The traditional white-on-white Italian collective stand design developed for the ‘Spazio Italia,’ in this image at the 2022 Frankfurter Buchmesse. Image: AIE
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
The Italian Market and its ‘Culture Card’
A year ago, of course, the Italian book market was on the way into Frankfurt as Guest of Honor Italy at Frankfurter Buchmesse.
This year, the Association of Italian Publishers (Associazione Italiana Editori, AIE) is announcing today (October 8) that its book trade sector is down 2 percent in sales in the first nine months of 2025, but with the AIE’s chief Innocenzo Cipolletta saying, “In the first part of the year, we are suffering from a slowdown in purchases because of the delay in implementing measures to support demand, but we are now confident of a recovery.”
Cipolletta has just been returned to new term as president of the AIE and reminds us that at Frankfurt, Spazio Italia, the Italian pavilion, is to have its ceremonial opening on “Frankfurt Wednesday,” October 15, at 10:30 a.m. (Hall 5.0, A19).
At 11:30 a.m., there’s to be a fully detailed presentation of the state of the publishing industry in Italy with the AIE’s very fine research office leading the way and a report on the sale of translation rights in 2024, the year in which Italy was guest of honor.
It’s expected that the new data on the guest-of-honor-driven international rights sales results for 2024 will indicate something of “how the sale of translation rights is changing” for this key market, Italy generally being ranked No. 4 in Europe.
This year’s Guest of Honor Philippines has a full plan of events in place and on opening day at Frankfurt, Wednesday, October 15, will open with music by the Philippine Madrigal Singers and Song Weavers in the guest of honor pavilion, in Frankfurt Messe’s Forum building, first floor.
A Partial Recovery Was Detected in July
Cipolletta, in preparation for the large presence Italy is bringing to the trade show, is typically forthright in his description of what’s happening on the book market at home.
Innocenzo Cipolletta
“We are presenting ourselves in Frankfurt with a market still in decline,” he says. “The market is currently suffering from the lack of support measures, particularly the decline in purchases with cards for young 18-year-olds and delays in implementing library funding.”
Here, he is referring, of course, to what in Italy was formerly named the “18App” and provided each Italian turning 18 with some €500 to spend on cultural products and events. It was discovered that the book industry was a major beneficiary of this program, as the young recipients of the app were eager to spend a leading portion of their allowances overall on books.
With the arrival of the new Meloni government, however, the 18App was reconfigured into a two-part “card” program that based benefits for these youngsters on financial need and academic merit. The result has been a great saving for the government—alas, because far less has been put into the hands of the 18-year-olds and the cultural industries. Italy is not alone in this issue, as Publshing Perspectives readers know, our pages carrying many reports on European nations’ efforts to create “culture vouchers” for their young citizens, often running into considerable government and economic headwinds.
Cipolletta goes on to say, “However, we are confident that the partial recovery that began in July will continue and that the first effects of the measure for libraries and the Culture Card for families with an ISEE [a household income rating] of less than €15,000 will be visible as early as the end of the year.”
In short, hope is being vested now in the reconfigured “Culture Card” program devised by Rome to succeed the 18App.
Overall, in the first nine months of this year, the trade market—specifically fiction and nonfiction sold in physical and online bookstores and in supermarkets—declined 2 percent in value, the total sales level arriving at €995.3 million (US$1.157 billion). In terms of unit sales, that’s a decline of 2.7 percent, a total 68 million books having been sold between January and September of this year.
The 10:30 opening of the Spazio is to feature Italy’s minister of culture, Alessandro Guili and a tour of the Italian publishers’ stands. This year, there are 144 Italian exhibitors at Frankfurt—counting publishing groups, publishing houses not affiliated with the groups, and literary agents –67 of which are present at the Spazio Italia.
More from us on the Italian market is here, more on international rights is here, more on the work of the Italian Publishers Association is here, more on Italy as 2024 Frankfurter Buchmesse guest of honor is here, and more on book fairs and trade shows is here.
Wherever our international readers are in the world, they use our free daily email to be sure they don’t miss any news. Sign up now.