HarperCollins Germany and Bastei Lübbe establish joint venture 'HarperCollins bei Lübbe Audio' for the joint exploitation of audio book rights

HarperCollins Germany and Bastei Lübbe establish joint venture
"HarperCollins bei Lübbe Audio"
for the joint exploitation of audio book rights

Hamburg/Cologne, June 14, 2016. The German branch of the second-largest trade publisher in the world, HarperCollins, and Lübbe Audio, the largest independent audiobook publisher in Germany, are joining forces in audiobook production and marketing. In future, all HarperCollins audiobook content in Germany will be marketed by Lübbe Audio. The joint label will operate as "HarperCollins bei Lübbe Audio".

"We are delighted about the cooperation. This will strengthen our market position and provide new and lasting stimulus for the audiobook market. At the same time, the cooperation is of strategic importance to Bastei Lübbe. It is set up for the long term and can be expanded in any number of directions," said Thomas Schierack, CEO of Bastei Lübbe AG.

Thomas Beckmann, Managing Director of HarperCollins Germany added: "For us, this cooperation is another important step in consolidating HarperCollins' publishing activities in Germany and finding the best possible outlets for our authors. Lübbe Audio is an ideal partner for audiobooks as a publisher with more than 20 years of experience."

The cooperation will begin from July 2016 with one of the top titles from the summer programme: The novel highly acclaimed by Elke Heidenreich, "Carrying Albert Home" by Homer Hickam, will be available on the new label as an unabridged reading in physical and digital form. This will be followed by other hot titles from authors including Daniel Silva, Karin Slaughter and Susan Mallery.

In total, the first audiobook programme from HarperCollins bei Lübbe Audio will comprise 25 titles from the genres crime/thriller, literature and romance. Renowned narrators beloved by listeners have also already been signed for the cooperation: In addition to Nina Petri reading the Karin Slaughter series, others including Meret Brettschneider, Nicole Engeln and Michael-Che Koch will lend their voices for the autumn programme.

Marc Sieper, the head of the Lübbe Audio label, is looking forward to this cooperation: "HarperCollins is a perfect partner. Our programmes complement each other wonderfully. Alongside top titles by the likes of Karin Slaughter and Tess Gerritsen, series of novels are well-known and successful terrain for us."

About Bastei Lübbe AG:
Bastei Lübbe AG is an international media group based in Cologne. Its business operations focus on developing and licensing content distributed worldwide physically and digitally. The company's core business includes the traditional publishing business and the periodical puzzle magazines and novel booklets in the "Book" segment. With its twelve publishers and imprints, the group of companies currently offers approximately 3,600 titles in fiction, non-fiction and books for children and young adults. In the growing segment of hardcover fiction, the company has been the market leader in Germany for many years. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe is driving innovation in the field of digital media. As well as the production of thousands of audio and e-books, the "Digital" segment also includes holdings in the self-publishing platform "BookRix" and the renowned games publisher "Daedalic Entertainment". Bastei Lübbe AG's value chain is completed by the investment in the online shop "beam-ebooks.de" and the new and internationally unique streaming platform "oolipo".
With currently 334 employees and an annual turnover of roughly EUR 110.2 million (financial year 2014/2015), Bastei Lübbe AG is the largest medium-sized family company in the German publishing industry. Since 2013, the company's shares have been listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0). Further information is available at www.luebbe.de.

Contact Bastei Lübbe AG:
Barbara Fischer
Director / Vice President
Public Relations
Tel.: +49 (0) 221 / 82 00 28 50
E-mail: barbara.fischer@luebbe.de