In a surprise move, the Frankfurt Book Fair has announced a plan to hold a two-day "Frankfurt in New York" rights trading event in the city in late April, only three days before the BookExpo America show opens, also in New York next year, and the news produced a flurry of adverse responses.
The idea, announced by the fair's Udo Traeger, a recent addition to the fair's staff to increase its outreach, is to have the rights fair as an annual event, switching to May after the first appearance. It is being jointly organized by the Frankfurt fair, Michael Cader's Publishers Lunch and Mike Shatzkin's Idea Logical Company, and will be held April 29 and 30, 2002, in the refurbished Hotel Pennsylvania, a few blocks from the Javits Center, where BEA is set to begin May 3.
Cader said the announcement had originally been intended for September 11, but after the terrorist attack, the organizers considered postponing the idea indefinitely. Then they decided that the city needed new business in the wake of the attack, "and we hope to not only support but increase its business by bringing together domestic and international publishing leaders here." Traeger took the same line, saying, "Now, more than ever, is a great time for the rest of the world to reaffirm our commitment to doing business in New York. We can't imagine a better time to establish another landmark event closer to home for American publishers and peers from all over to meet and conduct business together."
Cader, whose idea the new event was, said that as a packager he had found that his European subagents who came to New York every May were frustrated by the effort of traveling around to all the publishers, and missing those outside New York; Frankfurt in New York would be an opportunity for them to have a centralized meeting place. The emphasis of the show will be on rights meetings, to be held at tabletop stands, at booths and in private meeting rooms at the hotel, and the organizers expect agents, editors, rights people, packagers, and film and TV licensees from the U.S and around the world to attend.
The plan did not meet with a warm reception this side of the water, with Pat Schroeder, president of the AAP, leading the charge. She told PW: "I was struck by the fact that in their announcement they never even mentioned the BEA show, which happens to be about to take place at that time. And I certainly haven't heard of anyone in the rights business here who asked them to come in. I don't know what they were thinking," she went on. "It's a PR nightmare. And I certainly didn't like the way they seem to be cherry-picking an American show while making it seem like they're doing us a favor. I think our feelings here are still too raw to want to put up with this sort of exercise. We have our own show, at about the same time, and I don't think people here have time for people trying to strip-mine that show."
One senior international publishing executive, who preferred not to be identified, declared: "This seems an ill-considered venture, and the participants seem not to have done any serious research, as the whole project was news to any of the trade publishers and rights people I've talked to. The rights subcommittee of the AAP's international division was completely blindsided. The timing is appalling, as American rights directors are already stretched that week. They can't be in their offices meeting visitors, attend this meeting and also go to the BEA. I'm shocked that Frankfurt should try to undermine the BEA in this way, at a time when the show was offering growing support for the rights area. The least they could have done, it seems to me, is suggest a joint venture with BEA.
"The last time there was a major fight between Frankfurt and American publishers," this executive continued, "we diplomatically pointed out that the first rule in business is to talk to your customers, which the Germans have failed to do in this instance."
Greg Topalin, director of the BEA show, was more diplomatic but no less emphatic. "I was surprised to hear about Frankfurt's plans and also to hear they were doing this in part as a response to New York's need for business in the wake of the World Trade Center tragedy. We decided to have BEA in New York next year long before September 11, and a major part of the reason was that the publishers wanted us there. We expect one of the most robust events we've had in years at the Javits Center next spring.
"Early indications, based on discussions we've already had with publishers," Topalin went on, "suggest that Frankfurt in New York is an impractical idea that will strain resources and divide attention. It simply does not make sense to have two unrelated events at the same time."
Marcella Berger, rights director at Simon & Schuster, who heads the rights subcommittee at the AAP's international division, said: "I don't really see the need for this. I'm surprised they thought another venue was necessary when the London fair is already so close to BEA I just don't know how people can handle it all. Already there's talk of fewer rights people coming to BEA because of London." In fact, the London fair, in late March, has been rapidly gaining as the favorite spring meeting ground for rights people. Alistair Burtenshaw, London fair director, told PW, "We strongly believe our International Rights Centre provides the ideal spring rights forum for North American agents, scouts and packagers."
Cader, in response to a published story that asked whether he was "trying to upstage" BEA, said in his e-mail Publishers Lunch, "BEA is and will remain the significant gathering of the book trade as a whole in North America, and to the benefit of all is enjoying a renaissance in its core mission as a bookselling show. Frankfurt in New York has no aspirations to be anywhere near the scope or scale of BEA, and we are confident that the primary business and success of BEA will continue even as our new show establishes itself. At the same time, we believe the rationale and benefits Frankfurt in New York can offer to its targeted audience are clear and self-evident."
