Image: FBM, Holger Menzel
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
In Frankfurt Studio, October 15, 16, and 17
Originally staged in 2022, Publishing Perspectives Forum returns for a fourth year at Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19), with programming based on the issues and newsmakers we cover.
Again this year, we’re seated in Frankfurt Studio, on ground floor, just steps off the Agora at Frankfurter Messe, in Hall 4.0 (turn left as you enter the hall). As always, our programs are open—free of charge—to all ticketholders at Frankfurt Book Fair.
And what we have the good fortune to do each year in the Forum is hear from some of the most prominent, astute, experienced, and canny leadership figures in world publishing. Past speakers have included Nihar Malaviya, Charlie Redmayne, David Shelley, Jonny Geller, Juergen Boos, Núria Cabutí, Peter Warwick, Arnaud Nourry, Kim Chongsatitwana, Markus Dohle, Amanda D’Acierno, Lee Jarit, Trip Adler, Sven Fund, Tom Kraushaar, Nelleke Geel, Nina von Moltke, and many more.
We invite you to join us this year for each of our programs.
No one understands better than we do that you may not be able to stay for a full session. That’s no problem. Duck in when you can, duck out when you must. One of the great things about the Studio’s design is that you can enter and leave from the back—against the windows overlooking the Agora—without bothering your colleagues. You’re welcome to be with us for as much or as little as your meeting schedule allows.
Publishing Perspectives Forum 2025 Highlights
Wednesday, October 15
11:00 to 11:45 a.m.
Executive Talk: Perminder Mann
In conversation with Porter Anderson
Perminder Mann had been the CEO of Bonnier Books UK in London for nearly eight years when it was announced in February that she would succeed Simon & Shuster UK and International CEO Ian Chapman. She assumed the dual-CEO position at S&S from Chapman’s well-proven hands in May, immediately becoming one of a small number of women CEOs of Big Four (UK) or Big Five (USA) houses. This year, she was named by Vogue as one of the 25 women defining Britain.
Perminder Mann. Image: Simon & Schuster UK
In her still new UK + International assignment for Simon & Schuster, Mann has responsibility for the publishing, editorial, marketing, and sales functions of Simon & Schuster UK, publishing a full range of adult, children’s books, and audio titles in print and digital formats. The company currently publishes about 200 titles per year in first format, of which 20 percent originate from the American parent company—which just celebrated its centenary as the only independent house among the Big Five.
Mann also holds overall responsibility for Simon & Schuster Australia and Simon & Schuster India in her international portfolio of governance.
A warm personality, quick to laugh and generous in conversation, Mann was born to first-generation Indian immigrant parents and raised in Southall in West London, part of the borough of Ealing, west of Charing Cross. She’s the oldest of eight children and, having discovered literature at local libraries was featured in a BBC documentary, Life of an Asian Girl at age 13.
First having studied at De Mountfort University in Leicester, she moved to Macmillan Publishing in sales. Having worked in both independent houses as well as majors, she went to Bonnier Publishing in 2009. It would be named Bonnier Books UK in 2017.
One thing the company points out is that, “Under her leadership, Bonnier Books UK was the first major UK publisher to implement a full flexible working policy in 2020, reflecting her commitment to modernizing workplace culture. She also introduced progressive policies, including enhanced parental leave and support for pregnancy loss, setting new standards in the industry.
Mann served as president of the Publishers Association in the UK in 2024 and 2025, and remains today an officer and councilmember. The chairs the board of a mentoring charity called Arts Emergency, and holds an honorary visiting professorship at City, University of London.
Wednesday, October 15
3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Expanding the Way We Think About Audio (in two parts)
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Image – Getty: Juleta MartirosyanIndependent Publishers and Audio: New Voices, Advantages, and Challenges
Moderated by Porter Anderson, Editor-in Chief, Publishing Perspectives
Speakers to come.
- Theater of the Mind: Exploring Immersive Worlds and New Audio Experiences
Moderated by Nathan Hull, Chief Strategy Officer, Beat Technology
Speakers to come.
Thursday, October 16
11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. (** Note the special time today)
Executive Talk: Véronique Cardi
Véronique Cardi is CEO of Hachette Livres’ Éditions JC Lattès and Éditions du Masque in Paris, dual leadership roles she has held since 2019.
Véronique Cardi. Image: JC Lattès, Sheraz Debbich
Cardi, a winner of the Editor’s Award of the Elle/Guerlain Readers’ Prize and is present on the 40 Forbes Women of France list.
Closely in tune with contemporary trends in Europe and France, Cardi is a ready observer of the consumer base and social directions she serves, including an appetite for experiential readings, as when perfumes would be mixed in real time for an audience to experiment, in promoting the book Fragrancia.
JC Lattès is a French publisher of bestsellers by Dan Brown, EL James, Patricia Cornwell and John Grisham; of the French thriller-writing duo Éric Giacometti and Jacques Ravenne; and of leading French literature by authors Sandrine Collette (Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, Prix Renaudot des lycéens, Grand Prix RTL-Lire); Nina Bouraoui (Prix du Livre Inter, Prix Renaudot, Prix Anaïs Nin); and Olivia Ruiz with her first novel La commode aux tiroirs de couleurs (reportedly read by 500,000 consumers), as well as Adèle Bréau (Prix Maison de la Presse) and Sophie de Baere (Prix Relay).
Nonfiction at Éditions JC Lattès goes from political essays by former French prime minister Édouard Philippe to Britney Spears’ memoir, The Woman in Me. Éditions du Masque is the first French publishing house dedicated to crime fiction, including Agatha Christie’s backlist and Ian Rankin’s works.
In preparing to speak last year at the Scuola per Librai Umberto e Elisabetta Mauri (UEM) in Venice, Cardi pointed to “a growing trend for readers to want to read in English” books that had been originally published in that language, this even in France where the language is revered. “This was pretty obvious last year,” she said, “when I published Britney Spears’ memoir for example and realized that French bookstagrammers and bloggers preferred to post the original version of the book than the French translation.
“This is definitely changing the way of publishing this kind of books, and the local-vs.-global dynamic in our markets. The proportion of foreign fiction and local fiction in bestsellers lists is also completely reversed now in France compared to 10 years ago, which means we have to be more cautious as far as foreign acquisitions are concerned but also maybe we have to be even more coordinated globally.”
Friday, October 17
11:00 to 11:45 a.m.
Executive Talk: Christian Schumacher-Gebler
Christian Schumacher-Gebler is the CEO of Bonnier Media Germany and an executive committee member of the International Publishers Association (IPA).
Christian Schumacher-Gebler. Image: Bonnier Media Deutschland
He also represents the interests of German publishers as a member of the board of the Publishers’ Committee in the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany’s publishers and booksellers association. He was active for many years in the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), and is also on the board of BookBeat. He is also a member of the board at Bonnier’s BookBeat, an audio subscription model familiar to Publishing Perspectives readers. And he serves on the advisory board of Frankfurter Buchmesse.
Schumacher-Gebler was appointed CEO of Bonnier Media in Germany in January 2024. At that time, Bonnier Media ranked No. 3 among group rankings in Germany. In the past 11 years, the company’s revenue has grown grew from €198 million to €330 million (US$230.5 million to US$ 384.1 million). Since 2022, Bonnier Media has held the No. 1 position among group rankings in Germany.
Schumacher-Gebler began his career at Piper Verlag in 1995. After completing a two-year internship, he studied economics from 1997 to 2001. In 2002, he joined Bonnier and supported the former CEO for four years.
In 2007, he became co-CEO at Ullstein Buchverlage in Berlin, where he developed Ullstein into one of the leading publishing houses in Germany.
Among the issue-driven points Schumacher-Gebler looks at currently is Germany’s reported robust level of book-buying interest among consumers aged 16 to 29, a highly desired demographic in almost any culture today. And yet, as the leadership of the Börsenverein has pointed out, there’s a literacy problem in part of that same age group, and no small controversy about how to ease the reading problem.
In Germany, as in France and other countries, the trend toward reading English-original books in English rather than in translation is noticeable, he says—an issue that needs attention on many levels of commerce, with increasing urgency.
Here and in audio and other issues, Schumacher-Gebler asks, “How can good business models work for all parties in the end?” These and more questions are some of the points Schumacher-Gebler observes from his rather unusual position in the European market.
On this simplified ground plan of halls at Messe Frankfurt, the location of Frankfurt Studio in Hall 4.0 is indicated in yellow
More details of Publishing Perspectives Forum 2025 will appear in the coming weeks.
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more on international trade shows and book fairs is here, and more on publishing conferences and events in the international trade industry is here.
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