S&S Goes Outside for Editor-in-Chief, and More Personnel News Simon & Schuster’s long-awaited announcement noting their new editor-in-chief for the adult trade imprint has finally gone out, as the house has hired former Time magazine deputy managing editor (and neighbor of Lunch) Priscilla Painton. She says in the announcement, “I look forward to joining one of the truly great and legendary imprints in the publishing business and collaborating with the talented editorial staff on books that will be read not just today, but for a lifetime.” The editorial staff will report to Painton except for editorial director Alice Mayhew, who […]
Archives for January 2008
Lunch for Wednesday, January 16
Nurnberg Leaves Sterling Longtime Sterling Publishing CEO and publisher Charlie Nurnberg “has decided to leave the company to pursue other interests,” according to a memo sent internally yesterday from parent company Barnes & Noble ceo Steve Riggio. He’ll leave the company some time this week, he told reps in a farewell note: “There is another world out there and I am ready to explore it. As as with all of the best ideas, this one’s time has come.” Marcus Leaver, who joined the company in 2005 as executive vice president and chief operating officer, has been appointed president, “taking full […]
Lunch for Tuesday, January 15
Amazon Will Pay French Fine, and Continue to Discount Books Per our speculation when first noting that a French court would fine Amazon a mighty one thousand euros a day for the sin of exceeding limits on discounting books, the company announced yesterday that it would pay the fines and continue the discounts rather than give in. Director of the French unit Xavier Garambois says, “We are determined to follow every avenue available to us to overturn this law.” Jeff Bezos invited French customers to sign an online petition of support for their appeal and by last night 120,000 people […]
Lunch for Monday, January 14
Zagat for Sale The Zagats have hired Goldman Sachs to look for a buyer for their company. The NYT says they sold 5.5 million printed guides last year and claim over 1.5 million registered users at their web site. “Zagat has tried to build its online business, but it has largely remained a paid subscription service, preventing it from becoming a magnet for users and advertisers.” When they sold a stake in the company in 2000, it was valued at $100 million. Now, the NYT guesses, “it is unclear how large a price Zagat will attract. While the company is […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, January 14
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Vanina Marsot’s FOREIGN TONGUE, in which the female narrator is forced […]
Lunch for Friday, January 11
Borders Beats Competitors with Increased Holiday Comps (but Not Increased Earnings); Flat Holidays at BAM Breaking a longstanding pattern, Borders is the only of the three big bookselling chains to report increased same-store sales for the holiday period. Same-store superstore sales of $755.4 million were up 2.4 percent in the nine-week holiday sales period, “as both customer transaction count and average ticket increased.” Music was down at Borders as well as at BN, with the segment declining 13 percent. They say that without music, their same-store superstore sales rose 4.3 percent, and that books as a category were up 3.4 […]