Home: Issue 1 2011 › Bound in tradition
Bound in tradition
01/02/2011 | Channel: E-Business / IT
After over 150 years in the Swedish publishing market, Norstedts Förlagsgrupp is continuing to embrace new developments, such as the growing e-book market
After over 150 years in the Swedish publishing market, Norstedts Förlagsgrupp is continuing to embrace new developments, such as the growing e-book market
As Sweden’s oldest publishing house, Norstedts Förlagsgrupp has a long history with roots that stretch back to 1823. Initially established as a printing company, Norstedts moved into publishing in the 1850s and has continued to grow its reputation in this industry ever since, today occupying a position as the second largest publisher in the Swedish market. Operating from its picturesque location in Stockholm, the company’s publishing portfolio comprises of fiction, non-fiction, maps, academic and reference books, dictionaries and children’s books, which are published under the Rabén & Sjögren imprint. Both Norstedts and Rabén & Sjögren are part of the Norstedts Publishing Group, which in turn is owned by KF Media – a co-operative union of book trading and publishing companies.
Given that everything Norstedts produces is printed in Swedish, the company’s main customers are within the Swedish book trade and internet bookstores. Peter Wilcke, director of the Norstedts Publishing Group, describes the key factors behind the company’s continued success in the industry: “We are in the fine publishing market, so we have a long tradition of publishing high-quality books. Our portfolio contains strong author names, including one or two key figures, and we have a very skilful staff team who manage our relationships with both our authors and customers. The key to successful publishing is to find the right authors, produce the books in the best possible way and to achieve high volumes of sales, and I believe we fulfil all of these criteria.”
Naturally finding the right authors and maintaining popular names lies at the core of the publishing industry. Although the Swedish market is Norstedts’ primary focus, the company also maintains and sells the international book rights to titles within its portfolio. In this respect, one of Norstedts’ biggest success stories is Stieg Larsson, globally known author of the ‘Millennium Trilogy’ crime novels, which includes ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, having been the original publisher. With the company publishing many of the well-known and upcoming authors in the Swedish market, Peter highlights how Norstedts develops these relationships: “In order to find the most attractive authors you have to be trustworthy publisher and have a publishing strategy that appeals to the author. Having a broad variety of books is important, as is being talented at selling books, but alongside this you also have to recognise your cultural responsibility.”
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Alongside these major author names, Norstedts’ high standards of quality and efficiency are supported by the business’ strong supply chain. “Today the reader has very high expectations regarding the quality of their book, so the printing, binding and overall feel of the book is crucial,” explains Peter. “This is also true for any illustrated parts or photographs – these need to be very accurate, and printed and published to a high standard. We work to very tight deadlines throughout the publishing process and once the orders start to come in we need to be able to fulfil them quickly, so we have to rely on our suppliers to be able to deliver the quality we need in quite short timescales.”
The advance of technology is present across many industries, and the publishing sector is no exception. In line with market demand, Norstedts is placing increasing focus on audio books and the new e-book technology. “We can see that e-books are moving quite rapidly on the US market at the moment, and we expect that technology to be present on the Swedish market within the next couple of years. At the moment it is difficult to predict how big e-books will be, but they will be part of the book industry and we are preparing in line with this. We see the e-book business as a real opportunity for the company, and also for end users to read more books in general, which translates back into increased business for us,” says Peter.
With ever-evolving technology set to continue to play a major role in the modern publishing business, it is Norstedts lifetime of expertise that enables it to be so adaptive to such changes. Looking ahead over the next five years, Peter’s ambitions for Norstedts include it occupying a leading presence in the advent of e-book technology: “We are a company that will be taking a responsibility within the book business in Sweden and hope to be leading some of the changes in that industry over the coming years. I am looking forward to a future where you can read, listen and take part in a book in any format or way that you desire, and within five years we will be at that point – both as a company and in general as an industry in Sweden.”
Norstedts Förlagsgrupp AB
Employees: 150
Services: Publishing
As Sweden’s oldest publishing house, Norstedts Förlagsgrupp has a long history with roots that stretch back to 1823. Initially established as a printing company, Norstedts moved into publishing in the 1850s and has continued to grow its reputation in this industry ever since, today occupying a position as the second largest publisher in the Swedish market. Operating from its picturesque location in Stockholm, the company’s publishing portfolio comprises of fiction, non-fiction, maps, academic and reference books, dictionaries and children’s books, which are published under the Rabén & Sjögren imprint. Both Norstedts and Rabén & Sjögren are part of the Norstedts Publishing Group, which in turn is owned by KF Media – a co-operative union of book trading and publishing companies.
Given that everything Norstedts produces is printed in Swedish, the company’s main customers are within the Swedish book trade and internet bookstores. Peter Wilcke, director of the Norstedts Publishing Group, describes the key factors behind the company’s continued success in the industry: “We are in the fine publishing market, so we have a long tradition of publishing high-quality books. Our portfolio contains strong author names, including one or two key figures, and we have a very skilful staff team who manage our relationships with both our authors and customers. The key to successful publishing is to find the right authors, produce the books in the best possible way and to achieve high volumes of sales, and I believe we fulfil all of these criteria.”
Naturally finding the right authors and maintaining popular names lies at the core of the publishing industry. Although the Swedish market is Norstedts’ primary focus, the company also maintains and sells the international book rights to titles within its portfolio. In this respect, one of Norstedts’ biggest success stories is Stieg Larsson, globally known author of the ‘Millennium Trilogy’ crime novels, which includes ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, having been the original publisher. With the company publishing many of the well-known and upcoming authors in the Swedish market, Peter highlights how Norstedts develops these relationships: “In order to find the most attractive authors you have to be trustworthy publisher and have a publishing strategy that appeals to the author. Having a broad variety of books is important, as is being talented at selling books, but alongside this you also have to recognise your cultural responsibility.”
')";>
Alongside these major author names, Norstedts’ high standards of quality and efficiency are supported by the business’ strong supply chain. “Today the reader has very high expectations regarding the quality of their book, so the printing, binding and overall feel of the book is crucial,” explains Peter. “This is also true for any illustrated parts or photographs – these need to be very accurate, and printed and published to a high standard. We work to very tight deadlines throughout the publishing process and once the orders start to come in we need to be able to fulfil them quickly, so we have to rely on our suppliers to be able to deliver the quality we need in quite short timescales.”
The advance of technology is present across many industries, and the publishing sector is no exception. In line with market demand, Norstedts is placing increasing focus on audio books and the new e-book technology. “We can see that e-books are moving quite rapidly on the US market at the moment, and we expect that technology to be present on the Swedish market within the next couple of years. At the moment it is difficult to predict how big e-books will be, but they will be part of the book industry and we are preparing in line with this. We see the e-book business as a real opportunity for the company, and also for end users to read more books in general, which translates back into increased business for us,” says Peter.
With ever-evolving technology set to continue to play a major role in the modern publishing business, it is Norstedts lifetime of expertise that enables it to be so adaptive to such changes. Looking ahead over the next five years, Peter’s ambitions for Norstedts include it occupying a leading presence in the advent of e-book technology: “We are a company that will be taking a responsibility within the book business in Sweden and hope to be leading some of the changes in that industry over the coming years. I am looking forward to a future where you can read, listen and take part in a book in any format or way that you desire, and within five years we will be at that point – both as a company and in general as an industry in Sweden.”
Norstedts Förlagsgrupp AB
Employees: 150
Services: Publishing