After a 10-hour meeting, the board of Italy’s RCS Media Group provided a polite, positive but inconclusive step forward on Mondadori’s bid to purchase RCS’s book publishing division — a process which began in February. The board “unanimously agreed to mandate the chief executive officer to proceed with the negotiations and the definition of the contractual terms,” at the same time “reserving its final decision regarding the disposal of the asset.” With Italian August vacation looming, that decision is not expected at least until September. For the first six months of 2015, in reporting preliminary results, RCS said “publishing revenue remained stable, […]
Archives for July 2015
People, Etc.
Kathleen Schmidt will join Running Press as vp, director of marketing and publicity on August 10, reporting to Kristen Kiser and working out of the company’s Philadelphia offices. Previously director of publicity at Perseus’s joint-venture line Weinstein Books, Schmidt will continue to handle corporate communications for the Perseus Books Group as well. The American Booksellers Association is restructuring its technology department into two separate teams — one responsible for all of the association’s general technology needs, the other for IndieCommerce. As such Greg Galloway has been promoted to technology director and will become a member of ABA’s senior staff, while […]
New Monthly Bookseller Picks
Costco’s Pennie’s Pick for August is Paula McLain‘s just-published Circling the Sun. The book was also the ABA’s August Indie Next No. 1 selection. Now the September Indie Next List is up, led by Bill Clegg’s debut novel Did You Ever Have A Family. They add a belated selection for Ta-Nehisi Coates’s already-published bestseller Between the World and Me as well, while you can start reading an excerpt right now of Amy Stewart’s Girl Waits With Gun in our Buzz Books 2015: Fall/Winter. The rest of the list features: Sweet Caress, by William Boyd In a Dark, Dark Wood, by Ruth Ware Everybody Rise, […]
Lagardere Reports Publishing Declines, Particularly For Hachette US
Lagardere reported first-half of the year results after the close of the market in France on Thursday. Sales at Lagardere Publishing were 547 million euros in the second quarter (up 37 million euros), down 3.4 percent on a like-for-like basis for the quarter but up 7.1 percent in actual results on the strength of the US dollar and pound sterling. For the first half of the year, sales were 968 million euros (also up 7.1 percent but down on a like-for-like basis), but earnings fell to just 36 million euros, down 28 percent from 50 million euros a year ago (which itself […]
Market Mulls Barnes & Noble Split
Barnes & Noble officially spins off Barnes & Noble Education as a separate, publicly-traded company next Monday, when we’ll start to get a clearer view of how investors value the two distinct parts. The company itself declared BNED worth 38.7 percent of the whole — since each BKS stockholder gets .632 shares of the new spin-off company as a dividend. But BNED began provisional “when issued” trading last week. There has been very little action in those shares, which is not so unusual, but in the limited market, the price has dropped 8.5 percent, to $13.50 a share. With 48 […]
People, Etc.
At Simon & Schuster, Sarah Reidy has been promoted to associate director of publicity. Princeton University Press announced a number of promotions. Eric Henney has been promoted to associate editor, physical and earth sciences, while Ryan Mulligan moves up to assistant editor. Shaquona Crews has been appointed director of contracts, while Kim Williams has been promoted to UK international rights director. Finally, Steven Peter has been promoted to project & systems manager. Andrew Nurnberg Associates will open a new office in Warsaw on September 1. It will be headed by Marcin Biegaj, currently senior agent and sales director at Graal. […]