About:
Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol is a privately held publishing group and the third largest publisher in Italy. It controls 9 publishing houses: Corbaccio, Garzanti Libri, Guanda, Longanesi, Nord, Ponte alle Grazie, Salani, TEA, Vallardi, as well as ProLibro, and holds 50% of Superpocket. It launched Duomo Ediciones in Barcelona, Spain, in 2008.
The largest shareholder of GeMS is Messagerie Italiane, Italy’s leading book and periodical distribution group, which currently serves 230 publishers and 4,000 points of sale.
Claiming to be the fastest growing group in Italian publishing, GeMS has sold 10 million books directly, and another 6 million copies under licence agreements through third parties.
GeMS has been founded in its current form in October 2005, following an agreement between the Mauri and Spagnol families, as a new holding company named Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol. The aim of the holding Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol is to “enable the individual publishing houses to invest in joint projects, create stronger product lines and enhance the visibility of the group’s authors, as well as to both streamline and develop synergies in their central functions, while leaving each one of them complete editorial freedom.”
Key company developments in 2011 & 1st half year 2012
Financial:
For this ranking, only revenues from publishing have been included, while revenues from distribution have been excluded.
GeMS reported a negative development from 2009 to 2010, due to a newly introduced reporting structure; at equal units, 2010 had revenues of 567 million EUR for the entire group and 471.8 million EUR for publishing alone.
Ownership, mergers & acquisition, internal organization:
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International:
The recently created imprint Duomo Ediciones in Barcelona, Spain, is publishing the Spanish language edition of Granta.
Digital:
In 2010, GeMS became a founding member, together with Feltrinelli and RCS Rizzoli, of an Italian ebook platform, Edigita, offering services in the domains of ebook distribution, digital marketing, and conversion. Retail partners include bol.it, ibs.it, illibraio.it, ebook.it, and BookRepublic.
Bestselling authors & titles:
The various imprints of GeMS have built strong catalogues of both domestic and international authors, establishing in a significant presence among Italy’s bestselling titles, with authors such as Tess Gerritsen, Patrick Süskind, Jean M. Auel, William Golding, and Jostein Gaarder.
Key points for analysis & conclusions:
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Earlier developments:
2008: Launch of Duomo Ediciones in Barcelona, Spain.
In 2009, GeMS released La Coccinella and Bollati Boringhieri and, according to Nielsen data, the bestselling first novel in Italian fiction (Donato Carrisi, Il suggeritore, Longanesi); the bestselling first novel in foreign fiction (Glenn Cooper, La biblioteca dei morti, Nord); and the bestselling first work in nonfiction (Gianluigi Nuzzi, Vaticano S.p.A., Chiarelettere).
In 2009, Grupo Mauri Spagnol acquired Bollati Boringheri, a publisher specializing in the humanities with a strong tradition of authors such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Alfred Einstein.
In 2008, GeMS–as Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol recently chose to be labelled–opened its first venture outside of Italy with the creation of Duomo Ediciones in Barcelona. Founder Stefano Mauri explains in a statement: “We are very interested in the Spanish market. It has two large publishing groups and many medium-sized quality publishers in a revitalized country that is looking toward the future, whose readers’ tastes are quite similar to those of the Italians; in the past few years, also, Spain has produced some of the most important international best-sellers.” First titles were to be published in 2009.
Note: Figures are based on sales generated in calendar 2011 or—for corporations with a fiscal year—from fiscal 2011. Data are from publicly available sources and include sales of books, journals, and digital products. Because publishing data were unavailable, Pannini and Disney/Hyperion are excluded from the rankings. The listing and publisher profiles were compiled by international publishing consultant Rudiger Wischenbart under the aegis of Livres Hebdo.
