Renowned chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and editor-in-chief of Knopf Sonny Mehta died on Monday, December 30 of complications from pneumonia. He was 77. Plans for a memorial service will be announced. The company said in a statement, “Mehta’s contributions to the world of letters and publishing are without precedent. His exacting standards […]
Archives for December 2019
OverDrive Sold to KKR by Rakuten
Rakuten has an agreement to sell OverDrive to private equity firm KKR, under the direction of Richard Sarnoff, with the deal expected to close by the end of January. The digital reading and media platform for libraries and schools should pair well with audiobook publisher and platform RBmedia, which KKR bought in 2018. (RBmedia also […]
Holiday Sales Look Steady Ahead of Final Shopping Days, As 2018 Titles Lead
NPD Bookscan reported print sales for the week ending December 21 of approximately 32.96 million units, covering all but the final three important days of holiday sales. That followed sales of 26.9 million units the week before. That’s on par with or slightly behind the two full pre-holiday weeks from 2018, when print sales were […]
RWA Suspends Courtney Milan for Ethics Violation, Rescinds Suspension
A controversy involving the Romance Writers of America’s code of ethics played out online following an ethics ruling by the organization about romance author Courtney Milan. On December 23, Milan was suspended from RWA for one year and banned from holding positions in the organization in the future. (She has served on the RWA board.) […]
Company News: LSC Delisted By NYSE, China’s Publishing Chill, More on Dreamspinner
As anticipated, LSC Communications was kicked off the New York Stock Exchange, which is designed for companies of scale. Trading on the NYSE was suspended at the end of last week, since the company failed to maintain a market cap of at least $15 million for over 30 consecutive trading days. They also failed to […]
Audible Attorney Says “Only a Few Outstanding Issues Remain” on Captions Settlement
Audible and the publishers who sued the company over the planned Captions feature adding scrolling text to audiobooks may be close to a resolution. According to Audible attorney Emily Reisbaum, in a letter to Judge Valerie Caproni on December 27, “there are only a few outstanding issues requiring further negotiation.” In that update, Reisbaum, saying […]