Offers For The Digital Transformation Of The Book Industry

When publishers from across the globe come together for their big reunion in Frankfurt every year, the service providers for the publishing industry are not far away. At a joint booth in hall 4 on the trade fair grounds, the Bertelsmann Printing Group and Arvato offer insights into the bandwidth of their solutions that support publishers with bringing books to the shelves of retailers and into the hands of readers – from conception, consulting, and material design, to printing, refinement and shipping. IT services and digital applications are also taking up an increasing amount of space in the range of services. 

The “Book Base” solution is an especially fine and current example, presented for the first time to the broader public in Frankfurt  by Mohn Media and GGP Media under the umbrella of the Bertelsmann Printing Group. Through augmented reality, it generates digital 360° views of products, including books, enabling the examination of their design and revision before they go into production. Haptic properties, such as raised letters or reflective surfaces, become visible directly on the monitor. The solution is also an in-house development of Mohn Media, created by the Vime business unit. Andreas Diebold, Head of Vime at Mohn Media, says: “With ‘Book Base’ we can completely visualize a book based on the print data. We started with covers, but now we make the full book available, allowing clients to digitally leaf through each page and inspect and adjust the design at any time.”

According to Diebold, the solution is especially suitable for three major areas of application: finding layout concepts and ideas for the design of the cover and jacket, presenting a book to dealers digitally rather than in a thick catalog, and generating attractive marketing motifs, for example for targeting consumers via social media. Christof Ludwig, Managing Director of GGP Media, is delighted: “We offer a real innovation which, as far as we know, is currently unique in the world. Here at our stand we can see that it attracts publishers like a magnet.” 

Dirk Kemmerer, since August 2018 CEO of Mohn Media, also emphasizes the new solution’s potential: “With Vime and ‘Book Base’ we can have conversations with clients that go beyond the core business and show them the offers we provide for the digital transformation of the print and publishing industry.” The presence of Mohn Media in Frankfurt is self-understood for Europe’s largest offset printing company: “Although it is a traditional trade fair, we can meet more clients here within a short period of time than at almost any other event during the year. Therefore, it is always worthwhile,” says Kemmerer.