Two of the main sources of publishing news and events in the US and in the world, Publishers Weekly and Publishing Perspectives report that 4 of the so called “Big Five” American publishers, withdrew from the Book Expo of America in New York City. Despite Reed’s effort of keeping the show running (ReedPop) by postponing the event from May to July 22-26, 2020, many historical participants, with heavy hart for the difficult decision, won’t be attending:
Penguin Random House on Match 18th, announced its withdraw from NY Book Expo stating “In light of the New York City and state guidance to substantially limit the size of events and number of participants in public gatherings, we regret that we have had to make the difficult decision to withdraw as a participant in BookExpo and BookCon 2020”
On March 26th, Hachette Book Group, the American division of the Lagardère Group’s Hachette Livre, has announced to Publishing Perspective that won’t be participating at this year NY Book Expo. The announcement is soon followed by Simon & Schuster and Harper Collins. Both publishers won’t be attending the book expo.
The Publishing world works together in the effort of flattening the curve of the virus spreading, facing the current health situation with drastic but necessary actions.
The decision of withdraw is in fact, based on safety health reasons and the value of book expos and industry’s events are not in question.
As stated by Dr. Antony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIH), during the interview with Anthony Cuomo, on CNN-Pandemic “You don’t make the timeline, the virus does” therefore we need to employ different strategies for different situations according to the reality of the present situation.
The Italian Trade Agency, through its Publishing Task Force at the Chicago office and its thematic portal www.Italbooks.com, is keeping the Italian and USA industries informed and connected at this difficult time.