The IPA International Conference was the first major event ever to present an analysis of the impact of the pandemic on the publishing industry around the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has damaged the book industry worldwide, slashing revenues by up to 80% in some markets, according to the ongoing IPA poll of publishers in more than 30 major markets. Business panel discussions and keynotes of the 33rd MIBF were mainly aimed at figuring out the new ideas and opportunities for publishers and other book industry professionals which have appeared amidst the crisis.

The conference was hosted by Bodour Al Qasimi (UAE), Vice-President of the International Publishers Association (IPA).

Participants included Maria A. Pallante (UAE), Joachim Kaufmann (Germany), Maria Hamrefors (Sweden), Laura Prinsloo (Indonesia), Oleg Novikov (Russia), Vladimir Grigoriev (Russia) and others. They also shared their own ways of overcoming the crisis.

Experts noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe damage to the book sector around the world. Losses of key book markets on all continents are estimated at billions of euros. Due to the quarantine measures introduced and the decline in income in March-July 2020, publishers and booksellers lost between 20 and 50% of their income and had to abandon the production of a significant number of book novelties.

The pandemic has accelerated the trend towards digitalization of the book market and increased sales through the Internet channel. Rudiger Wischenbart, the world's largest expert in this area, presented an update on how the pandemic affected the digital segment and led to the growth of the electronic and audio book market.

However, electronic sales could not compensate for losses in the traditional book market. Even today, one of the most important tasks is to return customers and restore sales in bookstores, which still remain one of the main sales channels.

In the current conditions, experts noted the need for further investment in the development of direct communication with the reader and large-scale campaigns to promote reading, the creation of media content simultaneously in different formats: paper, electronic and audio.

The conference participants noted the need to support international and national book fairs as the most important public institutions serving as bridges between writers, publishers and readers from all over the world.

"Books and literary heritage have been and will remain world civilization's most important cultural treasure. Governments' investments today in the book infrastructure will pay off manyfold in the future by preserving the importance of books and reading for all future generations, developing national languages and cultures, and strengthening the intellectual foundations of world civilization," says the Moscow declaration.

The International Publishers Association together with MIBF accumulates global best practices to support the book industry and is ready to provide information about them to any interested government. We encourage publishers and industry professionals around the world seeking support to use this declaration as the draft for their own appeal to local governments and officials who can help to revive the industry.

For the first time, the Moscow International Book Fair was held in a hybrid format, making it a unique event for the industry. MIBF was among the first in the world to introduce and successfully implement the dual format of participation, prioritizing the safety of those who wanted to take part in the event. The guests of the fair could choose between visiting the offline venue or watching events online.

Nearly 600 events were held and more than 350 publishing houses presented book novelties at the fair. People from 90 countries watched broadcasts online, including the U.S., UK, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, China and the Netherlands, as well as many others. Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea was the honorary guest country of the fair.

Hundreds of Russian authors appeared in the Manege, including Alexey Ivanov, Vladimir Pozner, Dmitry Bykov, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Zakhar Prilepin, Evgeny Vodolazkin, Marina Stepnova, Denis Dragunsky and Alexander Tsypkin. Foreign authors, who could not come to Moscow in person due to the pandemic, took part online. Meetings with Frederick Biegbeder, Sophie Kinsella, Janusz Leon Wiszniewski, comicists Scott McCloud and Paul Gravett and dozens of other authors from abroad were held in this format.

MIBF has become the only international book fair which allowed its participants to physically visit the events, meet the authors and buy the new books, while maintaining high security measures to ensure social distancing and other methods of stopping the virus.

Liber 2020 in Barcelona will take place in a purely digital format. Frankfurter Buchmesse has cancelled its traditional on-site exhibition this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic. It looks like MIBF has been the only event (so far!) with a strong offline presence during the whole autumn season.

The decision to hold the fair in a hybrid online and offline format shows the primary principle of its organizers: we have to embrace the new norm rather than wait until the old order is restored. The global book industry should carefully study the dangers of the new world we live in, work out a set of safety measures and act decisively without hiding from the pandemic behind our computer screens.

"In our new and dangerous world, it's crucial to be cautious and follow the rules. But we cannot afford to stop the offline activities. We have to get accustomed to the new reality and act decisively. We will be happy to share our experience in organizing this post-COVID fair with our colleagues who launch book industry events around the globe," says Andrey Gelmiza, MIBF organizing committee director.

Safety measures for MIBF offline participants included the special format of the exhibitors' booths and event halls, sophisticated logistics for visitors and exhibitors alike. Guests were allowed to visit the exhibition and take part in the offline event only in sessions which helped to limit the amount of people who were on site simultaneously. Sessions should have been booked in advance. Obviously, everyone was obliged to wear a mask and gloves and all the public spaces were regularly disinfected.

During the MIBF, its organizers used and improved the safety measures, which have already proved their efficiency during the Red Square book festival, which took place in Moscow in June 2020.

Organizers admit it was a challenge to hold the fair immediately after the lifting of temporary COVID-19 restrictions. The usual venue for the event — the 75th VDNKH pavilion — had been turned into a temporary hospital for the infected and the fair was forced to move to the Moscow Manege.

MIBF organizers are ready to share this experience with their colleagues around the world to help them put together safe offline events. They hope that the international fairs around the world will soon resume their activities.

The business agenda of the 33rd MIBF focused on the current challenges the global publishing industry is facing.

The Declaration of the International Publishers Association (IPA) was adopted in Moscow. It is a direct call to action addressed at governments around the world for urgent economic, organisational and other measures to support the book sector in their respective countries by focusing on three areas – rehabilitation of reading infrastructure, stimulating demand for books, and protection and support of intellectual capital. There are clear action plans for each area proposed by the participants of the conference.

This call echoed the joint statement by world book industry leaders. The declaration can be downloaded here.

As part of the MIBF, the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications together with the Russian Book Union held the annual Russian book industry conference.

Opening the conference, Deputy Head of Rospechat Vladimir Grigoriev noted that the book publishing industry was one of the first to suffer during the coronavirus pandemic. However, a number of book publishers around the world showed social responsibility by opening free access to electronic versions of their publications and textbooks. "Good books and good authors helped to overcome the first wave of the pandemic," said Vladimir Grigoriev.

"According to the Russian Book Chamber, in the first six months of 2020 the number of books published in Russia decreased by about 6%, and their total circulation fell by 1.5%," said Grigoriev. He added that the comparatively slight decline should not be soothing: the statistics for the first half of the year include projects launched before the pandemic and there may be a delayed effect of forced downtime ahead.

According to conference participants, the decline in the total book market (excluding the market for educational literature) in just three months of the pandemic is estimated at 3.5 billion rubles per month or about 10.5 billion rubles for three months.

However, according to Oleg Novikov, vice-president of the Russian Book Union, readership activity increased during the pandemic, primarily on the Internet. Online sales of paper books increased by 30-40% compared to last year, but this did not compensate for the problem of bookstores. In Russia, the volume of the book market has declined and the country's position in the international ranking has weakened. "At the end of the year, we expect that the market will lose 15% compared to last year." said the publisher.

Nadezhda Mikhailova, president of the Association of Book Distributors of Independent States, claimed that the online sales channels will not replace traditional bookstores, as over the past period, the book has not become a significant part of life for Russians, "a commodity of first cultural necessity". In March and April, the income of bookstores decreased by 95% and amounted to only 170 million rubles.

Sergey Anuriev, CEO of LitRes, predicts the market for electronic books to grow by 31% this year, but this is still less than last year or the year before that. In the service LitRes, the lowest demand during the quarantine period was for books on the world economy (+129%), fiction (+84%), erotic literature (+80%) and books on popular psychology (+77%).

Dmitry Klimishin, General Director of Prosveshchenie Publishing House, noted that although educational literature is a part of the book industry, it has its own differences and trends.

The main trend will be the combination of distance and face-to-face format of teaching - mixed learning, said Klimishin. "The physical presence of students at school will be augmented by digital tools, not replacing full-time education, but expanding the opportunities for interaction between teachers and students. Therefore, in the near future we will focus on creating and developing educational resources - additional digital and interactive materials - in addition to the already traditional products," he added.