Over the centuries, the book industry has transformed itself time and again in radical ways. In the beginning, these changes often arose out of publishing houses that had their own printing presses and bookstores. After that came the splitting up into publishers and bookstores. At the moment, we have an industry that is stationary, online and – for many years now – also completely digital, that is, based on apps, eBooks and eReaders, such as the Tolino. Although it might not seem so from outside, the pace of innovation in the industry has increased significantly. For us, CONTENTshift is a book industry platform that enables founders – and their innovative new ideas – to more gain access to publishers and retail markets in a more efficient way. Today, the industry as a whole is working together to find pioneering solutions for the readers of tomorrow: Reading 3.0. Dr. Leif Göritz
With more than 280 bookstores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Thalia is the German-speaking world’s retail book market leader. The company is also active as a cross-channel retailer, offering professional, customer-oriented advice and inspiring shopping experiences both in the “real” world of traditional bookstores and in the “virtual” world on their online bookshop. Thalia combines a long and storied bookselling tradition with considerable dedication to the promotion of reading and culture. In this “best of many worlds,” the company has also demonstrated a consistent commitment to fostering new digital opportunities in the realm of books. In March 2013, Thalia joined with several book-industry partners and Deutsche Telekom to launch tolino, a brand that has since generated seven e-readers, including most recently the tolino vision 4 HD. In 2017, the Tolino Alliance announced that the Canadian e-reading provider Rakuten Kobo would replace Deutsche Telekom as its tech partner. Today, this alliance offers over 1 million e-books, the largest in the German-language e-book retail industry. Thalia was founded in Hamburg in 1919 in the building of that city’s renowned Thalia Theater.
Dr. Leif Göritz is a managing partner and chairman of the supervisory board at Thalia. He holds a doctorate in economics and is also known for his work as a business consultant and digital entrepreneur. Before coming to Thalia, Göritz was managing director at an international business incubator and project manager at The Boston Consulting Group. As the founder of several successful digital companies, but also as a partner at the Berlin-based Smart Mobile App Factory and council to the management board of Herder Verlag, Göritz is very familiar with the challenges facing startups and companies seeking to digitise their business.
Dominik Strähle is Team Leader Digital Products at Thalia. He has many years of experience in the field of digital media platforms. After various positions at Deutsche Telekom, Strähle joined Thalia in 2011, where he was responsible for establishing and expanding the company’s digital services product range with a focus on eReading and audiobooks. Within the framework of the tolino Allianz (tolino alliance), Strähle is in charge of the ongoing development of the tolino ecosystem across the entire bookselling landscape.