Halff named Bastei Lübbe c.e.o. in 'surprise move'

In a surprise move, Bastei Lübbe has named Carel Halff as the new c.e.o. and successor of Thomas Schirack, who left the German trade publishing group abruptly in mid-September.

The 66-year-old Halff is taking on the challenge of bringing the publicly-listed company back on track after a series of setbacks and disappointing financial performances along the way of transforming the publisher into a digital media company.

Bastei Lübbe hails the new man at the top as a long-time industry insider who can look back on a decades-long career in the German book industry. The general consensus is that Halff has the necessary experience to push Bastei Lübbe forward. “We will strengthen the publishing house at its core and take up the digital and other challenges under his leadership”, said Robert Stein, chairman of the supervisory board.

Dutch-born Halff will forever be connected with Weltbild, whom over the course of nearly 40 years he built into a powerhouse with major interests in publishing, mail order and bookselling. But it was also under his leadership that Weltbild made all the wrong headlines when it went into receivership in early 2014, due to lack of funding by the then owners, the Catholic Church, among other things. “This will forever be a blot on his otherwise impeccable CV”, says one publisher who preferred to speak anonymously.

Halff also has the reputation of being more lone wolf than team player which might lead to tension in a closely knit publishing house which still maintains close ties with the founder family. Stefan Lübbe died in October 2014, but his widow Birgit Lübbe remains the company’s largest shareholder, holding around one third of the shares. When only 60% of the shareholders discharged Lübbe’s board at the last annual meeting in December 2016, Birgit Lübbe caused additional furor when she abstained from voting. At the same meeting a new supervisory board had to be elected after the old board collectively resigned following irregularities in the balance sheet.

Right now Bastei Lübbe is enjoying a stellar time in its core trade publishing business with Dan Brown and Ken Follett leading the bestsellers lists. In the meantime the children’s book imprint Baumhaus is getting ready to publish the next instalment in Jeff Kinney’s successful “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series.