Michael Naumann, the editor in chief of the German magazine Cicero, has also been a publisher, journalist and—briefly—politician. In 1995 he founded Metropolitan Books and later was CEO of Henry Holt Inc. From 1998 to 2000 he was Germany’s first federal minister of culture in the government of Gerhard Schröder.
In Germany, fixed-price laws curtail the power of retail chains and help to sustain a vibrant literary culture.