A publishing house creates space for transformation

Since Carlsen Verlag was founded in 1953, it has managed to position itself as one of Germany's leading children's book publishers and has played a key role in shaping the history of children's and young adult literature. But the publishing house is not just looking to the past: together, Managing Director Joachim Kaufmann and Publisher Renate Herre are making a veteran of the Hamburg content industry fit for the future. Children's book tradition meets agile working structures and new technologies: a publishing house creates space for transformation - a success story made in Hamburg.

Carlsen looks to the future

Whether in 1954 with the Pixi books, which are still famous today, or in 1998 with the first German-language volume of the Harry Potter series, Carlsen has been involved in groundbreaking developments for the entire German-language content industry many times in the past.

And even today, after almost 70 years of publishing history, Carlsen Verlag is still a source of innovative ideas and a trailblazer for the future of the industry. As a first mover, Carlsen combines future technologies with traditional brands and is constantly developing new formats. And with New Work concepts and modern office spaces, the publishing house enables its employees to work in an agile way.

The potential of the Hamburg location is also crucial for Carlsen's position within the content industry: other successful children's book publishers offer opportunities for fruitful collaborations, and the publisher can explore new technologies and rethink content together with large tech companies and young start-ups.

Thanks to the infrastructure of Hamburg's universities, there are also plenty of potential employees in the city.

The result: a flourishing company with over 200 employees that publishes several thousand new titles every year.

New formats

As a traditional publisher whose product was the physical book for the longest time, the media shift has been a particular challenge for Carlsen.

Just a few years ago, it seemed as if new technologies such as e-readers and trends such as the audio boom were a threat to the publishing business, but Carlsen has now managed to successfully position traditional brands such as Pixi, Petzi, Conni and Tim & Struppi in this new market.

The reason for the success of the change? A rethink: Carlsen still stands for high-quality content, but stories are now at the heart of the publishing business - and these can be cast in more forms than just books.

Contact with the Hamburg content industry has helped with the repositioning: whether other large publishing houses that are dealing with the same transformation processes or leading tech companies and young start-ups that bring expertise in dealing with emerging technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence.

Carlsen's role in the German-language content industry

Not despite, but precisely because of its rich history, Carlsen Verlag is still a first mover in many areas, establishing innovations and setting standards as a role model for the content industry.

Carlsen has already established new formats in German-speaking countries in the past. In the 1960s, Carlsen was one of the first publishers to publish German-language comics, and 30 years later, the publisher helped to make manga a mainstream success on the German book market with the first "Dragon Ball" volume.

The publishing house still holds this position as an innovator today: with skills for interactive speakers such as Amazon's Alexa, VR and AR apps that complement classic book content or artificial intelligence that create texts themselves or generate text-to-speech audio content.

As a traditional children's book publisher, Carlsen also serves as a focal point for creative professionals. The publisher's strong network has given rise to associations such as "Die Elbautoren": An association of Hamburg illustrators* and authors* with whom Carlsen realizes joint projects such as the anthology "Volle Fahrt voraus!".

Room for growth

Even shortly before its 70th birthday, Carlsen Verlag is still as vibrant and fresh an institution as it was shortly after it was founded.

Just as it helped to establish comics and manga as media in the German-speaking content industry in the past, it is now helping to exploit the potential of new technologies.

Tradition meets innovation and a pillar of the Hamburg content industry creates space for the resulting transformation. A success story, made in Hamburg!