business models: Snacking and Book Summaries produced with Chat-GPT
- Big Data and analytics on reading behaviour and book buying
- Environmental consciousness: how will this affect readers and the whole industry?
Chantal Restivo-Alessi is Chief Digital Officer and CEO International Foreign Language for HarperCollins Publishers, leading the overall global digital strategy and foreign language publishing program for the company. She works with each division around the world to manage commercial relationships with new and existing digital partners, grow digital revenues, oversee the company’s developing foreign language publishing program. She is also a member of the company’s executive committee. She was appointed Chief Digital Officer in May 2012 and expanded her role to CEO, International Foreign Language in April 2015. Since joining HarperCollins, Restivo-Alessi has pioneered the use of new digital sales channels, signing numerous deals with new distributors, such as subscription services Scribd and Storytel, and growing digital sales exponentially (175%). In addition, she led the launch of the company’s e-commerce platform on HC.com and has spearheaded efforts for the company’s other direct-to-consumer programs across the globe.
Marie-Pierre Sangouard has been working in the publishing industry for more than 25 years. With a 360° background in the industry in France – starting in marketing for Hachette (Book for Children), then General Manager of a paperback publishing company, Director of Book Purchasing for a cultural retail chain, Director of Kindle in France, VP digital marketing and now General Manager of a French book distribution company, she has a global overview of the main challenges the industry is facing …in a book fixed price environment. She is currently General Manager of Interforum, a 100% subsidiary of Editis Group in France and manages sales forces and the distribution activities in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. She holds a business degree from HEC (Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales) as well as a Master Degree in EU Law.
Santos Palazzi is the Head of Mass Market and Digital at Grupo Planeta. In this role, he oversees Planeta’s children’s and young adult publishing division, science fiction, fantasy and graphic novel imprints, as well as pocket or paperback publishing division. For the past 12 years, he has led the digital development of the publishing division at Planeta. The main goals and achievements of the digital division are: to establish a consistent and extensive e-book and audiobook catalogue, to secure agreements with local and international e-retailers, and to develop digital initiatives and tools to increase the findability and visibility of books and authors.
