52nd Frankfurt Book Fair - cultural event and trading centre, forum for innovations and umbrella for specialised information options

Frankfurt (PROTEXT) - When the 52nd Frankfurt Book Fair openstomorrow, Tuesday, with Poland as this year's Guest of Honour,speakers will include the foreign ministers of Poland andGermany, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski and Joschka Fischer, as well asthe two Polish Nobel prize for literature laureates CzeslawMilosz and Wislawa Szybmorska. The Frankfurt Book Fair (18 - 23 October) is attended by 6,887publishing companies from 107 countries. Among the titles theybring, more than a quarter of exhibitors now include electronicpublications alongside books. The new information technologies and their many effects on thepublishing industry are also the subject of numerous debates andevents here at the world's largest book fair. With the headline "New Books, New Shops, New Jobs", a seriesof events at the "Electronic Media Centre" also attempts to sumup the effects of this trend: - e-books make it possible to sell book directs on theInternet, opening up a new content sales channel with a promisingfuture; several publishing corporations are already active onthis sector. - Online bookselling was already a focus of attention in 1999and in the current year, it has not only grown in volume but alsobeen able to diversity into the widest variety of productcatagories. - New professions such as online editor, media developer andIT assistant are becoming important within publishing and areprofiled here at the Frankfurt Book Fair. But the traditional book trade is also finding thatglobalisation and specialisation in the product range are themost important trends. Specialist information, the sciences andchildren's books are among the growth areas. All these special areas of interest are offered a broadcultural forum at the Frankfurt Book Fair, as well as their mostimportant international market place. Content innovations arealso given an airing at specialist events and discussionsessions. The internationalisation of the publishing world is reflectedin a dynamic expansion in rights and licence trading - the keybusiness at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In support of rights trading, the Frankfurt Book Fairannounces the development of a dedicated Internet platform. Alldata on exhibitors and on 18,000 titles on exhibit are alreadyavailable at www.buchmesse.de (German) or www.frankfurt-book-fair.com (English version) - as well as the Calendar of Eventsand the latest news. Contact: Frankfurt Book Fair Press Dept 16October 2000 Tel.: +49 69 2102-217 Fax: +49 69 2102-227press@book-fair.com Visit the Frankfurt Book Fair on theInternet: www.frankfurt-book-fair.com

Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug"PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to bepublished under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial serviceproviding distribution of press releases from clients, who areidentified in the text of Protext reports and who bear fullresponsibility for their contents.

PROTEXT