Next Monday, January 13, at Publishers Launch Kids we’ll kick off Digital Book World week with hundreds of people in a ballroom speaking exclusively about the future of children’s publishing and the special ways in which digital change is touching this segment of book publishing. We’re featuring 30 leaders and innovators from across children’s publishing and beyond addressing branding and licensing; new perspectives on gaming and education; the move to mobile and social media; making discovery work for kids and parents; owning audiences and creating original IP; and developing the children’s book publisher of the future. (Penguin Random House UK […]
Archives for January 2014
Zola Books Acquires Bookish.com
After a number of months of quiet shopping, Bookish.com has been acquired by Zola Books, in a cash deal for a sum that is not being disclosed. Zola founder Joe Regal says, “we still had to pay what for us is an awful lot of cash, bearing in mind we are still a startup” (which has itself raised $5.1 million so far). Approximately half of the Bookish staff (9 to 12 people) will be retained by Zola, though that integration has not been finalized, and Bookish ceo Ardy Khazaei “will not be joining the integrated team” though Zola “hopes he’ll […]
Macmillan Acquires Cookstr; Schwalbe Named to Executive Role
Macmillan has acquired six-year-old recipe web site Cookstr for an undisclosed sum, in a deal advised by Headwaters MB. Co-founder Will Schwalbe will stay with the site as its leader and takes on the additional role of evp, editorial development and content innovation for Macmillan, acquiring books across the company’s publishing imprints. He will report to global trade coo Andrew Weber. (Cookstr’s director of editorial and partnerships Kara Rota continues to report to Schwalbe.) According to the announcement, Cookstr now attracts over 8 million unique visitors a month. It was founded in 2008 by Schwalbe and Katie Workman, along with Art Chang at Tipping Point […]
Looking Ahead
How will you move your business forward in 2014? Using new streams of data to inform strategic decisions; what to do about Amazon; managing your organization for change; how (or whether) to engage with new subscription services and a steady stream of start-ups; developing more targeted and sophisticated digital marketing and direct consumer insights; reckoning with the burgeoning market of self-published books; and taking cash out of your supply chain are among the many key issues people are wrestling. And those are some of the major themes that will be addressed in-depth next week at the fifth annual Digital Book World […]
People, Etc.
Sarah Pelz will join Grand Central Life & Style on January 13 as executive editor. Previously she was executive editor at Rodale. Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos was airlifted out of the Galapagos by Ecuador’s navy on New Year’s Day after suffering from a kidney stone, and returned to the US on his jet for treatment. A matter of material interest to shareholders, Bezos commented in an email provided to media by spokesman Drew Herdener, “Galapagos: five stars. Kidney stones: zero stars.” Herdener added, “He got a good outcome. No surgery was required, and he’s feeling well.” Skyhorse’s newest imprint is Yucca […]
Nielsen’s 2013 Bestsellers Topped By O’Reilly, Brown and Kinney
Nielsen Bookscan’s lists of the bestselling books for 2013 were published at the end of last week, the trade’s comprehensive account of print book sales across what the company estimates is at least 80 percent of the print market. (There is still no public tracking service for ebook sales.) But direct comparisons about changes in print sales for the year are hard, because Bookscan expanded its data pool for 2013 by adding Wal-Mart sales. So total sales tracked expanded as Wal-Mart added between 5 and 10 percent to the total data pool. For year-over-year comparisons, there is the Bookscan’s subsection […]