The bankruptcy saga of REDGroup Retail appears to be in its closing stages thanks to a number of developments over the weekend. Administrators Ferrier Hodgson failed to reach an agreement with creditors on a reorganization plan, laid off an additional 34 employees at REDGroup’s Melbourne headquarters, and on Monday informed suppliers that the company’s remaining stores in Australia would not accept stock after June 1, with any orders made on books not yet delivered should be cancelled. In a letter to landlords and suppliers, REDGroup’s administrators said they had hoped to find a way to keep the remaining 9 Borders […]
Agents at BEA: Nothing Is Off the Table
The newsmaking announcements at BEA might have been all about devices and digital, but the agents also showed up to talk about what is going on in their world of rights and royalties, and some interesting tidbits emerged. To start with, if you thought the 25 percent ebook royalty was settled, think again. On Tuesday’s AAR’s Global Publishing Marketplace panel, Jennifer Weltz, partner and rights director at Jean Naggar, stated: “Twenty-five percent shouldn’t be standard in US or anywhere else, we need escalators. When publishers come back to us and say, No, this is standard we can’t give you more, […]
Creditors Oppose Borders Bid For More Time, and Seattle’s Best Objects to Contract Cancellation
Borders’ unsecured creditors committee objected to the bookseller’s bid for more time to come up with a plan to exit Chapter 11 in a court filing Thursday afternoon on several grounds. They are “gravely concerned” that extending the exclusivity period up to 120 days “could be detrimental to the interests of the debtors’ general unsecured creditors” and would only work if the committee itself could have the right to “file and solicit a plan at any time” (the unstated purpose of which would likely be to ask for liquidation, though they cite cases in which creditors did draft their own […]
People, Etc.: Pfund Is OUP US President, Koepp to TIHE, and More
Niko Pfund has been named president of Oxford University Press USA, where he has served as acting president since December 2010, continuing to serve as academic publisher as well. Interim editor of Newsweek Steve Koepp is returing to Time (where he had been deputy managing editor of Time magazine and executive editor of Fortune) to become editorial director of Time Home Entertainment, the company’s book and bookazine division. He will oversee the development of books, both print and digital, for all the magazine publisher’s news group, style & entertainment and LIFE brands. University of North Carolina Press is promoting senior […]
Briefs: Bloomsbury & PFD Partner On Digital Imprint to Republish OOP Titles
Bloomsbury and PFD have joined forces to republish more than 500 out-of-print titles digitally beginning in September. The Bloomsbury Reader, as the venture is called, will bring back books into print from political diarist Alan Clark, Booker Prize winner Bernice Rubens, and poet & critic Edith Sitwell. Bloomsbury and PFD told the Guardian they hope other literary agencies will make use of the new service as well. 57 remaining Whitcoulls stores and five Borders shops were sold to Farmers Department Store owners the Norman family by administrator Ferrier Hodgson for an undisclosed sum. Owner David Norman told BusinessDay the company […]
People, Etc.
Michael Barber has joined Pearson in the newly created position of chief executive adviser, reporting to Marjorie Scardino. Barber is currently a partner at McKinsey & Company and head of its global education practice. John Bond is leaving HarperCollins UK at the end of June by “mutual agreement.” Bond was managing director of Press Books, which will now be run by ceo Victoria Barnsley, assisted by special projects director Katie Fulford, until a replacement is found. Thomas Nelson Gift & Children’s division has announced a number of new hires. Jennifer Barrow joins as editor, Micah Walker moves up to assistant […]