The international Publishers Association has contributed 1,000CHF to kickstart an international appeal for support as the lockdown in Bangladesh puts the legacy Faisal Arefin Dipan at risk. His widow, Razia Rahman Joly, carried on his publishing house and opened a bookshop, Dipanpur, in his memory. 3 months of lockdown and no income mean eviction and closure are now looming.
Nielsen Book has been commissioned to undertake an industry-wide survey to investigate the international landscape and perception of book prizes across publishing, bookselling, writing, media and academic sectors in various countries. The research is being supported by the International Publishers Association, Frankfurt Book Fair, Publishing Perspectives and Agile Ideas.
On Wednesday 1st July at 1pm CEST, former IPA President, Michiel Kolman talked to Ian Moss, CEO of STM - the global voice of scholarly publishing - about how the COVID-19 Pandemic has affected STM publishers and what STM and its members have done to support governments around the world.
The Turkish Publishers Association organizes a biennial assembly of the Turkish publishing industry. On 25-26 June 2020, the 9th version of the assembly was held online because of the Covid-19 pandemic bringing together a total of 58 speakers (46 local and 12 international) to the six-session event.
At 1pm CEST on Tuesday 7 July, IPA Vice-President, Bodour Al Qasimi talks to Latoya West-Blackwood, Chairman of the Book Industry Association of Jamaica about how the COVID-19 Pandemic has affected publishers in the region and what the future might hold.
On 10 June, the Bulgarian Parliament adopted a proposal to reduce VAT on several goods and services, including books (only print), from the standard 20% rate to a reduced rate of 9%.
The measure, which will enter into force as of the 1st of July, is part of the government’s recovery plan from the COVID-19 crisis. It is meant to be a temporary initiative, until the end of 2021. It is nonetheless very significant, as Bulgaria was one of two EU Members States to never have applied reduced VAT on books (the other being Denmark) – whereas the other 25 have a reduced or super-reduced (or even zero) rate for print books, as do the UK and EEA countries Norway and Iceland.
Moreover, 18 Member States apply a reduced rate to digital books. The possibility to apply reduced VAT to print books has been enshrined in EU legislation since many years, whereas only in 2018 was the legal framework modified to include digital publications. Two Member States (Spain and Estonia) and the UK adopted or sped up the adoption of reduced rates on digital publications as a crisis-related measure.
Thanks to Enrico Turrin of FEP for this update.
On Wednesday 27th May, the IPA led an important discussion on the role of diversity and inclusion livestreamed on the Publishers Without Borders Facebook and YouTube platforms. Michiel Kolman, Presidential Envoy for Diversity and Inclusion chaired the session which featured IPA’s Vice President and founder of PublisHer network, Bodour Al-Qasimi, and CEO of the UK Publishers Association, Stephen Lotinga.
