{
  "id": 20160286,
  "title": "Family business: What the German publisher Bastei Lübbe is doing against the difficult year after its global success",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/15/familienunternehmen-was-der-deutsche-verlag-bastei-lubbe-gegen-das",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-11-15T10:34:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/mittelstand/familienunternehmer/buecher-bastei-luebbe-und-das-schwierige-jahr-nach-maxton-hall/100263302.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "Bastei Lübbe, a German publisher, has reported a decline in sales and profit, with revenue dropping to €118.4 million and profit falling to €9.3 million from €17.1 million. The company's success with the \"Maxton Hall\" series, which topped Amazon Prime's streaming charts worldwide, was a one-off, according to CEO Soheil Dastyari, who described the current situation as a \"transition\". The publisher is focusing on \"New Adult\" romance novels and launching a new brand, Liv, in 2027, targeting adult women. Dastyari also discussed the protests by Generation Z, supporting their demands for more education investment, and expressed concerns about boys and men reading less.",
  "summary": "The film adaptation of the novel \"Maxton Hall\" brought a 15 percent margin to publisher Bastei Lübbe. Now, the profit has almost halved. How CEO Dastyari wants to counteract this - and how \"Booktok\" helps.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}