The editorial news of the week is the purchase of the publishers of Enciclopèdia Catalana by the Abacus group and Jaume Roures. The general director of the cooperative, Oriol Soler (Ripollet, 1969), received this newspaper on Thursday at the headquarters of his group in Poblenou to explain the operation. He was wearing a dark sweater with a small face sewn on by Rigoberta Menchú.
There have been two candidates to buy Enciclopèdia and you have won.
Yes. It’s been like a contest between Penguin Random House and us. The world of cultural and audiovisual industries has the challenge of combating the high level of concentration it suffers. Amazon already has 52% of the publishing market in the US, 40% in Italy, 34% in France; Netflix invoices 100,000 million; Penguin Random House, 4,000 million… We have to worry that the answer to this is infinite atomization; rather, we would need an ecosystem of medium-sized companies that can be competitive.
It’s hard to think that they have beaten a giant like Random by offering more money. It must be for other things…
We have used our imagination. In the end, we are the main bookseller in Catalonia, and that allows us to offer certain things. In a case like this, there is the economic part, there is the project part and there are more tactical issues, treasury issues, etc., which, being Enciclopèdia’s main client, allowed us to have a little more room for maneuver.
Haven’t they bought the debt?
Both we and Penguin were not bidding for the company but for the labels, the fund and the contracts. Therefore, we did not keep the debt, it was very clear from the first day.
You say that you are now the second publishing group, Random says that they are.
We are second in Catalan, they are second in Spanish. Penguin in Catalan has 5% of the market, we are above 8% and Planeta (Grup 62) has 16%. That the first three only add 30% demonstrates the fragility of the Catalan ecosystem.
What happens to the labels that Jaume Roures already has, with other partners (Ernest Folch and Tatxo Benet) in Suma Llibres (Navona, Folch
We will do everything possible to integrate them. Now, the one who has to decide is Jaume.
Abacus is the majority partner of this new publishing entity, but in all the photos it is Jaume Roures.
Sure, it’s his return, okay. He is a figure, like the editor Lara, or Ricardo Rodrigo, or Daniel Martínez could be… We have to be very proud to have them or have had them, these powerful people, in our cultural world. We have the obligation to attract them and for me it is a great honor to work with him, and I am looking forward to doing more things… and not for his money, but for his talent.
But how much does Abacus and how much does Roures have of the new society? Abacus will hold more than 50%, right?
We have not defined it yet, although it seems logical to me that it is as you propose, but I am not so interested in marking territory or saying who is in charge but rather in working together.
Who will distribute the books?
We, at Abacus, have a modern and competitive logistics system, we serve our stores, Bonpreu-Esclat, Caprabo… We also value very positively the commercial system of Àgora (the distributor of Enciclopèdia), we would like to continue working with they. Surely logistics will not be in the purchasing equation but if something can be done with them, it would be great for us. We will finish exploring it, but I would like to take advantage of the talent there is in Àgora.
Who will be the editorial director of the new resulting group?
It’s still early. There are three magnificent elements, if in the end everything ends well: Ester Pujol, Joan Carles Girbés and Ernest Folch can contribute many things and I am very excited to be able to work with them, but I don’t know how it will turn out. But I do want the director of the company to be Xavier Mallafrè (current director of Abacus Editorial, and former director of Grup 62).
And what will your names be?
We don’t have a name, it’s very strong, we didn’t think of this problem. Our publishing group does not use the Abacus brand in bookstores, only the name of each label, but now, seeing that we are more publishers, we will have to have a name.
How long will it take to make the purchase?
Two months of due diligence and one of purchasing is normal, I would be surprised if it doesn’t end well.
Will Abacus expand into more areas?
Our approach is the same as that of the founders, those people from the 60s who were ambitious, invented schools and later a teachers’ cooperative. Fifty years later, we ask ourselves the same questions: how can we be useful to culture and education with the challenges that the world faces today? And the answer is: in the field of content. That is why we make an audiovisual commitment, an editorial, a training one… In 2025, 50% of this company’s turnover will be content. This year we will invoice about 130 million, of which about 30 are already contained.
What does it mean that a cooperative company does this?
We reflect a lot on Mondragón. We want to solve this challenge with this ownership system. The social economy, be it Caixa, Barça or Abacus, is people doing things, which has solved many problems in this country. The level of globalization in the world poses challenges for freedom of expression and plurality, especially for small cultures, which the strictly commercial company cannot solve, and neither can the State. The cooperative model, a modern cultural industry that is owned by the people, can make an interesting contribution. Bernat Metge or La Casa dels Clàssics would probably not exist with a strictly commercial logic. And now they exist, work and make money.
But how does the day-to-day life of a company work without a master?
There is master: 60% of the property belongs to consumers and 40% to workers. We must not imagine a permanent assembly, but rather there is a board of directors, and the management rules. But the property can kick me out whenever it wants.
Publishing companies go beyond the ideology of the owners or directors: Mondadori published books critical of Berlusconi, the Grup 62 books cannot be identified with other Planeta spaces… And you?
I am above all concerned about ensuring that we are perceived as useful and being perceived as transversal. We are heirs of a tradition of Catalanism in the broadest sense, of solving problems that are not solved by other means, because we do not have a State or because we are very small. Our president is Maravillas Rojo and we have people from all parties on the council.
Minister Garriga said that the Government had helped this operation…
I haven’t talked to them about anything yet. I wanted them to have the information, yes. They must have collaborated more with Enciclopèdia, to try to prevent it from completely sinking. We have not had any meeting, neither informal nor formal, nor is there any financing agreement, nor have we discussed it. It is a strictly private operation.
There are independent editors in Catalan who say: ‘When I grow up, I don’t know if I will sell myself to Planeta or Random.’ Do you now have a third option?
I believe so and that, furthermore, we will treat his legacy better. Random House has a director with extreme sensitivity to Catalan culture, but we cannot forget that their headquarters are in New York and they are German. And Planeta has 33% for sale and the buyer options are those that are and are not Spanish.
Small publishers do a huge service these days.
Of course. Let’s not forget that if Anagrama exists today and is what it is, it is because before it has been small and above all independent. There needs to be a large forest, with undergrowth. With what we have now, I don’t think we can say that as a country we already have a good forest, an ecosystem where authors and workers earn well, earn a good living, for example. Periscopi or L’Altra are essential and invaluable, but with a more complex and rich ecosystem everyone will be happier. I hear people who worry about concentration… however, what do you want me to tell you, with all this we are talking about, it is a turnover of 10 million.
Can’t tell how much the purchase costs?
No, there is a confidentiality clause.
A personal question: how is the trial for the tsunami case going?
I am in the east package of Judge García-Castellón, who has added a death to be able to accuse us of terrorism, and has added Puigdemont and Marta Rovira, who have nothing to do with it. It’s so surreal that I hope nothing happens. This topic does not occupy me at all, not even for a second. Let what God wants happen.
