Bastei Lübbe AG continues growth with community-driven business models through new publishing brand pola

Cologne, 23 April 2024. Bastei Lübbe AG is consistently focusing on growth in the community sector. In autumn 2024, the general-interest publishing group, which is listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, will launch another community-driven imprint: pola, which stands for books that give visibility to the realities of young women's lives. "We are thus consistently pursuing our strategic path of growth through innovation leadership in this area. With One, LYX and Community Editions, we have already established several community-driven publishing brands with great success. Now, with pola, we are adding another high-potential publishing brand for young women," explains Soheil Dastyari, CEO of Bastei Lübbe AG.

The new publishing imprint focuses on a differentiated and open depiction of the diverse topics and challenges that women face in their everyday lives. Authentic authors and inspiring characters invite readers to find themselves in the books and discover new perspectives. The first program with six titles from the areas of fiction and non-fiction celebrates its premiere this autumn. The program kicks off with two novels in September. "With pola, we are strengthening the voices of young women and telling their stories realistically and entertainingly. Pola deliberately depicts all facets of life and doesn't leave out the uncomfortable. Our strong and authentic voices stand for all the moments that life has in store, the imperfect, the overwhelming, the painful and the beautiful," explains Simon Decot, Program Director at Bastei Lübbe AG.

Parallel to the development of the new brand, another course was set: Ruža Kelava has also been in charge of the Lübbe publishing brand together with publishing director Marco Schneiders since 1 April 2024. Ruža Kelava was previously Head of Publishing LYX and subsequently Head of Business Development. The pola and Lübbe brands are to be more closely networked to be able to place even more targeted successes in fiction in the future and to build up further relevant voices in addition to the established author brands.

Like the LYX imprint, which has more than 161,000 followers on Instagram alone (@lyx_verlag), pola also wants to create opportunities for inspiration, information and dialogue for readers beyond the books themselves. The Instagram channel @pola_stories and various event formats that address relevant topics in a target group-oriented manner are at the center of this. The book club format #PolaReads, which brings readers together in joint reading sessions on Instagram, is a central component of this concept. Accompanying discussion questions, livestreams and analogue book club events complement the concept. "With pola, we are addressing the reality of life for many young women in a targeted and comprehensive way. And we do this across all channels in such a way that a really strong community can emerge," explains CEO Soheil Dastyari.

An overview of the new program and further information on the publisher can be found in the pola program preview and at https://www.luebbe.de/pola.

About Bastei Lübbe AG:
Bastei Lübbe AG is a German general-interest publisher based in Cologne, specialising in the publication of books, audio books and e-books featuring fiction and popular science content. The company’s core business also includes the periodically published novel booklets. With a total of fifteen imprints, the group currently offers several thousand titles in the fields of fiction, non-fiction and children’s and young people’s books. 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 a driver of innovation in digital media and exploitation channels through the production of thousands of audio and e-books among other things.

With annual revenues of around €100 million (2022/2023 financial year), Bastei Lübbe AG is one of the largest medium-sized companies in the German publishing industry. Its shares have been listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) since 2013. Further information can be found at www.bastei-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