As part of IPA’s conversations with its members and others connected to the publishing industry on the challenges the publishing industry is currently facing, IPA’s president Hugo Setzer continued this new series on 29 May with an insightful interview featuring Rudy Vanschoonbeek, President of the Federation of European Publishers.
The discussion focused on a myriad of topics, such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European publishing and the figures connected thereto, FEP’s assistance to its members, the classification of books as essential goods and EU support to the cultural sector. “Almost the first day after lockdown, there was the initiative by our Secretariat to create a special Whatsapp group, which we called Publishers Versus Corona, everybody could join in and we exchanged information and experiences across Europe, what is happening in France, in Italy, in Sweden, Latvia, in Belgium, you name it”, Vanschoonbeek explained.
Vanschoonbeek noted that of the overall budget of the European Union, the budget for books amounts to a mere 0,1 % and spoke of the 10 measures FEP designed in collaboration with EIBF to help the publishing sector overcome the current crisis. Mr. Vanschoonbeek gives valuable advice and personal insights in the interview. You can read the full transcript here.
You can see our other interviews here.
Recorded 29 May 2020.