With a growing business in distributing other publishers, Hachette Book Group announced that it will expand its distribution center in Indiana, adding 218,000 square feet of space and 10 more full-time jobs. (A subsequent article noted they are investing $6.1 million in the new facility.) Construction is scheduled to begin in March. The company says “this investment confirms HBG’s intention to continue to control its own physical supply chain.” Ceo Michael Pietsch says in the announcement, “Distribution is a vital and growing part of our business at HBG, and it continues to be a high priority. We’ve been very successful […]
People: Huseby Promoted to CEO At Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble finally has a chief executive officer again, though nothing has actually changed at the company. Mike Huseby, who has been acting as the top executive since William Lynch was dismissed last July, has officially been promoted to companywide ceo. (When Lynch left, Huseby was promoted to ceo of the Nook Media unit and president of B&N Inc. Barnes & Noble Retail ceo Mitchell Klipper, who has been reporting to chairman Len Riggio, will now report to Huseby, along with BN College ceo Max Roberts. Riggio says of Huseby in the announcement, “Although a relative newcomer to the […]
More Corporate Sales: Academy Chicago, and UK Agency Pollinger
Chicago Review Press has acquired Academy Chicago Publishers for an undisclosed sum (though a spokeswoman for the purchaser cited a “six-figure price”) which will have Chicago Review Press publishing original fiction for the first time. They expect to immediately begin publishing fifteen to twenty new titles annually under the Academy Chicago imprint. Jordan and Anita Miller, who founded ACP in 1975, will work as editors at-large for Chicago Review Press for the next two years, and IPG will distribute all Academy Chicago Publishers books, including their backlist of approximately 300 titles. Chicago Review Press publisher Cynthia Sherry said in the announcement: “Our two companies have […]
BN Closes One-Time “Flagship” On Lower Fifth; Powell’s Remodels
Barnes & Noble closed their store at 18th Street and Fifth Avenue on Monday, spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating told Gothamist, following up on an answering machine message saying the store was permanently closed. A sign on the door tells visitors, “Thank you for your patronage over the years.” The former “flagship” store — across the street from the company’s headquarters — it was the only BN retail location in business when Len Riggio purchased the company in 1971, though by the company’s account it “had fallen into decline.” A few years thereafter, it was proclaimed “the world’s largest bookstore,” offering over […]
The Book(s) of the Year
With picks aggregated from a total of 58 sources in all, the clear consensus for the 2013 “book of the year” has ended in…a tie. George Saunders’ TENTH OF DECEMBER and Donna Tartt’s THE GOLDFINCH stood well above all others in the final count, each garnering 25 picks. (That ties them with the votes for Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies a year ago, but leaves them short of the 2012 book of the year, Katherine Boo’s Behind The Beautiful Forevers, which made 29 different lists.) Not only did those two works of fiction tie for the top honors, but […]
Focused On Children’s Publishing: IP Development and Management; Gaming and Education; Moving to Mobile
Next Monday, January 13, at Publishers Launch Kids we’ll kick off Digital Book World week with hundreds of people in a ballroom speaking exclusively about the future of children’s publishing and the special ways in which digital change is touching this segment of book publishing. We’re featuring 30 leaders and innovators from across children’s publishing and beyond addressing branding and licensing; new perspectives on gaming and education; the move to mobile and social media; making discovery work for kids and parents; owning audiences and creating original IP; and developing the children’s book publisher of the future. (Penguin Random House UK […]