The Great Audiobook Debate

On March 12, 2026, at the London Book Fair, Christopher Kenneally, host of The Spoken World, moderated “The Great Audiobook Debate.”The growing popularity of audiobooks compels all stakeholders in publishing to ask, “What does it mean to be a reader?”Speakers included Marc Boutet, President and co-founder of De Marque; Javier Celaya, Founder & CEO, Dosdoce.com; Luis González, Director General, GSR Foundation; Richard Lennon, Audio Publisher, with Penguin Random House UK; and Dr. Carina Spaulding, Head of Research & Evaluation, The Reading Agency.The Spoken World is sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio, the team behind some of the most talked about audiobooks in the industry.