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4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 OCTOBER 2022 NEWS Book Festival marred by absence of Merlin, as rising costs hurt industry By means of an application filed in the Civil Court of Voluntary Jurisdiction Section, on the 29th July, 2022, Application number 1461/2022, by Martin Cassar whereby he requested that it be declared open in favour of Martin Cassar, Vincenza sive Sina Cassar and Emanuel Cassar children of the decujus in equal shares between them the succession of Teresa Cassar, widow of Carmelo Cassar, daughter of the late Giuseppe Borg and Grazia Borg nèe Caruana, born in Birkirkara, Malta, resided in Birkirkara, Malta and died in Msida, Malta, on the 11th January, 2022, aged 82, and who held identity card number 383539M. Wherefore, any person who believes to have an interest in the matter is hereby called upon to appear before the said Court and to bring forward his objections hereto by a minute to be filed within fifteen days from the posting of the banns and notices according to law. Registry of the Civil Court, Voluntary Jurisdiction Section Today 9th September, 2022 ALEXANDRA DEBATTISTA For the Registrar, Civil Court and Tribunals By means of an application filed in the Civil Court of Voluntary Jurisdiction Section, on the 16th August, 2022, Application number 1612/2022, by Maria Carmela Micallef whereby she requested that it be declared open in favour of Maria Carmela Micallef, wife of the decujus in the quota of one fourth (1/4) undivided share and in favour of Anthea Micallef and Martha Micallef children of the decujus in the quota of three fourths (3/4) undivided share between them the succession of Anton Micallef, husband of Maria Carmela Micallef, son of Dominic Micallef and Jane Micallef née Dalli, born in Imtarfa, Malta, resided in Ħamrun, Malta and died in Msida Malta on the 19th January, 2022, aged 47, and who held identity card number 382974M. Wherefore, any person who believes to have an interest in the matter is hereby called upon to appear before the said Court and to bring forward his objections hereto by a minute to be filed within fifteen days from the posting of the banns and notices according to law. Registry of the Civil Court, Voluntary Jurisdiction Section Today 23rd September, 2022 ALEXANDRA DEBATTISTA For the Registrar, Civil Court and Tribunals By means of an application filed in the Civil Court of Voluntary Jurisdiction Section, on the 29th July, 2022, Application number 1461/2022, by Martin Cassar whereby he requested that it be declared open in favour of Martin Cassar, Vincenza sive Sina Cassar and Emanuel Cassar children of the decujus in equal shares between them the succession of Teresa Cassar, widow of Carmelo Cassar, daughter of the late Giuseppe Borg and Grazia Borg nèe Caruana, born in Birkirkara, Malta, resided in Birkirkara, Malta and died in Msida, Malta, on the 11th January, 2022, aged 82, and who held identity card number 383539M. Wherefore, any person who believes to have an interest in the matter is hereby called upon to appear before the said Court and to bring forward his objections hereto by a minute to be filed within fifteen days from the posting of the banns and notices according to law. Registry of the Civil Court, Voluntary Jurisdiction Section Today 9th September, 2022 ALEXANDRA DEBATTISTA For the Registrar, Civil Court and Tribunals MATTHEW VELLA ONE of Malta's leading pub- lishers and trailblazers for the publication and design of the modern Maltese novel, Merlin Books, will not be participating in this year's edition of the Mal- ta Book Festival. It is surely a clear indication of the state of the national book industry, that the colourful swirl of Merlin's bookshelves will be missing from the annual festival. Publisher Chris Gruppetta, one of the most active voices in the industry, spells out the truth bluntly – the Maltese book in- dustry is reeling from a hike in printing costs due to the infla- tion that has plagued so many sectors of the economy. "It was a decision purely based on costings. Between the much higher cost of producing books – due to how paper costs shot up – and the higher cost of sourcing our stand... literally, the materials for building it, which due to current inflation increased significantly, and the drop in book sales this year, we calculated it didn't make finan- cial sense to take part and we would literally lose less money by not taking part than taking part," Gruppetta told MaltaTo- day. And while the National Book Council subsidises the actual rental of the floor space at the book festival, that is only a small part of the cost for publishers. For Merlin's extensive display of books, the main cost is in- volved in the actual stands that the company builds itself. This triple-whammy of costs sends a warning to other pub- lishers, who in 2021 saw 18% less titles released than the pre-pandemic year of 2019. While new ISBNs issued to publishing entities increased slightly to reach 528, this was 16.5% less than the number of ISBNs issued in 2019. The easing of the pandemic restrictions in 2021 resulted in a relative increase in revenue generated from in-store shop- ping, with revenue from brick- and-mortar sales climbed from a 59.5% to 67.9% year-on-year. In 2021, the total revenue gen- erated from sales and licenses of trade and educational books was estimated at €3.6 million, an increase of 4.9% when com- pared to 2020. Newspapers have been grant- ed a subsidy to cover rising cost in paper, with €500,000 in financial assistance for newspa- per publishers, who employ 66 journalists full-time together with several part-timers, and issue 14 different newspapers between them, published daily, weekly, and on Sundays. Publishers are seriously con- cerned about the soaring cost of paper, with the cost of news- print almost doubling over the past year. In the UK, publishers are lobbying the government for tax credits and ad revenue to protect their titles. Newsprint in the UK was priced at around £360 pounds per ton in the first quarter of 2021; now the price has almost doubled to around £710. In the US, the price has risen by a similar percentage, to around $800 a ton. As demand for paper declined over the last 20 to 30 years amid the digital revolution, paper mills across the world shut down. Then along came the COVID-19 pandemic, la- bour shortages and the supply chain blockage, and a sudden post-pandemic soar in demand for cardboard packages. The situation leaves no choice to publishers but to either re- duce the amount of pages they print, or increase their cover price. "It was a decision purely based on costings. Between the much higher cost of producing books and the drop in book sales this year, we calculated it didn't make financial sense to take part"