The Cairo Book Fair, set to have opened last Saturday, was not officially cancelled but as you would expect, the event “has been abandoned, with many foreign exhibitors left stranded after failing to secure flights to take them out of the country,” the Guardian writes. China was supposed to be the guest of honor, but withdrew their delegation last week. The International Publishers Association had planned a board meeting in Cairo, which is being rescheduled to convene in Paris.Guardian Direct Brands is opening an office in Los Angeles, though the focus is “providing local support to partner more closely with […]
Archives for February 2011
McGraw-Hill Ends Year with Q4 Profit Drop
McGraw Hill reported fourth quarter earnings of $153.8 million; or 50 cents a share, an 8 percent (or $27 million) drop from $167.3 million, or 53 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding items such as acquisitions and a prior-year gain related to the sale of BusinessWeek, earnings rose to 55 cents from 51 cents. Total revenue rose 4.2 percent to $1.52 billion for the quarter, but the education side saw revenue slide 4.6 percent to $496.3 million and profits decrease to $496.3 million, largely attributed to an overall decline in textbook open territory sales. For the year, total net […]
OFT Opens Investigation Into UK Agency Pricing
With agency pricing now starting to take hold among some of the largest UK publishers, the Office of Fair Trading is opening an investigation “into whether arrangements that certain publishers have put in place with some retailers for the sale of e-books may breach competition rules”, according to a release obtained by the Bookseller. It’s the first time in four years since the OFT took a long look at industry practices, when the merger between EUK and Bertrams caught its attention and eventually led the Competition Commission to rule it was not anti-competitive. The OFT claims to have received a […]