With Barnes & Noble set to report first quarter earnings before the market opens on Tuesday, analysts and short sellers are trotting out their seasonal pessimism about the company’s prospects. The consensus expectation is that BN will post a loss of 96 cents per share on revenue of $1.48 billion, and on Wednesday morning Stiefel Nicolaus downgraded its rating from “buy” to “hold,” causing the shares to decline almost 6 percent, closing at $12.56 per share, its lowest level since April. (Shares are down again slightly so far Thursday morning.) The downgrade is based on sentiment or a hunch rather than […]
Quarto Exceeds “Expectations” In First Part of “A Difficult Year”
The Quarto Group reported interim results for the first half of the year as “performance exceeded expectations,” according to chairman and ceo Laurence Orbach, “a good achievement given the challenging economic environment globally.” But looking forward they have a “cloudy outlook” and Orbach says “we know that this is already a difficult year and, in the short term, is likely to remain that way.” Sales rose only 1 percent, to $73.2 million (reflecting underlying softness, given the acquisition of Frances Lincoln last August), with adjusted EBITDA of $13.8 million also up 1 percent and operating profit of $2.9 million, up […]
Sampling Amazon’s First Fall Harvest
This fall, Amazon’s New York-based imprint, New Harvest, will formally launch its first full season, after debuting in quiet fashion last March with JEFF, ONE LONELY GUY, by Jeff Ragsdale (with David Shields and Michael Logan.) The imprint’s inaugural list, already slated to be small, is down two books: Billy Ray Cyrus’s memoir HILLBILLY HEART, was pushed back to April 2013 to coincide with his next tour, while dissident Chinese poet Liao Yiwu’s memoir FOR A SONG AND A HUNDRED SONGS won’t be published until June 2013, the 24th anniversary of the Tianenmen Square Protests. With New Harvest bidding to […]
People, Etc.
As of Spring 2013, the Potter Style imprint at Clarkson Potter will expand its scope to encompass interior design, style, and wedding books in addition to the gift books already published by the imprint. As a result, Potter senior editor Aliza Fogelson and associate editor Angelin Borsics will also acquire books for Potter Style. Borsics will now report to Fogelson, who continues to report to Doris Cooper. “With this realignment, Potter is even better positioned to leverage our unparalleled editorial strength and directed publishing strategies to foster our authors’ audience growth and brand development and to extend our market reach […]
People, Etc.
At Crown, Julian Pavia moves from the Archetype imprint to the trade paperback editorial team as editor, reporting to Sheila O’Shea. Pavia will acquire trade paperback originals for the Broadway Books list, with an emphasis on those types of genre fiction that lend themselves to innovative publishing approaches. He will also work on conversions and occasionally acquire titles for the Crown hardcover list. Founding editor of Cosmopolitan magazine and author of SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL Helen Gurley Brown, 90, died Monday afternoon at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. Simon & Schuster announced the title and subject of Bob Woodward‘s […]
People, Etc.
Kristin Meenagh has joined Ryland Peters and Small as publicity associate. She was previously with Raab Associates. Jean Merrill, author of more than 30 novels for children that dealt with themes of underdogs beating the odds, died August 2 at her home in Randolph, VT. She was 89 and the cause of death was cancer. Merrill’s work included THE PUSHCART WAR (1964), THE TOOTHPASTE MILLIONAIRE (1974), and THE GIRL WHO LOVED CATERPILLARS (1992). NYT Obit Sami Rohr, 86, the philanthropist honored by an annual prize for Jewish Literature that bears his name (endowed by his children), died last Sunday in […]