Sales rose at Scholastic in their fiscal 2012 first quarter, ending August 31, up 9.5 percent at $318 million. Their seasonal operating loss was $33.2 million (or 81 cents a share), an improvement from a loss of $46.3 million a year ago. Both results were well ahead of analysts’ estimates, with expectations of a loss of over a dollar a share and sales of $302 million. The company announced a voluntary retirement program, which will cost approximately $10 million to $15 million in one-time charges, as part of a broader initiative to “reduce costs in non-digital areas by approximately $15 […]
Archives for September 2011
Assange Says Canongate Is “Profiteering” from “Unfinished Draft”
Julian Assange issued a lengthy statement via WikiLeaks last night, saying that Canongate’s publication Thursday of the early draft of his book over his objections is “old-fashioned opportunism and duplicity — screwing people over to make a buck.” He says the house is “profiteering from an unfinished and erroneous draft.” Assange says the manuscript that became the basis of publication–which Canongate has acknowledged was a first draft–is rather “a narrative and literary interpretation of a conversation between the writer [Andrew O’Hagan] and me.” Assange says it was never submitted to the house at all; instead, he says O’Hagan’s researcher provided […]
Barnes & Noble Says Privacy Recommendations “Would Destroy the Value” of Borders IP Purchase
A battle is brewing in advance of the Thursday afternoon court hearing on Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million bid to acquire most of Borders’ intellectual property, including their extensive customer databases. This dispute focuses on recommendations of consumer privacy ombudsman Michael St. Patrick Baxter, at Covington & Burling. Not only does BN say “implementing all of the recommendations contained in the report would destroy the value of the transaction from Barnes & Noble’s perspective,” but they accuse Borders of withholding those recommendations (as well as correspondence from the FTC and state Attorneys General) in advance of the auction. They write […]
People, Etc.
Ed Park is joining Amazon’s New York-based trade division on October 3 as a senior editor, where he will acquire and edit literary fiction. Park is a founding editor of The Believer, a former editor at the Village Voice and the Poetry Foundation, and author of the novel PERSONAL DAYS (2008). At media relations firm Cave Henricks Communications, Jessica Krakoski has been promoted to associate director of publicity. In addition, Claudia Dizenzo Mueller joins the company as publicity manager (she was at Basic Books) and Kimberly Griggs has been hired as social media coordinator. VP and publicity director Dennis Welch […]
Canongate Will Publish Assange Memoir Against His Wishes, While Knopf Cancels
The man who made countless national secrets transparent without permission now faces a bit of turnabout, as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s memoir is set to be published tomorrow, over the author’s apparent objection. Canongate will release the book in the UK, but will present it as “an unauthorized biography” since by their own account the author wanted to cancel the contract. Canongate says Assange “had already signed his advance over to his lawyers to settle his legal bills” and did not pay them back, so the house “decided to honour that contract and to publish. Once the advance has been […]
Kindle Library Lending Begins
Kindle’s library lending initiative has gone live in the US libraries served by OverDrive. The program was first announced in April, and spotted in a beta rollout that began Monday at the Seattle Public Library and the King County Library System. (Though a You Tube video from King County describing the download process was taken down at Amazon’s request, according to an LJ story.) Director of the King County Library System Bill Ptacek implied that the Kindle tablet expected later this year may more prominently promote library ebook lending, though his remark is a bit cryptic: “Ptacek is expecting Kindle […]