The drawn out battle to buy RR Donnelly appears to be over, as the company announced that the unidentified “strategic party” has withdrawn its higher bid of $11.50 a share. That leaves the company headed for shareholder approval of the $10.85 a share deal from Chatham Asset Management. The strategic party “did not provide specific reasons for its withdrawal.” Separately, the company noted in two recent SEC filings that its computer systems had been attacked. The first “intrusion” was disclosed December 27, when they shut down their servers and systems and began a forensic investigation. The update on January 18 […]
PRH Realigns and Expands Sales Teams, Consolidating Children’s While Adding Dedicated Client Reps
Penguin Random House announced a “realignment and expansion” of portions of its sales force, focused on bolstering their independent bookstore selling teams in particular, bringing together sales across all their children’s lines into unified teams, and creating new rep groups dedicated to selling PRH Publisher Services client publishers to indie stores. The initiatives include “adding new field-rep positions, realigning publisher responsibilities, and building new programs to further deepen its partnership with bookstores, and strengthen their education and community outreach.” President, US Sales Jaci Updike says in the announcement, “The account sales call has changed dramatically in the last couple of […]
February Book Club Picks
Jenna Bush Hager chose Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson as the Today Show Read With Jenna February pick.
AAP Further Exposes Flaws In Maryland’s Library Law
The AAP reinforced their case in asking for a temporary restraining order blocking Maryland’s new library ebook/digital law, replying on Friday to the state’s weak defense. As the AAP’s new brief underscores, Maryland’s own legal reply lays bare their ploy of insisting their law is just about consumer protection while rooting the justification in complaints about copyright: As they put it: “Maryland opens its brief by stating, ‘This case is not about copyright protection,’ but follows with an extensive discussion that proves the opposite.” As a result, “Maryland’s attempts to justify the Maryland Act make the case for why it […]
People: Futter Takes Over At Celadon As Raab Steps Down
Celadon Books co-founder and president Jamie Raab is stepping down, and will take on the new role of publisher-at-large, Macmillan Publishers. She will acquire books across all imprints as well as work on strategic initiatives. She will also edit the books she currently has under contract at Celadon. Co-founder Deb Futter becomes president and publisher at Celadon, and Futter and Raab both report to Macmillan president Jon Yaged. Reporting to Futter are Rachel Chou, Ryan Doherty, Anne Twomey, Bill Hamilton and Randi Kramer. Yaged writes that Raab said to him, “It’s been exciting to watch Celadon meet and exceed our initial expectations. As the world […]
AAP Trade Sales Gained 11.9 Percent In 2021
The AAP reported December and full-year 2021 statistics from their pool of StatShot publishers and as expected, their data shows record high revenues and year-over-year increases in revenues for trade publishers. Trade sales reached $8.821 billion in 2021, up $935 million (or 11.9 percent) over 2020 — when sales gained $689 million in the final count (or 9.6 percent). NB that the final 2020 figures were revised downwards slightly, so those gains are little more modest than when first reported a year ago. Adult book sales hit $6.080 billion, up $622 million (or 11.4 percent), while children’s and young adult […]