Bonnier Books UK has finally gotten to the bottom of their disastrous years of believing that overspending to buy growth would work — which ended in big layoffs, the abrupt dismissal of the executive that led the spree, and recapitalization from the parent company of £51 million. It now turns out the whole thing was the accountants’ fault, and the publisher is suing its former accountants for £90 million, alleging the firm was negligent in auditing its financial statements. The publisher admits in their lawsuit, filed against Haysmacintyre LLP in London’s High Court January 21, that their growth strategy was […]
Authors Guild and Others Urge DOJ to Reject S&S Merge with PRH
The Authors Guild, the Open Markets Institute, and a number of writers associations have co-signed a letter urging the Department of Justice to reject the plan to merge Simon & Schuster into Penguin Random House. “The deal would bring well more than half of key U.S. book markets under the control of a single corporation, which poses a variety of potential threats to freedom of speech and democracy in the United States. The takeover falls clearly within the standard of illegality set by the Clayton Act and should be summarily rejected,” argues the letter, later offering “five arguments that easily […]
Bloomsbury Says Sales and Profit Look Good
Bloomsbury provided a brief trading update, in advance of full preliminary results coming in June, saying that “revenue is expected to be ahead and profit well ahead of market expectations for the year ending 28 February 2021.” According to the board, the market expectation is sales of £161.8 million and pre-tax profit of £12.1 million. Sales for the previous year were flat at £162.8 million, with pre-tax profit of £13.2 million. Bloomsbury has not provided any formal guidance, so analysts have not had a lot to work with — though sales for the first half of the year were “stronger […]
Vivendi Becomes Second Largest Shareholder in Amber-Backed Prisa
Vivendi has built a 9.9 percent stake in education and media publisher Grupo Prisa, which owns El Pais newspaper as well as Santillana, a major educational publisher, particularly in South America. Prisa sold the Santillana trade business to Penguin Random House in 2014 and though lightly reported, last October they agreed to sell Santillana’s K-12 business in Spain to Finland’s Sanoma, an enterprise value of 465 million euros. At the time, Prisa indicated the move would establish a framework to separate its media and education businesses down the road. Vivendi’s position in Prisa is another sign of their broad ambition […]
New Books Publishing January 25
It’s a strong week for nonfiction when a Joan Didion collection (new collection, old essays) isn’t the most remarkable offering. Highlights include Cicely Tyson’s memoir, an autobiography of Ida B. Wells, Ben Montgomery’s rare history of justice in the Jim Crow era, and NYT columnist Charles Blow’s Black power manifesto. Fiction includes Keisha Bush’s debut novel, No Heaven for Good Boys, billed as a modern-day Oliver Twist set in Senegal. 9 new works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-january-26 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Fiction_Publishing_January_/218674 11 new nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-january-26 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Nonfiction_Publishing_January_/218676
Authors Guild Praises Audible Changes, Presses for More
The Authors Guild called Audible’s recent changes to its ACX policies, combined with the earlier decision to pay authors royalties on books returned after seven days, “a significant step in the right direction.” At the same time, the Guild notes the new policies “do not include all the changes that we, together with the Society of Authors and the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), were hoping for” and that “we will continue our dialogue and demands for changes on the substantive issue of returns discrepancies and other issues affecting authors, narrators, and content providers.” Susan May, an author who has […]