Planeta is the leading Spanish language publishing group in Spain and Latin America, with further strongholds in Portugal and France, where it owns Editis. Planeta is continuing to expand, with an emphasis on reading groups, international partnerships, and digital, with the creation of e-book distribution platform Libranda.
Grupo Planeta is present in 25 countries, with more than 100 imprints and a catalogue of 15,000 titles.
After successfully consolidating Editis in 2009, the second largest publishing group of France, Planeta acquired a 50 percent stake in Spain’s largest reading community, Circulo de lectores, in spring 2010 from Bertelsmann’s Direct group. Circulo de lectores is the world’s second-largest reading group, with one million subscribers and revenues of 120 million EUR.
In 2010, Planeta was the founder, together with Santillana, Random House Mondadori and several smaller publishers, of the e-book distribution platform Libranda.
Aside from book publishing, the group has shares in the newspaper La Razón and Grupo AtresMedia (formerly Grupo Antena 3), which includes the television channels Antena 3, Neox, Nova and Nitro, and the radio stations Onda Cero, Europa FM and Onda Melodía.
Fundación José Manuel Lara, the ownership's family foundation, is a main sponsor of cultural events and literary awards, notably El Premio Planeta.
Analysis & Key Developments
Financial
Along with its editorial division and Editis, Planeta closed fiscal 2013 with a loss in revenue. The editorial division experienced a drop in sales from 1.68 billion EUR in 2012 to 1.57 billion EUR. Editis saw turnover decrease from 693 million EUR to 664 million EUR.
Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization
In Spain, Editis left its prestigious office at the Paseo de Recoletos and moved into a building in the Calle Josefa Varcárcel with the newspaper La Razon to reduce expenses.
Publishing imprints Planeta, Espasa, Seix Barral, Destino and Esencia were consolidated to an international fiction division run by Elena Ramírez, director of Seix Barral.
Planeta’s education division and the University of Barcelona signed an agreement to set up a new project to offer online university degrees and master under the Barcelona International University Centre (UNIBA) and the Institute for Lifelong Learning (IL3-UB).
Digital
Planeta launched an e-book platform called NUBICO (www.nubico.es) in fall 2013, a joint venture with Telefonica and book club Circulo de Lectores.
Earlier Developments
Financial
In an overall critical economic climate, and a significantly shrinking book market in Spain, Planeta saw its revenues decrease in 2012 to 1.68 billion EUR (from 1.77 billion EUR in 2011, and an alltime high of 1.83 billion in 2010).
Planeta disclosed for the first time revenue figures based on 2009 data for the purpose of this ranking.
Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization
Planeta acquired 50% of the independent Spanish publisher Tusquet in May 2012 (after holding a share of 40% since 1995, which was bought back by Tusquet in 1998).
Casa del Libro, which currently includes 37 outlets, acquired the Bertrand book chain in Spain.
Planeta claims to be the global leader in direct sales of its Grandes obras (grand works) of cultural, educational and entertainment, with a large sales force of over 1,000 in Spain and across Latin America, distributing books as well as multimedia content.
Planeta merged audiovisual media division Antena 3 (Spain’s second largest) and La sexta (Spain’s fourth largest TV channel), rebranded Atresmedia, and sold Grupo Planeta’s stake in Grupo El Tiempo in Colombia.
International
The Argentinian policy of tight control on imports of all kinds, including books, has led to a confrontation with Planeta.
Digital
In 2012 Planeta launched Booquo, a dedicated platform for eBooks that comprises a reader community of 4 million registered members. The service offers books and online movie streaming. Registered Premium members gain direct access to a vast e-book library for a monthly subscription fee of 9.90 EUR, with a discounted price of 7.90 EUR for Circulo de Lectores book club members.
La Casa del Libro started its own publishing imprint for e-books, Ediciones Tagus, in 2012.
In fall 2011, agreed with Apple to distribute its e-book titles through iBooks.
Planeta de Libros was created as an online forum and platform for authors and readers.
In May 2010, Planeta announced Libranda, a B2B e-book distribution platform created in partnership with the second and third largest publishing groups in Spain, Random House Mondadori and Santillana. Libranda serves many of Spain’s leading retail chains, including El Corte Inglés, Fnac, Casa del Libro, and Abacus, as well as partners in Europe, Latin America and the U.S. Libranda currently serves seven publishing houses, including Grupo Planeta, Grupo Random House Mondadori, Grupo Santillana, Roca Editorial, Grup62, Grupo SM, and Grupo Wolters Kluwer. By June 2011, Libranda a catalogue of 4,147 e-book titles.
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