Bastei Lübbe AG becomes the sole owner of Community Editions

Bastei Lübbe AG becomes the sole owner of Community Editions

• Acquisition of the remaining 60 per cent of the shares
• Expansion of publishing business with reference to reader communities
• Existing management team remains on board and guarantees individual and close support for authors

Cologne, July 21, 2021 - Bastei Lübbe AG (ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) is acquiring a further 60 per cent of Community Editions GmbH, making it the sole owner. The Cologne-based publishing house is taking over the shares from the previous majority owner VEMAG Publishing and Media Corporation. Community Editions publishes books and stationery products by influencers with a wide reach. Bastei Lübbe has already been involved in the innovative publishing model since its founding in 2016 and most recently held a 40% stake.

"With the acquisition of Community Editions, we are expanding our business with offerings for reader communities. The authors, who are backed by millions of followers, guarantee interesting content on current everyday topics in all forms of output and reach a young audience interested in reading," says Joachim Herbst, spokesman for Bastei Lübbe's Executive Board, explaining the acquisition. "With the complete takeover, we will let our expertise play an even stronger role and together with the future management of Community Editions, expand the innovative offering of the pull publishing model." Bastei Lübbe had already expanded this complementary business model with its close ties between readership, topics and online communities in December 2020 with the acquisition of Berlin-based smarticular publishing and its two Internet platforms. "As with the purchase of smarticular, a decisive component now is that the previous team remains on board and continuity is maintained vis-à-vis the authors," Herbst continued.

Leading publisher for social media artists

Community Editions was founded in 2016 by the two Cologne-based media companies VEMAG Publishing and Media Corporation and Bastei Lübbe, and YouTube entrepreneur Christoph Krachten. In the past five years, the company has become the leading publisher for successful influencers. The focus of its offering is on gaming, lifestyle, beauty and do-it-yourself, as well as cooking and nutrition. Community Editions has thus become the publishing home of social media superstars such as Pamela Reif, Julia Beautx, Paluten, Arazhul and ViktoriaSarina. Many of the books published here are top 1 Spiegel bestsellers. Pamela Reif, for example, has 7.9 million followers on her main Instagram channel alone, and Paluten has 4.2 million fans following him on YouTube. The social media channels represent a very close bond between influencers with their communities and readers.

Expansion of the target group-oriented publishing business

Bastei Lübbe and VEMAG have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. The acquisition will take economic effect on January 1, 2021. Currently, Community Editions generates annual sales of around 6 million euros.

"Community Editions adds another field of highly successful books to our publishing program, which are developed by influencers together with the highly specialized team at Community Editions to meet the needs of the fans," commented Simon Decot, head of programming at Bastei Lübbe. "Similar to our publishing brands LYX and smarticular, Community Editions also relies very heavily on the pull effect from the respective community. Readers enthusiastically receive the books as well as the fan products of their stars."

Carla Scheunemann, the current publishing director, and Jonas Konrad, the commercial director, have been appointed managing directors. Together with the proven team from Community Editions, they will continue to work in the usual processes, thus ensuring high quality and continuity in the personal relationship with the artists. The new ownership structure enables faster coordination and offers Community Editions the ideal conditions for continued successful growth.

About Bastei Lübbe AG:

Bastei Lübbe AG is a German trade publisher based in Cologne, specialising in the publication of books, audio books and eBooks with fiction and popular science content. The company's core business also includes periodical novel booklets. With its total of sixteen publishing brands, the corporate group currently has several thousand titles in the fiction, non-fiction and children's and youth book segments on offer. In the growing segment of hardcover fiction, the company has been one of the market leaders in Germany for many years. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe is an innovation driver in the area of digital media and exploitation channels, among other things through the production of thousands of audio and eBooks.

For the 2020/2021 fiscal year, the Bastei Lübbe Group reports annual sales of around 93 million euros. Bastei Lübbe AG is one of the largest medium-sized companies 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 can be found at www.luebbe.de.

Contact Bastei Lübbe AG:

Barbara Fischer
Head of Press and Public Relations
Phone: +49 (0)221 8200 2850
E-mail: barbara.fischer@luebbe.de