Klaus Humann to Start New Publishing House

Klaus Humann, publishing director at Carlsen Verlag since 1997, will be leaving the company to start up a new house that will publish picture books and children’s books. Plans are for the new house to release its first books in spring 2013 and though its list will be completely independent, some functions such as sales will be shared with fellow Bonnier Media Deutschland company Carlsen.

Humann’s successor at Carlsen will be Renate Herre, who has been publisher since 2010 at Coppenrath Hölker and previously a publisher at Ravensburger for nine years.  She’ll be at the side of Joachim Kaufmann, managing director at Carlsen since 2006.

Humann leaves behind a string of successes, including his acquisition of the Harry Potter books, a coup that pushed Carlsen into another league. Under his direction, Carlsen became one of the leading German-language children’s and teen book publishers and market leader in comics and manga.

“I have had the pleasure to work together with great colleagues, and what we’ve done lies close to my heart,” says Humann. “But it’s time for me to return to working more with texts and images, to be more a publisher than a manager. And I’m fortunate in that Bonnier Media Deutschland is letting me build a new publishing house here in Hamburg in close cooperation with Carlsen. And I am happy to know Carlsen is in the good hands of such an experienced publisher as Renate Herre and all the editorial directors.”