Zando has partnered with restauranteur and author Ayesha Curry to launch the imprint Sweet July Books, which “will feature warm, timely books focused on family, female empowerment, faith, and food” with a “commitment to uplifting underrepresented voices.” A release states, “In particular, Ayesha will spotlight writers seeking to revitalize the ‘self-help’ genre through the inclusive lens of womanhood and motherhood, as well as inspiring fiction for children and adults.” As with Zando’s other celebrity imprints, Curry “will be heavily involved in the publishing process, from a book’s selection and acquisition to its release and beyond, leveraging the existing Sweet July […]
Judge Pan Learns How “Informal” The Industry Is As Defense Calls Walsh, Bergstrom and Glusman
Halfway through the antitrust trial, yesterday the defense began calling witnesses. Walsh The defense’s expert, former literary agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, took the stand on Wednesday, explaining to the court how important love, dreams, and art are to the publishing industry, rather than just the financials, and the informal nature of most business deals—all of which seemed to surprise Judge Pan. Walsh explained that an agent is a “curator” for a publisher who finds the content, and has a fiduciary relationship with authors. They are “honor bound to act in the best interest of our clients.” In explaining exclusive submissions […]
Indigo Reports Highest First Quarter in Three Years
Yesterday Indigo announced their first quarter 2023 earnings for the period ended July 2 with sales of CA $204.6 million, up 19 percent from $172.1 million last year, a higher level than any first quarter in the past three years. The growth was driven by “the success of Indigo’s omnichannel business; a strong recovery in the retail channel, where traffic levels continued to normalize, and an ecommerce business that sustained incremental growth of 80% to fiscal 2020 levels.” Net loss was $25.4 million, compared to $21.9 million last year, due to inflation and increased freight costs and “increased strategic investment […]
Final Government Witnesses: Hill and Fletcher
The DOJ finished calling their witnesses in the antitrust trial on Wednesday morning, with the end of testimony from economist Dr. Nicholas Hill (who will be called again during rebuttal) and a video deposition from literary agent Christy Fletcher. Defense counsel Oppenheimer again challenged Hill’s models and the data input to them. Hill used the minutes of editorial meetings at 12 S&S imprints (out of 38) and 13 PRH imprints (out of about 100) to determine how often one party bids, and if they lost, how often the other was the winner. (Oppenheimer: “This was hard work for you right?” […]
Modelland: Day Two of Economist Hill’s Testimony
The DOJ’s expert economist Dr. Nicholas Hill resumed testifying on Tuesday (and continues again on Wednesday morning), discussing his prediction of harm if the merger goes through and being questioned on the accuracy of his models. Overall, Hill believes that the proposed mitigating factors—mainly the bidding pledge—are “unlikely to affect the anticompetitive effect of the transaction.” Hill’s reasons are built on qualitative evidence in the form of internal PRH and S&S emails. First, already “imprints can and do coordinate” before and during a bid. As an example, an email from the president of a PRH imprint said that bidding against […]
A3: Brian Murray Was “Shocked” By PRH’s Winning Bid
The antitrust trial began Tuesday morning with testimony from another ceo–Brian Murray from HarperCollins. He said that News Corp.’s bid for Simon & Schuster “was not close” to Bertelsmann’s offer and that he was “shocked” that they were willing to pay $2.175 billion. “We’ve probably done five or so acquisitions and tend be very disciplined in our financial modeling, so we could not find a way to have a return at that price.” (We’ll say it one more time: PL has previously reported that people familiar with the same said the underbidder was Vivendi, not HarperCollins.) In his direct examination, […]