Frankfurt Likely to Ax Extended Friday Hours

The controversial late-Friday opening at the Frankfurt Book Fair was not a success and likely will not be repeated, fair director Volker Neumann told PW the day after "the experiment." But the decision will not be official until exhibitors are surveyed about this and other innovations introduced this year, particularly about the sale of books to the general public on Monday and the many new forums, including, for example, film & TV and audiobooks. Overall, Neumann was pleased with this year's fair, which saw attendance increase 8.7%, to 289,000.

The few American exhibitors who stayed late on Friday reported that aisles were nearly empty. The swarms of book-stealing civilians many exhibitors had feared never materialized. "It was a ghost town," one U.S. exhibitor said of Hall 8, the home for English-language publishers.

Neumann sounded unapologetic about the many changes at this year's show, which some criticized as helping the German exhibitors cater to the German public at the expense of international rights activity. "The fair represents a unique opportunity to market books," he said. For instance, he asserted all publishers should take advantage of the 10,000 accredited journalists from 80 countries who attend the fair. He also noted that the management made major investments in the trade aspect of the fair—for example, fixing up the Literary Agents Center so much that for some it went from being a dreary, out-of-the-way station to an attractive, out-of-the-way retreat.

But the fair may still move the center to a site closer to Hall 8. One possibility is a floor in Hall 9, across an atrium from Hall 8, which Neumann said could be considered "Hall 8-plus." And by no later than 2007 Hall 8 will be rebuilt—between fairs—so that it will have a second floor. Among other changes contemplated before then: wi-fi in Hall 8, a new librarians' center and ending the fair on Sunday instead of Monday.