Nicolas Jackson visits the European Publishers' Conference organised by the Casa del Lector and the Germán Sánchez Ruipérez Foundation at their magnificent new headquarters in the Matadero Madrid cultural centre. Ever since Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type printing in the early 15th century, Europe has been at the heart of book publishing, although nowadays publishers tend to be part of ever-larger global conglomerates. At the same time, the dawn of the digital era has created a revolution in the way we produce, distribute and read books which is already rewriting the rules of the industry. In the first of a two-part report from the conference, we talk to Nigel Newton, founder and chief executive of Bloomsbury Publishing, about the changing nature of the industry. Bloomsbury famously published the 7 Harry Potter novels as well as a who's who of leading names in world literature from Margaret Atwood to William Boyd and Khaled Hosseini (22/04/13).
