McGraw-Hill reported third quarter sales, with their education division dropping 11.6 percent to $1 billion compared, as operating profit fell 16 percent to $298 million. The decline came entirely from the K-12 line, which fell almost 20 percent, “in a 2009 state new adoption market that deteriorated all year as budgetary pressures led a growing number of school districts to postpone purchases.”Release Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble can’t catch a break from Wall Street analysts no matter what they do. On Friday Credit Suisse reduced their target price for the company to $16 per share (about two dollars below its current […]
Archives for October 2009
Nelson Considers Pricing Defenses
Thomas Nelson ceo Mike Hyatt blogs on the bestseller price war, saying that “publishers themselves need to find the courage to act in everyone’s long-term interests. As the content providers, they have all the power they need to stop these pricing practices.” That “courage” can lead to some radical options, such as not selling to major vendors. He indicates that Nelson is discussing at least three options: delaying ebook releases; “stag[ing] the channel rollout of certain frontlist titles” (the implied meaning is that they would not sell some hardcovers to mass merchandisers at all in the first release window, but […]
NY Stores Plan Celebration
The IBNYC–a New York alliance of over 60 independent booksellers–has declared November 15 through 21 Independent Bookstore Week. The celebration begins early, on November 11, with a party at the PowerHouse Area featuring authors including Jennifer Egan and Kurt Andersen, as “individual stores will sponsor special events and promotions of their own throughout the week.” It concludes on what they call America Unchained Day. They will have a calendar of events at the group’s web site (though it currently lists only three events that week).
Lunch Weekly for Monday, October 26
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 Mother to director Sam Mendes and author of four acclaimed young-adult […]
People
At Simon & Schuster evp, operations Dennis Eulau has been promoted and named chief financial officer as well. He adds responsibility for all of Simon & Schuster’s financial operations, both domestic and international, including budgeting, forecasting, accounting, royalties, and risk management, corporate strategy and policy. Eulau takes over from David England, who has resigned. The company has hired David Byrnes for the new position of vp, finance and strategic planning, reporting to Eulau. Elsewhere, Brianne Mulligan has joined Razorbill as an associate editor. She had been with Gotham Books. Anna Sproul has been promoted to associate editor and foreign rights […]
Amazon's Earnings Spike
Amazon well-exceeded analysts expectations, reporting third quarter earnings about 40 percent higher than predicted. And the company thanked Kindle, in their traditionally non-specific way: “Kindle has become the #1 bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars – not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.” Earlier in the day, they also announced a Kindle for PC application to allow reading on computers. Sales rose 28 percent (including the incorporation of Zappos) to $5.45 billion for the quarter, as net income rose 68 percent to $199. North American media sales, which had unexpectedly stalled last […]