Frankfurt good for academic publishers

This year's Frankfurt Book Fair is more business like and academic publishers are enjoying a strong event.

"Frankfurt has settled down and is more business like," said Ian Bannerman, Taylor & Francis director. Recent fairs have been dominated by " bubble" web technologies he said, but this year there is a strong focus on publishing and business is being done. "Although the one thing missing is some big scale gossip," Bannerman said.

Anna Termine, rights director for book and journal publisher Sage said its "busier than previous years"; which Oxford University Press' Vicki Bartlett, event organiser agreed with.

But Tom Davy, CEO of Cengage, formerly Thomson Learning, was more circumspect about the event. " I think it's quieter than previous years because companies are thinking hard about who to send." Davy said companies are increasingly relying on phone conferences, but admitted Frankfurt was vital for new business opportunities. " When I go back the one thing I'll be measuring Frankfurt by is how much new business we generated."

Pre-event fears of empty halls because of the US dollar sliding down the global currency scales have largely proved unfounded. "The dollar is impacting on everyone's numbers, but it is not affecting attendance," Bannerman said. American Termine of Sage said she hadn't noticed any affect on the event, but it was hurting to be an American abroad.

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