Bertelsmann announced full year results for 2024, with sales at Penguin Random House hitting a new record of €4.917 billion, up 8.5 percent from €4.532 billion. Revenues rose “primarily due to higher sales prices, a broad range of titles across all genres and growth in audiobook sales,” with “positive business performance, especially in the United States,” also driven by the continuing “expansion of its portfolio” (acquisitions). Operating EBITDA grew as well, to €739 million, up from €664 million in 2023, when profits had been flat. The “earnings growth [was] due to both revenue and savings achieved largely through the reorganization […]
Former Tattered Cover CEO Will Try Again As A Denver Bookseller
Kwame Spearman, who failed to turn around the Tattered Cover bookstores as ceo and left to pursue a career in politics, will try again as a bookseller. Spearman purchased 9,000-square-foot building at 1700 Humboldt St. in Denver’s City Park West with partner Rich Garvin, a San Francisco philanthropist, for $2.9 million. His redevelopment plans include a 3,500-square-foot bookstore, called Denver Book Society, which he hopes to have open by spring 2026. Spearmen tells Business Den, “Books that you can easily find on Amazon, you can find on Amazon. You come into our store and have a best-in-class staff opportunity that […]
Harper’s Murray Discusses AI and More On Podcast
The latest Open Road podcast features an interview with HarperCollins ceo Brian Murray. The conversation includes ample discussion of the intersection of AI and book publishing. On the AI licensing deal for backlist nonfiction books that Harper offered to authors and agents starting last November, Murray reports that, “So far, the vast majority of authors that we have spoken with have opted into it, but it’s their choice. At HarperCollins, we ourselves see ourselves as trying to find a way forward. It’s a little bit like threading a needle — where you want to protect copyright, protect IP, you want […]
NYT’s Copyright Infringement Claims Against OpenAI Will Go To Trial
The NYT’s well-drafted copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft has survived the defendants’ motions to dismiss and the primary claims will go to trial. Filed in the New York’s Southern District, the order was granted by Judge Sidney Stein, who did grant with prejudice a motion to dismiss unfair competition by misappropriation claims, while also striking other modest claims from various related lawsuits. Judge Stein’s brief order indicated he “will issue an Opinion setting forth the reasons for this ruling expeditiously,” with a schedule for proceedings to come thereafter.
Book By Muzzled Author on Facebook Sells 60,000 Copies
Publisher Flatiron Books says that Sarah Wynn-Williams’ CARELESS PEOPLE sold 60,000 units across all formats in its first week on sale. Circana Bookscan shows tracked hardcover sales of just over 18,500 copies. Last week Meta won an interim award from an emergency arbitrator ordering the author to not make any “disparaging, critical, or otherwise detrimental comments” about Meta, effectively blocking her promotion of the book. But Wynn-Williams failed to appear at the hearing or even send an attorney to answer Meta’s complaint.
Meta Spars with Flatiron Over Forthcoming Book
NBC reports extensively in advance on revelations in Sarah Wynn-Williams’s CARELESS PEOPLE, publishing Tuesday. They note that, “Meta filed an emergency request for a hearing before an arbitrator Saturday, arguing that Wynn-Williams had violated a nondisparagement agreement and seeking ‘injunctive relief barring disparagement.’” NBC says Meta lawyer Jonathan Cohn wrote to publisher Flatiron Books on Friday, claiming that the marketing copy suggested the embargoed book featured “overheated, false, and potentially defamatory allegations.” Cohn asked for an opportunity to suggestions revisions. Flatiron Books said in a statement: “This book is a first person narrative account of what the author herself witnessed. […]