The world of publishing is in danger, warns the president of the Syndicat national de l'édition (SNE) Vincent Montagne in an interview with the professional magazine Weekly Books .
According to him, the only chance to avoid "?un disaster économique?" would be to put in place a recovery plan of 8 to 10 billion euros for all cultural and creative industries (the sector represents an annual turnover of 90 billion euros).
Vincent Montagne explains that if nothing is done the sector must expect bankruptcies as well as a wave of redundancies.
" ?Les (publishing) houses with strong equity capital will be able to get by. But for the weakest publishers, it'll be much more difficile?" says the President of the NIS.
To assess the impact of the health crisis on the sector's activity, the union has launched an online survey open to all publishers. Professionals are invited to respond by May 4.
Publishing is one of the sectors badly affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, particularly due to the closure of bookstores. Antoine Gallimard, the CEO of Gallimard publishing and the Madrigall group, said on 16 April on franceinfo have lost "?presque 90 %?" of turnover and estimated a drop of around 30 % over the year.
All the links in the book chain are impacted (authors, publishers, booksellers, printers). On the occasion of World Book Day on 23 April, organizations representing the global book industry launched a call for international support. They are calling for the adoption of "?plans to support these publishing sectors and their chains of valeurs?".
