In advance of the scheduled launch event on Wednesday — which we noted in brief on Tuesday — details have been released on New York City’s One Book, One New York program. After a couple of aborted efforts in the past, this one is officially on, under the auspices of the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment (which recently added the book publishing business to its umbrella), run by commissioner Julie Menin. She notes in the press release, “The publishing industry is a vital element of the city’s creative economy. We’re thrilled to celebrate our enduring literary capital with the […]
Archives for January 2017
People, Etc.
Susan Jurevics will leave her position as ceo of Pottermore at the end of February, and she will not be replaced. Rather, Neil Blair will oversee the initiative, with the current leadership under Jurevics taking on responsibility for day-to-day operations. As we pointed out in November, on an operating basis Pottermore has lost close to £50 million, showing a slim overall profit primarily driven by the windfall of guaranteed royalties from Sony — which terminated their licensing deal after failing to gain traction of their own. The company did say it was “on the path to profitability” for the current fiscal year, […]
Apple’s Services Pass $7 Billion In Holiday Quarter
Apple reported sales for the holiday quarter — Q1 2017 in their fiscal year — that were slightly ahead of the company’s record performance a year ago, and modestly ahead of analysts’ estimates as well. Sales were $78.4 billion, with earnings per share of $3.36. The services segment, which includes iBooks (and digital audiobooks sold through iTunes) plus a whole lot else, continued its growth at a comparable pace to recent quarters, at $7.172 billion, up 18 percent from a year ago. (The underlying percentage growth was probably higher, since last year’s results included a big one-time patent lawsuit settlement of […]
Women’s March Signs to Comprise Planned Parenthood Benefit Book
Artisan announced Tuesday that they will collect 300 of the “most inspiring, humorous, and provocative” signs from the Women’s March on Washington and the related hundreds of “sister marches” in an illustrated trade paperback for publication on March 21. All royalties from WHY WE MARCH: Signs of Protest and Hope—Voices from the Women’s March will be donated to Planned Parenthood. The full-color images capture signs proclaiming “Make America Think Again”; “Build Bridges, Not Walls”; “Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights”; “Love Trumps Hate”; “A Woman’s Place Is in the Resistance,” and more. Publisher Lia Ronnen says in the announcement, “We at Artisan […]
Penguin Random House Offers Unlimited Match for Employee Donations to Free Expression, Diversity and Humanitarian Charities
Penguin Random House ceo Markus Dohle wrote to US employees in an internally-posted memo on Tuesday, reacting to the charged moment in American society with a special unlimited matching gift program that will run through the end of February. The company will match employee contributions of any size, without limit, to charitable 501(c)3 organizations devoted to “free expression, diversity, and humanitarian causes.” In a nod to President Trump’s controversial executive order blocking immigration to the US from seven countries, Dohle notes that, “We cannot ever take for granted that a crucial component of our diversity is people coming to publish and […]
Quarto to Sell Ailing Books & Gifts Direct; Peanuts Stake for Sale
After years of poor results from the Books & Gifts Direct business in Australia and New Zealand, Quarto announced preliminary agreement on a sale on that division, with the deal “anticipated to close in the coming weeks.” They are expected to receive a mere $1 million (Australian) in cash, plus $4.75 million “in interest-bearing loan notes which are repayable out of cash generated by the business.” Assuming that loan is repaid in full, Quarto will take a writedown of approximately $11 million (US). Otherwise, Quarto told investors they “expect to report profits in line with management expectations” for 2016. Good performance from the recently-acquired Harvard […]