Publishing in Lockdown: Responses and Consequences
- Zoran Velagić, Department of Information Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy, JJ. Strossmayer University, Osijek
- Miha Kovač, University of Ljubljana
- Arunas Gudinavičius, Digital Media Lab, Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University
- Josipa Selthofer, Department of Information Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy, JJ. Strossmayer University, Osijek
- Tomislav Jakopec, Department of Information Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy, JJ. Strossmayer University, Osijek
The session has two parts. The first presents results of a survey that was conducted in Slovakia, Iceland, Lithuania and Slovenia in May and August 2020. It discusses how publishers reacted to COVID crisis in their respective countries, what was its impact on book sales and how did the publishers adapt production of new books to changed circumstances. In addition, the paper analyses changed attitudes of publishers towards ebooks and other digital book formats that become more popular in times of lockdown.
The second part provides the insight into publishers reactions on COVID crisis based on survey of news and analyses published in dedicated media from February 2020 until now. Session will be mostly concerned with European and comparatively with Croatian publishing industry. Results indicate at initial confusion in industry mostly manifested in cancelling different events, followed by changing marketing and communication strategies, promotion of e-book reading, discussions on advantages and disadvantages of work from home, and ultimate attitude that reading can help in lockdown times.