PRESS RELEASE : Bastei Lübbe AG becomes the sole owner of Community Editions

DGAP-News: Bastei Lübbe AG / Key word(s): Mergers & Acquisitions/Takeover 
Bastei Lübbe AG becomes the sole owner of Community Editions 
2021-07-21 / 10:00 
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. 
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Bastei Lübbe AG becomes the sole owner of Community Editions 
  . Acquisition of the remaining 60 per cent of the shares 
  . Expansion of publishing business with reference to reader communities 
  . Existing management team remains on board and guarantees individual and close support for authors 
Cologne, July 21, 2021 - Bastei Lübbe AG (ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) is acquiring a further 60 per cent of Community Editions 
GmbH, making it the sole owner. The Cologne-based publishing house is taking over the shares from the previous majority 
owner VEMAG Publishing and Media Corporation. Community Editions publishes books and stationery products by influencers 
with a wide reach. Bastei Lübbe has already been involved in the innovative publishing model since its founding in 2016 
and most recently held a 40% stake. 
"With the acquisition of Community Editions, we are expanding our business with offerings for reader communities. The 
authors, who are backed by millions of followers, guarantee interesting content on current everyday topics in all forms 
of output and reach a young audience interested in reading," says Joachim Herbst, spokesman for Bastei Lübbe's 
Executive Board, explaining the acquisition. "With the complete takeover, we will let our expertise play an even 
stronger role and together with the future management of Community Editions, expand the innovative offering of the pull 
publishing model." Bastei Lübbe had already expanded this complementary business model with its close ties between 
readership, topics and online communities in December 2020 with the acquisition of Berlin-based smarticular publishing 
and its two Internet platforms. "As with the purchase of smarticular, a decisive component now is that the previous 
team remains on board and continuity is maintained vis-à-vis the authors," Herbst continued. 
Leading publisher for social media artists 
Community Editions was founded in 2016 by the two Cologne-based media companies VEMAG Publishing and Media Corporation 
and Bastei Lübbe, and YouTube entrepreneur Christoph Krachten. In the past five years, the company has become the 
leading publisher for successful influencers. The focus of its offering is on gaming, lifestyle, beauty and 
do-it-yourself, as well as cooking and nutrition. Community Editions has thus become the publishing home of social 
media superstars such as Pamela Reif, Julia Beautx, Paluten, Arazhul and ViktoriaSarina. Many of the books published 
here are top 1 Spiegel bestsellers. Pamela Reif, for example, has 7.9 million followers on her main Instagram channel 
alone, and Paluten has 4.2 million fans following him on YouTube. The social media channels represent a very close bond 
between influencers with their communities and readers. 
Expansion of the target group-oriented publishing business 
Bastei Lübbe and VEMAG have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. The acquisition will take economic effect on 
January 1, 2021. Currently, Community Editions generates annual sales of around 6 million euros. 
"Community Editions adds another field of highly successful books to our publishing program, which are developed by 
influencers together with the highly specialized team at Community Editions to meet the needs of the fans," commented 
Simon Decot, head of programming at Bastei Lübbe. "Similar to our publishing brands LYX and smarticular, Community 
Editions also relies very heavily on the pull effect from the respective community. Readers enthusiastically receive 
the books as well as the fan products of their stars." 
Carla Scheunemann, the current publishing director, and Jonas Konrad, the commercial director, have been appointed 
managing directors. Together with the proven team from Community Editions, they will continue to work in the usual 
processes, thus ensuring high quality and continuity in the personal relationship with the artists. The new ownership 
structure enables faster coordination and offers Community Editions the ideal conditions for continued successful 
growth. 
About Bastei Lübbe AG: 
Bastei Lübbe AG is a German trade publisher based in Cologne, specialising in the publication of books, audio books and 
eBooks with fiction and popular science content. The company's core business also includes periodical novel booklets. 
With its total of sixteen publishing brands, the corporate group currently has several thousand titles in the fiction, 
non-fiction and children's and youth book segments on offer. In the growing segment of hardcover fiction, the company 
has been one of the market leaders in Germany for many years. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe is an innovation driver in 
the area of digital media and exploitation channels, among other things through the production of thousands of audio 
and eBooks. 
For the 2020/2021 fiscal year, the Bastei Lübbe Group reports annual sales of around 93 million euros. Bastei Lübbe AG 
is one of the largest medium-sized companies in the German publishing industry. Since 2013, the company's shares have 
been listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0). Further information 
can be found at www.luebbe.de. 
 
Contact Bastei Lübbe AG: 
Barbara Fischer 
Head of Press and Public Relations 
Phone: [phone] 
E-mail: [e-mail] 
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2021-07-21 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. 
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. 
The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. 
Archive at www.dgap.de 
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Language:     English 
Company:      Bastei Lübbe AG 
              Schanzenstraße 6 - 20 
              51063 Köln 
              Germany 
Phone:        02 21 / 82 00 - 0 
Fax:          02 21 / 82 00 - 1900 
E-mail:       [e-mail] 
Internet:     www.luebbe.de 
ISIN:         DE000A1X3YY0 
WKN:          A1X3YY 
Listed:       Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, 
              Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange 
EQS News ID:  1220587 
 
End of News   DGAP News Service 
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1220587 2021-07-21

 
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 21, 2021 04:00 ET (08:00 GMT)