Håkan Rudels on Books

Today, Bonnierförlagen announced that Håkan Rudels has been named publishing director for the Swedish publisher, which includes Albert Bonniers Förlag, Wahlström & Widstrand and a number of other publishing houses. We talked with Rudels about his position and the future.

What is your background and what have you been doing up until now?

I'm an economist from the beginning and before I started at Bonnierförlagen I was sales manager for a bookstore chain. I also tried the dot.com thing - I worked at torget.se. I've worked at Bonnierförlagen now nearly seven years, where my latest role has been director of marketing.

What are the challenges facing the book publishing industry today and what do they mean for Bonnierförlagen?

Our biggest challenges are above all several. That we need to be as smart digitally as we are in print. That we need to keep fighting to ensure the availability of books out in stores. That we need to win the fight for time, that is that consumers should use the free time they have to read books, and in order for that to happen we need to be available in a different context. We need to make our industry more efficient - we're not as good as some other industries and in order for us to be attractive to retailers we need to improve our efficiency. Maybe the biggest challenge is youth and their reading habits, there's a tendency towards expecting shorter and shorter texts that we need to keep in mind.

How do you see your new role - what will you be doing?

Reading a whole lot of books...