Downturn dampens Bologna spirit
05.02.09 Caroline Horn writing in The Bookseller

Children’s publishers are gloomy about business prospects at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair given the speed and scale of the global slowdown. Cutbacks in expenses mean that many editorial teams from the US and UK will not attend the fair and acquisitions are expected to be slow. The fair begins on Monday 23rd March.
Caroline Muir, rights director for Walker Books, said: "We already see a reticence in making acquisitions and anticipate a very challenging fair as a result." International publishers are said to be waiting until after the fair to re-evaluate their finances, Christmas returns and the exchangerates.
Visitor numbers, especially from the US and Far East, are also expected to be down at this year’s Bologna as companies slash expense budgets. Muir added: "It [the economic climate] is the worst I can remember in 20 years because the recession is so global in scope and is affecting every sector,from manufacturing to retail sales."

However Antonia Pelari, rights and special sales director at Scholastic Children’s Books, was more upbeat. She said: “We thought it would be ‘doom and gloom’ at the Frankfurt fair but we came away with £1m of business, a record for us. People were still willing to sign deals at Frankfurt during the fair but we don’t expect that at Bologna. We will have to wait and see."

Rights and co-edition sales are expected to be focused on Europe, rather than the US and Far East. In Europe, markets including France, Germany and Holland are described as relatively stable while Spain, Greece, Eastern Europe and Russia - traditionally strong novelty markets - are experiencing difficulties. One of the main problems for British publishers is the exchange rate as production is paid for in dollars, making the UK expensive for foreign publishers.