Random House ceo Markus Dohle pens his first “year-end letter” to employees. He calls it “a year of many publishing triumphs, and a year in which we have begun implementing a strategy and vision for our company that will enable us to come out ahead and build our business profitably amid an almost unprecedented economic downturn. Each of our divisions worldwide has been rethinking, and in some cases reformulating, what we must do to adapt to the changing ways our books are being ordered and sold by our retailers and distributors and purchased and read by consumers. We have faced […]
Archives for December 2008
Scholastic's Sales Hold Up As Earnings Fall
In Scholastic’s [SCHL] fiscal second quarter, the company reported sales of $661.6 million, down $27 million overall (or a little under 4 percent), though just a 1 percent decline in revenue from continuing operations. But adjusted earnings were 40 cents a share lower than analysts were expecting and the company revised its earnings guidance from continuing operations for the fiscal year downward to $1.20 to $1.50 per share from $1.75 to $2.10 per share. The stock was trading significantly lower this morning as a result. They also announced a reduction in their spending plan for the balance of fiscal 2009 […]
People, and More
Picking his top ten works of fiction for the year, reviewer Michael Upchurch tells readers “this will be one of my last columns as Seattle Times book critic. Due to changes at the newspaper, I’m moving to a more general arts beat. I plan still to weigh in on books now and then, but it won’t be with the intensity of the past 10 years. (Make that 22, if you count my freelance efforts.)” At Tuttle Publishing, Christopher Johns has been promoted to sales and marketing director. The Music Sales Group has started using Midpoint Trade Books as their distributor, […]
USA Today Honors
The newspaper forsakes a “book of the year” to pick Stephenie Meyer as their author of the year. And the staff picks their 10 favorite reads of the year: The White Tiger, by Aravind AdigaThe Story of Edgar Sawtelle. by David WroblewskiOlive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth StroutAn Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination. by Elizabeth McCrackenThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie BarrowsThe House at Sugar Beach. by Helene CooperLush Life. by Richard PriceThe Blue Star, by Tony EarleyFor the Thrill of It, by Simon BaatzThe Forever War, by Dexter Filkins USAT
Kamil to Lead Random Editorial
Random House Publishing Group president and publisher Gina Centrello shares word of a promotion in advance of “present[ing] the organization and management team of the newly expanded” division “early in the new year.” Dial editorial director Susan Kamil will add responsibility as editor-in-chief of the Random House imprint while continuing to run Dial, reporting to Centrello. Current editorial director Jennifer Hershey will “provide complementary management of the day-to-day running of the editorial department” and report to Kamil; Kate Medina and Bob Loomis will continue to report to Centrello. Random House spokesperson Carol Schneider confirms that, per Centrello’s statement, the unit […]
Galassi On the Changes at FSG
Since news of companywide cutbacks and reorganization at Macmillan began to spread, the Observer has pursued a singular focus on what the changes mean for Farrar, Straus. Today they reproduce a memo sent by publisher Jonathan Galassi to staff yesterday afternoon. In addition to “reduc[ing] staff in certain areas,” he describes “a plan that will reduce FSG’s cost structure and help us to be more efficient in what everyone recognizes is an extraordinarily difficult environment. In some areas, we will rely more on the existing Macmillan infrastructure than we have up to now, to achieve greater effectiveness in an increasingly […]