On the agenda at the 2025 Readmagine in Madrid: publishers—and their need to advocate on policy.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

See also: Readmagine 2025: On Innovation, Skills, Collaboration

Publishing and Policymaking

Among today’s (May 28) morning sessions of the 2025 the Readmagine conference at Madrid’s Casa del Lector complex, Luis González—the director-general of the event and its hosting body, the Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez—used musical references for the titles of various parts of the program including for his moderation of a session called The Book Associations and the Public Administrations.

This is about the perennial tension, of course, between the needs of the cultural community and the administrative and political balance required of a state’s cultural-support agencies.

And while González used AC/DC’s 1979 “Highway to Hell” to open the conference at bombastic volume, he’d chosen Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” for this discussion that he, González, moderated with:

• The Federation of European Publishers president Sonia Draga;
• María Jose Galvez, director-general of books with Spain’s ministry of culture; and
• Giovanni Hoepli, executive director of Milan’s 155-year-old Hoepli Editore and vice-president of the International Publishers Association (IPA).

A View From Brussels

Draga—the eponymous Polish publisher behind Grupa Wydawnicza Sonia Draga Sp based in Katowice—outlined several of the policy matters the federation is focused on this summer.

Among the most prominent—and pressing—of course, is the implementation on June 28 of the European Accessibility Act, which will mandate products and services that must be in place to make literature accessible to people with disabilities and the elderly.

The act itself actually comprises far more than reading. Web sites, mobile applications, e-commerce, e-banking, ticketing systems, ATMs, and more are included along with ebooks. But, needless to say, the world book industry—including those markets working into and out of the European bloc—suddenly have a very real and present need to know what they have to do to ply the waters of European trade in publishing products.

This is the reason, of course, that the nonprofit Fondazione LIA: Libri Italiani Accessibili (Accessible Italian Books), among Europe’s leading accessibility hubs of expertise and support, is holding its special  APACE-powered European Accessibility Summer School at the Villa La Torrossa in Fiesole on June 26 and 27—on the eve of the historic EU’s Accessibility Act goes into force.

More on that program, in which Publishing Perspectives will be participating, is here, and more on Fondazione LIA’s work is here. (APACE stands for Accelerating Publishing Accessibility Through Collaboration in Europe, and more about it is here.) Watch our coverage for more to come on the program.

In covering some of the sheer numbers and the variables that underlie them, Draga onstage at Readmagine deftly pointed to just how complex something like “how the publishing community works with policymakers” can be.

The Brussels-based Federation of European publishers that works with is engaged with:

• Twenty-seven countries;
• Twenty-seven legal systems;
• Twenty-seven languages;
• A European Parliament seated with 720 members; and
• Thirty-three directorates-general at the European Commission and 27 commissioners.

“These are many doors to knock on,” Draga told the Readmagine audience, “when legislation is being discussed.” Some who are using the services of the federation “are looking to hear a ‘European voice’ that consolidates a position based on the opinions of the sector. Some prefer to listen to national voices.” It’s the federation staff that must work out the correct combination of reportage in each case, and that’s only one part of the complexity of the federation’s work.

Jose Galvez proved her gift for diplomatic policy representation during the 2022 Guest of Honor Spain program at  Frankfurter Buchmesse (this year October 15 to 19).

She pointed out with González that the operatives of a state’s policy-driven departments and agencies simply cannot take the same tack on projects, funding allocations, and primacy on the policy map that cultural leaders—may wish they could have. She prefers, she said, to be honest with cultural community contacts in such circumstances.

And that gave Hoepli an opening for what he had come to say. And as it turns out, his viewpoint held a cordial disagreement with Jose Galvez’s.

Hoepli: ‘We Shouldn’t Just Be Knocking’

Giovanni Hoepli is a fairly new speaker to many in the international publishing-event traveling corps, having just assumed his IPA post in January.

“Our session today borrows its title from a Bob Dylan classic. ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door.’ It’s poetic, but also a bit ironic.

“When it comes to the relationship between book associations and public administrations, we shouldn’t just be knocking. We should be working together—opening doors, building mutual understanding, and shaping policies that serve society as a whole.

“At IPA,”  he said, “we see ourselves as part of a two-way street. Yes, we support our members. We share information, connect with best practices, provide international visibility. But we also rely on you—our members—to connect with your
governments, your local institutions, to make your voices heard.”

“If WIPO were to adopt a treaty that creates sweeping exceptions to copyright for education, our sector would truly never be the same again. That’s why we lobby. But we can’t do it alone. IPA’s membership is made up of member-state organizations. Governments need to hear from you”Giovanni Hoepli, IPA

As examples of the support IPA puts into policy-related activities among its international member associations, Hoepli mentioned amicus briefs in United States court cases (including the successful suit of the Internet Archive); copyright reform actions in Kenya, Canada, South Africa; and artificial intelligence copyright issues and consultation.

And then, picking up on González’s musical tags, Hoepli said while mentioning some of the work IPA does with the United Nations’ WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, he said, “At WIPO, international copyright treaties are negotiated. It’s a slow-moving arena—”Time Passes Slowly”—but the stakes are incredibly high.

“If WIPO were to adopt a treaty that creates sweeping exceptions to copyright for education, our sector would truly never be the same again. That’s why we lobby. But we can’t do it alone. IPA’s membership is made up of member-state organizations. They listen to their governments. Which means that governments need to hear from you.

“You are essential to ensuring your country’s representatives understand what’s at stake.”

With part of the Madrid program this week being centered on collaboration, Hoepli went on to tell his audience, “Let’s ask not just ‘What can governments do for us?’ but also ‘What can we do for governments?’ Can we help tackle literacy challenges? Can we contribute to better educational outcomes?

“Can we build partnerships beyond what tech companies offer? Yes, we can because unlike tech giants, publishers and booksellers take responsibility for what we produce. We support reflective, critical reading—the kind that builds empathy and understanding. We uphold the freedom to publish. Because democracy depends on the free exchange of diverse, even
uncomfortable, ideas.

“Democracy depends on reading. And reading depends on the written word. And the written word depends on all of us.”

After mentioning more of the outreach programs and projects with which IPA is associated, Hoepli concluded by making his input in the session a call to action. Something of a departure from the more normative informational explication of IPA’s work, he had used his time onstage to try to motivate the publishing professionals at Readmagine to get their hands on the policy questions of their markets. He said:

So what should governments know? That publishers are their partners.

Giovanni Hoepli

“‘We can help deliver educational success. We protect and promote national cultures. We build literate, media-literate, informed citizens. Yes, we’re independent. We’re not asking for complicity. We’re asking for partnership—grounded in mutual respect.’

“Because book associations and public administrations have a shared responsibility not just to knock on doors but also to ensure that they open.

“Open to knowledge. To culture. To freedom.”

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More from Publishing Perspectives on digital publishing is here, more on Readmagine is here, more on world publishing conferences is here, more on the International Publishers Association is here, and more on Spain’s publishing market is here.

Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.