Curtea Veche: bookstore sales down by 20-25%

Curtea Veche publishing house posted 2m-euro turnover least year and ended the first six months of this year with 1.3m-euro revenues, up 51% from the year-ago period, after it sold books together with newspapers or magazines at newsstands. “Sales in bookstores dropped by 20-25%, but we offset the decline through direct sales on our website, in fairs, as well as through kiosk editions with various dailies and magazines. We are doing our best to keep adjusting, until the revival of classic distribution,” stated Iren Arsene, the publishing house’s general manager (the company is owned by the Arsene family). According to Iren Arsene, the traditional book market is freefalling, but the publishing house manages to sell a title every week, in a large circulation, together with a daily. The book market has been hurting since the start of the year, with publishing houses’ problems being related to the shrinking number of sold copies, spiralling sales and the closedown of some bookshops.