Since 1977, he has represented the interests of the group of publishing professionals, in any format and language of publication. For the last eleven years, the president has been the communications director of Grupo Planeta, who was re-elected in 2021 and is now ending his term. Although the guild’s statute does not allow a president to hold office for more than two terms, the board accepted in an extraordinary assembly that, exceptionally, Tixis could run again. The president, however, decided not to exercise that right and on Thursday, February 19, the general assembly will elect a new board of directors in an unprecedented vote in its history. If until now the president came from a consensus candidacy, this time there are two proposals headed by Román de Vicente, head of Ediciones Urano and until now first vice president, and , editor of and president of the Federation of Editors’ Guilds of Spain.
The candidacy that could be considered continuing is represented by Daniel Fernández, who in fact was already president of the Guild in 2014 and was replaced by Tixis himself. It includes the two large publishing groups, Planeta and Penguin Random House; also such consolidated houses as Anagrama, and other smaller ones such as Norma or Flamboyant: “in the publishing sector, as in so many others, there has been business concentration, but the function of the union is to defend the general interests,” says Fernández, who also points out that “the publishing industry is always accused of living off subsidies, but it is not true, it is an export industry, it is important to highlight that it is an industry and, as such, part of the country’s economy.” Despite continuing the line of the president until now, Fernández considers that the candidacy must also propose renewal: “we cannot forget that we live in a complicated time, with technology companies attacking the basic principles of intellectual property and copyright.” The candidate also highlights the importance of defending Catalan in a cultural industry with two languages.
On the other hand, Román de Vicente represents the will for change in the union. The editor leads a candidacy that has the support of publishing companies such as Panini, Galaxia Gutenberg, PAMSA or Trotalibros. According to Vicente, the novelty is that the majority of them (80%) had never been involved in the management of the union: “we intend to contribute new ideas and faces, open participation to the real needs of many publishers and represent plurality.” However, the candidate warns that he does not intend for the two candidacies to be understood in a Manichaean way, the big ones against the small ones. Among their proposals: be sensitive to bibliodiversity, simplify aid bureaucracy, more participation in children’s books, and reach fairs that go beyond the publishing world, such as technology fairs.
The Editors’ Guild is made up of nearly 400 publishers and there are 219 companies with voting rights. Its production is equivalent to 53% of Spain as a whole and it is represented in state and international organizations. In the last Edita Forum, where the union presents its annual balance, Tixis reported that the publishing sector closed the year 2025 with more moderate growth than previous years (4%). According to the union itself, between 2019 and 2025 the sector has grown by 29%.
