The BreakFast Sessions: Change the story - How books change our world
Caroline’s role in Audience Development is to connect readers with the Puffin and Ladybird brands and their stories, through community development, seasonal brand campaigns, newsletters and podcasts.
In our chat we looked at the continually innovating publishing market, how the opportunities to engage are constantly evolving and how reader behaviour has changed in response to the events of 2020, and what Penguin Random House has done to react to those changes.
Of course, we also talked about favourite books, and about the enduring importance of dog-eared printed books in an age of digital channels.
You can rewatch the discussion here, otherwise here’s a short summary of three of the key themes that emerged:
1. Books continue to shape our culture and society
From Fifty Shades of Grey to Invisible Women. Normal People to Nigella Lawson. Not only do books reflect our times, they shape the conversation, and drive new debates and experiences across all media: film, TV and live. They are still one of the best ways to put yourself in another's shoes, and to see the world through someone else's eyes.
2. What and how we read never stays still
The market innovates and evolves in response to our changing needs and lives: start-ups to help us read quicker, to curate and find books to match our interests, or to connect us to other readers through the stories we love. We can trace innovation from the hardback to the paperback, audio book and into cross-platform storytelling. But the authors art is at the heart of it. As Caroline says, "There's no algorithm for imagination".
3. Reading in 2020 'is a story in itself'
From unprecedented demand for banana bread recipes, to readers finally having the time to tackle War & Peace, Penguin Random House (and reading in general) found itself playing an important role in informing, comforting and entertaining the nation through this weird year. It responded by providing support to new reading groups, creating new content formats for parents and kids, and making the stories people needed easy to find.
Through our BreakFast sessions, we talk to leaders in the Design and Innovation industry. The talks are filmed live. We talk about their industry and business, we learn from their experience and create an open forum for questions and new ideas. Visit createfuture.com to sign up for the next session and to watch recordings of the previous talks.