Bloomsbury released a trading update for the first six months of the fiscal year, ended August 31, reporting sales of £123 million (up 22 percent from last year on a topline basis, and 12 percent higher on an organic basis, leaving aside recent acquisitions). Profits before tax and highlighted items were £15.9 million, up 23 percent. In a release, CEO Nigel Newton said these are the highest-ever sales and profits in the first half. “These results demonstrate the strength and resilience of our strategy of publishing for both the consumer and academic markets, our growth of digital revenues and our […]
Archives for October 2022
Spotify’s Plans for Audiobook Growth Were Based on Magical Thinking About Apple’s App Store
Spotify has answered for themselves the question about whether their long-touted audiobooks offering will have much impact on the market. The company has struggled to obtain approval from Apple’s app store for their efforts to circumvent the well-known rules around in-app purchases. It turns out if you don’t want to pay Apple their 30 percent commission, you wind up with an awkward process: “The Audiobooks purchase flow that Apple’s rules force us to provide consumers today is far too complicated and confusing.” Spotify seems to think there is something new about this: “This harms not only consumers, but, this time, […]
People 10/26
People 10/25
David Phethean, vp, mass merchandise, national accounts & distributor sales at Penguin Random House, will retire at the end of the year, after 35 years with PRH-affiliated companies.
Callisto Slashes Workforce Again, Continues With Modest Crew
Three months after Callisto Media laid off 35 percent of its staff, the company instituted another deep round of cuts Monday—this time approximately 200 positions, or around 70 percent of its workforce—in all departments. An estimated 60 employees remain in the book-making departments (editorial, marketing, design, etc.). Access to internal systems, other than email, was reportedly turned off this weekend for the employees who would be laid off, and their emails were turned off at 5 PM Eastern on Monday. A press release issued Tuesday says that Callisto “today announced that it will immediately restructure its operations to focus on […]
Prescott Prevails on Primary Charges of Plagiarism By Pasternak
In the long-running case brought in the UK by Boris Pasternak’s great-niece Anna Pasternak against Lara Prescott, author of the novel THE SECRETS WE KEPT, alleging copyright infringement of Pasternak’s nonfiction book Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago, UK Justice Edwin Johnson found in favor of Prescott on all of the major claims. If you are a fan of close textual reading, the dense 149-page ruling is a substantial work that stands on its own. Broadly, Justice Johnson was “satisfied that the defendant used Lara only as a secondary source,” calling it “obvious when one […]