When it was founded, Community Editions was laughed at for the crazy idea of bringing books onto the market with "these people from the Internet" and developing a business model - and now many more - from it. But our success proves us right! It is in our DNA to constantly look for exciting additions and alternatives to the traditional book business and to try out as many new things as possible. This requires new approaches, great openness, a lot of courage and finally the demolition of the last ivory towers. Carla Scheunemann
Community Editions is THE publishing house for social media creators. Since it was founded in 2017, the Cologne-based publisher has dominated the business with books by and with influencers, gamers and other well-known players on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitch. With authors who have a wide reach, the publisher turns communities into readers - and regularly storms the Spiegel bestseller lists with a large number of the 50 annual books and comics from all genres. With the successful stationery and lifestyle brand humblebutbold, the company has now also built up a successful retail-independent e-commerce business. Community Editions GmbH has been a 100% subsidiary of Bastei Lübbe AG since 2021.
Carla Scheunemann is a publishing all-rounder to the core. From a traineeship in the children's book editorial department to managing international key accounts, assisting the Executive Board and sales management to Head of Business Development - she has worked in every department at mass market specialist VEMAG. In 2019, she moved to publishing management at Community Editions and took over the publishing management in 2021. In addition to further developing the publishing house for social media creators, she is particularly interested in new business models for paper products and content and keeps her eyes open not only for Community Editions, but also for the parent company Bastei Lübbe.
After studying industrial engineering, Jonas Konrad joined the corporate development team at Bastei Lübbe AG in October 2017 and helped shape the company's current and future path as a project manager. At the same time, he completed a part-time MBA programme. In 2021, he started at Community Editions as Commercial Director and, after the complete takeover of Community Editions by Bastei Lübbe AG, took over the commercial management with a focus on eCommerce, Finance, Human Resources, IT & Legal. In addition to the further development of Community Editions, he is passionate about the development and evaluation of new business models and also supports group-wide M&A projects in this context.
Even in our fast-paced world, the communication of content is and will remain relevant, but it is becoming increasingly colourful and diverse. The classic book as a medium for premium content is competing with more and more exciting formats, playback stations and business models centred around content - and for the time of people who consume content. This phenomenon is creating various challenges along the entire value chain. I am looking forward to the solutions that will be presented to us during the competition. Jonas Konrad