Books, good Christmas but let's save bookstores

(by Mauretta Capuano) (ANSA) - ROME, 13 JAN - Crucial for the world of books, the Christmas period, which is worth double for the sector, has brought good sales results in the year of the pandemic.

So much so that we can well hope that 2020 will close in line with 2019. But, lights and shadows remain in a market that is changing and has seen, during the health emergency, an increase in online purchases which many have approached. for the first time.

However, the book has demonstrated its strength as a primary good and thanks to a commitment of joint forces, the government, publishers and booksellers, it has been able to tackle the new challenges with a great capacity for resilience.

    This was announced, in view of the presentation of the data that will be presented on January 29 in Venice, at the Scuola dei Librai Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri, the president of the Italian Publishers Association, Ricardo Franco Levi.

    "The Christmas sales went well and this allows us to hope that 2020 will close the same levels of 2019 for the publishing of various, namely novels, non-fiction, children's books in bookstores, in supermarkets and online stores.

    It this is a figure that confirms the recovery of the book market after the lockdown in March and April and which was already evident in the July and September issues "when the loss of turnover in the various sectors, which includes novels and essays, compared to 2019 it was reduced by another 4 percentage points, from -11% to -7%.

In mid-April it was -20%.

A further boost to recovery was given by the many Christmas initiatives including the joint campaign "Think about it now, don't queue. Christmas has already begun in the bookstore" by AIE and booksellers-ALI Confcommercio, which started in November 2020 to invite readers to go to the bookstore as soon as possible, without waiting for the Christmas queues.

However, the government and parliamentary measures in favor of the book were fundamental, as Levi recalls.

    "From now on we can say that, together with the commitment and courage of publishers and bookstores, who have continued their work even when there was no visibility for the immediate future, the important measures in favor of of the book taken on by the government and the Parliament and promptly implemented by the administration of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and for Tourism with great efficiency "underlines the president of the AIE.

    Of course, the December sales situation in Italian bookstores, according to the X-ray of the booksellers of Ali Confcommercio, was patchy: the provincial ones were well, some difficulties for those in the tourist city centers with losses recorded up to 10%, those in stations and airports and shopping centers were suffering, which in light of the closures on the days before holidays and holidays accumulated losses in the months of November and December of over 30%.

    "What emerges from the 2020 trend is that when bookstores are enabled to do their work, the results arrive; from this point of view, the persistence of the limitations imposed on bookstores in shopping centers and the strong growth figure in 2020 are concerned. online, a market segment that has benefited greatly from the restrictions imposed on other operators, "said the president of Ali Confcommercio, Paolo Ambrosini, to Ansa.

But he raises an alarm: "we expect the government and parliament to intervene shortly to rebalance the market and restore normal conditions of competition, otherwise we fear that in the first half of the year we will have to see bookstores closures, a fact that we must all together try to averting "says Ambrosini.

    The president of the IEA also underlines that the panorama we are witnessing is complex.

"First of all, the positive figure hides very different performances: the boom in online sales and the good performance of neighborhood bookstores, for example, is accompanied by a difficulty in bookstores in city centers and shopping centers and chain stores.

    L 'absence of trade fairs has deprived some publishers of an important sales and promotion channel. Some sectors, such as art and tourism publishing but not only, have suffered huge losses and all publishers are facing very difficult challenges ".

    In short, 2021 "in any case promises to be not easy" and "we hope" says Levi that "will still see the government and Parliament in support of culture and reading in Italy".

    (HANDLE).