Barnes & Noble’s executive chairman and largest shareholder Len Riggio had some private meetings with top publishing executives in the wake of the abrupt dismissal of ceo Demos Parneros, the WSJ reports. Chief merchandising officer Timothy Mantel joined Riggio at the meetings, and he is seen as “on the rise at the company, the people said.” (Remember that the last ceo search was not a real search at all; in fact all but one of the recent ceos has been an internal promotion: Parneros was hired in as chief operating officer while the search was underway, and then promoted to ceo. […]