On Friday, Indigo announced results for the third quarter ended December 26, 2020, with sales of CA$365 million, a decrease of $18 million or 5 percent. The company said the quarter started off showing real growth, but “revenues were challenged by a significant wave of mandated COVID-19 store closures in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec during the second part of November and December, a critical period of sales.” Print sales for the quarter were $192 million, down $2 million. They represented 52.6 percent of sales, compared to 50.6 percent last year. E-commerce, a small portion of sales, grew 92 percent in […]
Archives for February 2021
People: Bloomsbury USA Realigns Trade Leadership
Bloomsbury continues to reorganize its executive ranks, following the hiring of Ian Hudson as managing director of the consumer publishing division earlier this year and the departure of Emma Hopkin at the end of 2020. In a restructuring of the consumer division at Bloomsbury USA, publishing director Cindy Loh and two others will leave at the end of February. Loh has overseen both adult and children’s publishing since late 2016. Nancy Miller, Liese Mayer, and Mary Kate Castellani will report to executive director and coo Adrienne Vaughan, who will take on the duties of publishing director. Vaughan says in the announcement, […]
Center Street to Shift to Thoughtful Books Over Incitement; Fired Kate Hartson
Center Street editorial director Kate Hartson was fired recently, the NYT reports, saying “she told associates that she believed she’d been fired for her politics.” Hartson published Donald Trump Jr., Jeanine Pirro, Corey Lewandowski, Newt Gingrich and the recent book Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy. She was “a true believer in Donald J. Trump, people who worked with her said.” Hachette Nashville publisher Daisy Hutton told the paper by email: “The conservative movement is in a state of flux, and the next few years will be a particularly rich time for conversation about the future of conservatism […]
School Library Journal Criticized Over February Cover
School Library Journal is facing criticism over its February cover, which some people online have called racist and deeply inappropriate for Black History Month. The cover illustration highlights a white child, holding a book depicting a Black child’s face over her own. The cover story is called “Why White Children Need Diverse Books.” Librarians, teachers, and professors on Twitter noted that both the story and illustration centered white children, a disconcerting choice for February in particular, and that the illustration seemed to simulate blackface. Additionally, multiple presenters have withdrawn from upcoming events. SLJ editor-in-chief Kathy Ishizuka wrote in a lengthy […]
Facing Closure of Bank Accounts, McGuigan Asks Court to Expedite Appointment of Receiver
In updated court documents, Peter McGuigan filed an order to show cause motion, seeking an immediate court order transferring the client funds and operating accounts of his former literary agency Foundry to a temporary receiver. The urgency comes because McGuigan says in an affadavit that Foundry’s bank issued a notice that they will close the accounts on February 26. The documents note, “The Plaintiffs are extremely concerned that the bank’s decision may cause the Defendants, or their accomplices to become in possession of all, or a portion of funds presently on account, which will be unequivocally detrimental to the security […]
People, Etc.
At Macmillan Children’s, Kate Avino has been promoted to assistant editor, Odd Dot; Foyinsi Adegbonmire to associate editor, Feiwel and Friends; Samia Fakih to assistant editor, First Second Books; Kiara Valdez to associate editor, First Second Books; Trisha de Guzman to editor, FSG Children’s; Allegra Green to marketing manager; Dawn Ryan to executive managing editor; and Aurora Parlagreco to associate art director. Miyako Singer has been promoted to publishing operations associate at Catapult/Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press. Awards The ALA’s Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence were given to Deacon King Kong by James McBride and Fathoms: The World in the Whale! by Rebecca Giggs. […]