Mladinska knjiga throughout the years
Mladinska knjiga's original mission was mainly based around children's and youth literature. The first store in the founding year, 1945, saw an incredible 50,000 copies of the first booklet – Ciciban čita – being sold, which was remarkable based on the conditions at that time.
Upon its establishment, Mladinska knjiga was already the issuer of two youth gazettes: Mladine and Pionirja, which continued the tradition of youth printing from war times. In the same year, a new magazine joined them – Ciciban – a monthly magazine for young children, while in 1956 Mladinska knjiga published its first textbook.
In its development arch, the publishing house successfully upgraded its book programme, including with works from the treasury of domestic and global books for adults, as well as with original and co-production works in the areas of encyclopaedias, handbooks, education and magazines. The Group has become a general, wide profile publishing house, which continues to devote special attention to original works for children and youths.
From the outset, Mladinska knjiga developed its own network of bookstores, and the opening of the largest bookstore Konzorcij marked a real turning point. In recent years, Mladinska knjiga's bookstores have been undergoing renovation, and its content and programme is ever-expanding. Today, Mladinska knjiga has more than 50 bookstores throughout Slovenia, in which there are also stationery shops, as well as the online bookstore Emka.si.
In addition to bookstores, Mladinska knjiga gradually developed other sales channels: direct and indirect sales to schools and teachers, door-to-door sales and sales by post. In 1975, it set up the Svet knjige (World of Books) book club, which just three years later reached a record number of 172,000 members in Slovenia. In 1995 it was joined by the Ciciklub book club for early readers.
In 2004, Mladinska knjiga established cooperation with the Reader's Digest Publishing House, thus upgrading its direct marketing, and in 2013 it was one of the first in Slovenia to introduce the sale of e-books.
In 1999, the Mladinska Knjiga Publishing House became the majority owner of Mladinska knjiga Trgovina, and following the completion of ownership transformation, it became financially involved with other related companies. Through Mladinska knjiga Trgovina, it was already the owner of Mladinska knjiga Biroopreme, in 2002 it was joined by the Cankar Publishing House joined, in 2004 the Lipa Koper Publishing House and the CTJ Centre for Foreign Languages joined, while in 2007 Nova Gorica-based Grafika Soča became the latest addition.
The financial involvement of the Mladinska knjiga Publishing House also became intensive in other markets of the former Yugoslavia: Mosaik knjiga Zagreb, Mladinska knjiga Sarajevo, Mladinska knjiga Belgrade, and Mladinska knjiga Skopje. In 2005, Mladinska knjiga established a company in Bulgaria – Mladinska knjiga Sofia – and a year later in Romania – Mladinska knjiga Bucharest. After several years of operation, Mladinska knjiga withdrew from both these markets due to poor economic conditions. Today, the Group consists of eight companies based in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Macedonia.
