Stephen Laster has joined McGraw-Hill in the newly created role of chief digital officer, reporting to ceo Buzz Waterhouse. Laster will lead the company’s digital initiatives, including creating compelling digital learning experiences for students and inspiring creative innovation across all aspects of the organization. He spent the past six years as chief information officer for Harvard Business School. “The digitization of education provides our company with a major opportunity to make learning more accessible, engaging and effective,” said Waterhouse. “Stephen is the ideal choice to lead our digital initiatives going forward as we continue to leverage technology innovations and capabilities […]
Archives for August 2012
Barnes & Noble Stock Falls To Lowest Level Since April
With Barnes & Noble set to report first quarter earnings before the market opens on Tuesday, analysts and short sellers are trotting out their seasonal pessimism about the company’s prospects. The consensus expectation is that BN will post a loss of 96 cents per share on revenue of $1.48 billion, and on Wednesday morning Stiefel Nicolaus downgraded its rating from “buy” to “hold,” causing the shares to decline almost 6 percent, closing at $12.56 per share, its lowest level since April. (Shares are down again slightly so far Thursday morning.) The downgrade is based on sentiment or a hunch rather than […]
People, Etc.
At Viking, Allison Lorentzen has been promoted to senior editor. Alive Communications’ start-up sister company, the epublisher Bondfire Books, has hired Patton Dodd from Patheos.com to become executive editor. Founder Rick Christian says that “burgeoning sales and opportunity” since their soft launch in May drove the hire. World Book Night US updated on the activity “two major new committees for the 2013 campaign” in an announcement. Their steering committee “has been meeting weekly to set strategy and priorities for year two” and a media strategy is focusing on key publicity goals. Additional committees are being formed to focus on author events, […]
Quarto Exceeds “Expectations” In First Part of “A Difficult Year”
The Quarto Group reported interim results for the first half of the year as “performance exceeded expectations,” according to chairman and ceo Laurence Orbach, “a good achievement given the challenging economic environment globally.” But looking forward they have a “cloudy outlook” and Orbach says “we know that this is already a difficult year and, in the short term, is likely to remain that way.” Sales rose only 1 percent, to $73.2 million (reflecting underlying softness, given the acquisition of Frances Lincoln last August), with adjusted EBITDA of $13.8 million also up 1 percent and operating profit of $2.9 million, up […]
Macmillan Agrees with Penguin On Lack of Government Analysis; Says “The size of Amazon’s market share is at the center”
The third of the three litigating defendants to file, Macmillan advances one argument similar to Penguin’s: That the government has not provided “a single economic study or analysis showing why its mandated pricing scheme is necessary to undo the effects of the alleged collusion, or why it is in ‘the public interest.” More broadly, “Other than to explain the government’s intention in requiring such substantial limitations on price restrictions, the CIS offers no precedential or evidentiary support for why those limitations would be in the public interest, no analysis of the market effect of such a prohibition and no analysis […]
An Overview of Wednesday’s eBook Filings: Will Judge Cote Care?
Wednesday afternoon brought the expected additional filings with the court regarding the ebook pricing settlement. Two of the litigating defendants, Apple and Penguin, already had the right to be heard in 5 pages or fewer. The Authors Guild, like attorney Bob Kohn, have asked for permission to file additional remarks as a friend of the court and provided their brief on a conditional basis, subject to Judge Denise Cote’s ruling. Apple’s argument is the boldest–that they are being denied due process of law and penalized by having their ebook contracts with the settling publishers (the Settlers) voided and their MFNs […]