“We have set up a table in the ministry that wants to write by the end of the legislature a law that integrates with those already positively approved and already in force but which imagines helping the book and the publishing industry as it happens for the cinema, that is, helping all parts. In the world of cinema, distributors, authors, directors, producers, cinema exhibitors and the entire supply chain are helped. We want to do the same thing, with this model, in the entire book supply chain “. Thus began the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini during the streaming presentation of the White Paper on reading by the Center for books and reading presented this morning. Aid therefore to the world of books that go well beyond the contingency of an emergency.PRESENTATION OF THE VOLUME
The event “Turn the page. Ideas, reflections and strategies for restarting after the pandemic “took stock of the last few months of the world of books and reasoned with several voices on future scenarios, also giving good news to the sector according to the research contained in the White Paper, created with the collaboration with the AIE and the State Printing and Mint Institute.
In addition to Minister Franceschini, among the speakers there were Flavia Piccoli Nardelli , leader of the Democratic Party in the “Culture, Science and Education” Commission at the Chamber of Deputies and creator of the “law on the book” which entered into force on 13 February 2020, Marino Sinibaldi , president of the Center for books and reading, Angelo Piero Cappello, director of the Center for books and reading, Ricardo Franco Levi , president of the Italian Publishers Association, Giovanni Peresson , Study Office of the Italian Publishers Association, moderated by the journalist Paolo Conti , columnist for Corriere della Sera. RESEARCH DATA
During the first months of the lockdown there was a contraction in reading, but then Italians returned to reading with even greater intensity than in the period before the pandemic.
Readers went from 26.3 million in October 2019 to 27.6 million in October 2020. And the overall turnover recorded a + 2.3% at the end of 2020, with a growing trend also in the first eight weeks of 2021 ( + 25% in printed books). “The good data at the beginning of 2021, with sales of printed books in the trade growing by 25% in the first eight weeks, confirm that the path taken is the right one”, said Ricardo Franco Levi, president of the Italian Publishers Association ( Aie). “The support of the institutions, combined with the innovation capacity of publishers and of the entire book supply chain, can make a great contribution to the growth of reading and therefore to the cultural and economic development of the country”, he concluded.
Italians who read paper books between 15 and 75 years of age are 55%, if we consider e-books and audio books, 61%, a trend still low when compared to other countries, but growing. In fact, e-book readers have gone from 20% to 32% of the population between 15 and 75 years, counting both those who read only e-books and those who alternate them with paper books. Audiobooks are also doing well, and digital library loan registered + 250% during the first lockdown, + 103% in December 2020. The publishing supply chain, since the fairs have all been postponed, has developed rights exchange platforms. that made up for these closures, driving the market forward. GROWTH AND AID TO THE CHAIN
Let’s see what are the factors that led to a growing reading. First of all, many publishers have reorganized and focused on digital, also proposing new authors and new titles. But the government’s measures also meant that the book, considered an essential asset, was able to “live” even during the lockdown with open bookstores.
This year, the operators of the sector, which include not only publishers and bookstores, but also translators, public funding with 30 million euros for 18App, a culture bonus of 500 euros for eighteen-year-olds, 15 million in refinancing for Carta Cultura, 30 million fund for the purchases of public reading libraries, 10 million aid to small publishers, 12 million to tourism and art publishers, 10 million tax credits to libraries, 5 million in aid to translators. A MESSAGE OF RELEASING THE SECTOR
Now the message of the Center for the book is essentially that of relaunching the restart, with 35.4 million euros of which 8.7 million of ordinary endowment, adding up 2020 and 2021, and the rest of extraordinary endowment with a destination already obligatory, as explained by the director of the Center for books and reading, Angelo Piero Cappello. Cepell manages the Fund for the implementation of the National Action Plan for the promotion of reading, which between 2020 and 2021 provides for the financing of projects and initiatives through calls and agreements.
“The resistant data of the reading must also be interpreted as a reaction to the dramatic situation of the pandemic. Evidently in books and reading we have sought, if not answers, a way to put order to the questions, the anxieties, the anxieties of this particular moment ”. The words of Marino Sinibaldi, president of the Center for books and reading, emphasized one of the fundamental reasons why books can soothe suffering. “Faced with the multiplication of possibilities and digital platforms that we have all experienced in recent months – added Sinibaldi – the fact that reading maintains and perhaps increases its space if it can be an encouraging fact also on an economic and industrial level and above all a lot significant from a psychological, cultural and,
Here is the White Paper on reading and cultural consumption in Italy (2020-2021)
Here is the presentation by Giovanni Peresson
