After yet another quarter of disappointing results, Borders cfo Mark Bierley took the lead in the company’s conference call in explaining their latest strategy towards “improving profitability” (which begs the question of how you can improve something that doesn’t exist). Since “a number of stores are dilutive to our EBITDA” they “intend to aggressively pursue lease buyouts from these stores. The buyout on these leases would, based on our assumptions, positively impact our long-term bottom line.” They also have a “comprehensive audit program” that’s “designed to reduce” losses from shoplifting, particularly in “stores that have historically seen high levels of […]
Archives for May 2010
Back to the Future: BEA Adds Back Third Day
You have to love the book business in all its idiosyncrasy. For years exhibitors complained about the third day of the show, and we have archived pictures of last year’s vast, empty aisles on Sunday. But nothing makes you miss something like taking it away. Writing that “while people like the two-day format, a lot of people genuinely need three days to meet their objectives at BEA,” show director Steve Rosato said they will add back a third day of exhibits next year. They will retain the mid-week schedule, and are likely to still have the conference day precede the […]
Stewart Kills at Breakfast
Jon Stewart, whose new book Earth comes out from Grand Central in September, told the Adult Book Breakfast audience at BEA that when he read in the New York Times that the book industry was dead, he thought, “Oh, good, I don’t have to get up early tomorrow.” Stewart kept the crowd laughing as he introduced fellow authors John Grisham, Condoleezza Rice, and Mary Roach. Welcoming Rice to the podium, he said, “I’m not familiar with her work, but I hear good things.” Rice promised the audience that she would write the book of her eight years in the White […]
Still More Buzz: The Last Batch of PL Reviews
Not wanting to be limited to the “official” buzz books, we also commissioned early reviews from one more curated selection of books featured at the show. Can Jonathan Franzen meet the tremendous expectations with FREEDOM? Veteran reviewer David Kipen says yes, and Nicole Krauss’s anticipated new book also sounds like one that will resonate with her fans. Freedomby Jonathan Franzen“This novel from the author of The Corrections invites sincere comparisons to Richard Yates, St. Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Tolstoy. “Of course, Franzen has something priceless going for him that Tolstoy never had: Page for page, line by line, […]
Borders' Core Skill: Shrinking
Reporting results for their first quarter ending May 1, in a still grim atmosphere for physical stores of all kinds, Borders sales fell 15.4 percent overall at $542 million. The loss from continuing operations of $64.5 million was better than a year ago, but the operating loss of $33.5 million was worse. Sales at the US stores fell further, down 16.1 percnent to $520–but same-store sales were down by only 11.4 percent company to a year ago. The company says that factoring out multimedia, which they theoretically pulled down dramatically years ago, comp store sales declined 6.8 percent, indicating less […]
More eNews: B&T Gets iPad Partner, BN Finally Releases iPad App
Originally outflanked by Ingram Digital, which is an aggregator partner with Apple for getting books into the iBookstore, Baker & Taylor announced today an agreement with another aggregator, LibreDigital. B&T will offer their publishing partners “a full range of digital services from LibreDigital” as part of the agreement, including access to the iBookstore. Separately, Barnes & Noble said this morning that their BN eReader app is finally ready for the iPad. They say that you can shop directly from within the app, though we have not had time to try it out yet. Through the library function, app users can […]