A year ago JK Rowling’s representatives were insisting the worst was behind them after reporting a significant annual loss for Pottermore, citing “recording breaking sales in December 2015” — and now the turnaround story is being pitched again. They are “on the path to profitability” for the fiscal year ending March 2017, but as for the just-reported year ending March 2016 (Companies House filings in the UK have a long time lag), they lost money again. Sales did indeed rise significantly, to £15.1 million pounds, but the site still incurred a pre-tax loss of £4.9 million. In the prior year, […]
Archives for November 2016
“Sluggish Sales” Lower Barnes & Noble Revenues 4 Percent
Barnes & Noble more or less met analysts’ low expectations for their fiscal second quarter ending, October 29: Sales fell 4 percent, to $858.5 million, with same store sales down 3.2 percent “on lower store traffic,” even with the help of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Total Nook sales — including content and devices, was down a mere $35 million for the quarter. Consolidated second quarter EBITDA improved to $0.7 million, but the company still recorded a net loss of $20.4 million, or $0.29 per share (compared to a loss of $27.2 million, or $0.36 per share a year ago). With the Dow Jones industrials […]
Barnes & Noble Hires A COO While They’re Supposed to be Looking for A CEO
Barnes & Noble announced on Monday afternoon that they hired Demos Parneros, 54, as chief operating officer, reporting to Len Riggio, who is now referred to as “chairman and CEO of Barnes & Noble.” Parneros “will work closely with Mr. Riggio on all aspects of company operations including stores, merchandising, e-Commerce, systems and real estate.” He was president, North American stores & online for Staples until late 2012 (so as with the fired ceo Ron Boire, who came to BN from Sears Canada, they are looking to another non-book bricks and mortar retailer). He is a member of the board at Keycorp, […]
People
Kelly Joseph will join McClelland & Stewart on December 5 in the newly-created position of publishing manager, reporting to Jared Bland. In her new role, Joseph will will undertake the development of a new publishing initiative for fiction in translation, and take on administration of the division’s poetry program. Joseph spent the past eight years at House of Anansi Press, serving most recently as managing editor, and helped develop their French-language imprint Arachnide. In addition, M&S senior editor Jenny Bradshaw will now report to Bland, working closely with him and Martha Kanya-Forstner to shape the non-fiction program. Obituaries Simon & Schuster […]
Bookselling: Books & Books Westhampton Beach to Close; Kramerbooks Gets New Owner; and More
Books & Books Westhampton Beach will close on December 3 after more than 6 years in operation, Shelf Awareness reports. Owners Jack McKeown and Denise Berthiaume said in a statement: “For a variety of reasons of personal reasons, including the desire to retire to other pursuits, to travel more extensively, and to spend time with extended family in Virginia… the time was right to make the change.” They continued: “We are proud to have participated in the indie bookstore resurgence that began several years ago, and has proceeded apace in this decade, resulting in the opening or expansion of hundreds […]
People, Etc.
At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Audrey Gibbons has been promoted to senior publicist. Recipients were announced for the second round of $1.75 million in grants that James Patterson is providing to school libraries across the country, working in partnerships with Scholastic Reading Club, which matches the grants with points for classroom materials purchases. 452 schools are receiving funds from the latest grants. Patterson says in the announcement: “We’ve just come out of the most divisive presidential election in history—and among all the issues that captivated voters, education wasn’t one of them. It was hardly discussed. Nearly half of the American […]