Sales at Scholastic dropped 1.1 percent in their third quarter, at $393.7 million compared to $398.8 million a year ago. They also reported a net loss from continuing operations of $25.1 million, significantly more in the red as compared to the $5.6 million in net losses the previous year. They attribute the drop in earnings to lower sales of higher margin educational technology relative to a year ago, thanks to significant benefit from the federal stimulus program, as well as increased investment in digital initiatives. Trade publishing sales of $43.5 million rose 21 percent compared to a year ago due […]
Archives for March 2011
People: Indigo Management Shakeup; Grimshaw Joins Ballantine as Romance Specialist; and More
Indigo has made some changes to its senior ranks, which will be effective April 1. Current company president Joel Silver has been appointed to Indigo’s board of directors, and will lead Trilogy Growth, a partnership between Indigo and its majority shareholder Trilogy Retail Enterprises. The new president is Tedford Marlow, who was most recently global president for Urban Outfitters. In addition, Indigo svp finance Kay Brekken has been promoted to cfo, also effective April 1. She succeeds outgoing cfo and coo Jim McGill, who will continue in the latter position until July. At Random House, Justine Trubey rejoins the company […]
B&N’s Attempt To Sell Itself Appears To Have No Takers
Barnes & Noble’s ongoing “exploration of strategic alternatives” — which we all know by now is code for being for sale – appears to be nearing an end without a buyer. Five unnamed sources with apparent knowledge of the bidding process told Bloomberg yesterday that “interest from at least seven potential buyers waned after the first round of bidding,” and “private-equity firms and strategic bidders have backed away from the auction” after getting cold feet about BN’s digital sales prospects, at least in relation to its larger, market cap-rich competitors Amazon, Apple and Google. The auction will continue “for […]
Amazon API Returns to Lendle; Inkling Gets Investment From McGraw-Hill and Pearson; and More eNews
After what turned out to be a brief hiccup, Amazon has now reinstated access to its API access for ebook lending service Lendle. The problem turned out to be Lendle’s BookSync feature, which syncs a user’s Kindle books with their Lendle account and which Amazon said violated its terms of service. Lendle has now disabled what it termed a “very useful, but non-essential feature” and added “we need to work towards a Lendle product that does not rely on APIs provided by Amazon or any other third party.” Lendle statement Interactive textbook company Inkling secured “significant minority investment” from […]
People, Etc.
Chronicle Books has appointed Ginee Seo as director of children’s publishing, effective May 12. Previously she was VP and editorial director of Atheneum, where she had her own imprint. Mindy Im has joined the Book Industry Study Group as its marketing director, a newly created position, responsible for membership outreach, media relations, and overall organization branding, as well as general project management across a wide scope of BISG activities. Previously she was Associate Director of Marketing at Hachette Book Group. At Ruckus Media, Jason Root has been named Chief Content Officer and Jeff Zakim joins the company as its marketing […]
Earnings, Comp Sales Slide for BAMM
Fourth quarter sales at Books-A-Million fell 6.7 percent on a same-store basis and 2.6 percent overall to $153.1 million percent, but net income of dropping by nearly half to $6.8 million, compared to $11.9 million a year ago. For the full year sales of $495 million were down 2.7 percent, declining 4.9 percent on a same-store basis, and net income dropping to $8.9 million. The board authorized a quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share. Chief Executive and President Clyde Anderson said in a statement that the declining fiscal year results “illustrate a dynamic and rapidly changing retail environment for […]