at Penguin Random House, Randi Rosenkranz has been appointed to the newly created position of vp, sales development. She most recently was Team Manager, Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple, and before that, Penguin Random House’s vp, digital development. At Bloomsbury USA, Lea Beresford has been promoted to senior editor. Book digital marketing firm FSB Associates is opening a second office in Carlsbad, CA. Founders Fauzia Burke and John Burke will now split their time between the new office and Basking Ridge, NJ. Opening Sales Random House Children’s says that they sold 200,000 copies of Dr. Seuss‘s What Pet Should I Get? […]
Bookstores
Market Mulls Barnes & Noble Split
Barnes & Noble officially spins off Barnes & Noble Education as a separate, publicly-traded company next Monday, when we’ll start to get a clearer view of how investors value the two distinct parts. The company itself declared BNED worth 38.7 percent of the whole — since each BKS stockholder gets .632 shares of the new spin-off company as a dividend. But BNED began provisional “when issued” trading last week. There has been very little action in those shares, which is not so unusual, but in the limited market, the price has dropped 8.5 percent, to $13.50 a share. With 48 […]
People, Etc.
At Tarcher, Joanna Ng has been promoted to associate editor. For Tarcher & Pergiee, Tyler Fields is being promoted to publicity and marketing coordinator. Amanda Roser has joined bluebottlebiz as marketing and communications manager, based in Boston. Awards The Romance Writers of America named the winners of their RITA and Golden Heart awards in 19 categories on Saturday night. Bookselling Barnes & Noble has agreed to open a new 18,000-square-foot store in 2017 as an anchor tenant in a new mall in Ashburn, VA, near Reston and part of the Washington, DC-metro area. Launched Former Elliott Bay Book Company bookseller and book critic at […]
Briefs: Another Pearson Sale, RCS to Meet on Mondadori Offer, and More
Following their big £844 million sale of the FT to Nikkei, Pearson acknowledged over the weekend that they are in talks with the co-owners of The Economist about selling their 50 percent stake in that organization as well. A Bloomberg source says that separate sale could yield another £400 million for Pearson. Separately, The Bookseller reports that Harper UK has negotiated a new sales agreement with Amazon, though they have no details. Italy’s RCS will discuss the buyout offer from Mondadori for their book publishing division at their July 30 board meeting to review the first-half 2015 results, La Republicca reported. […]
Bookselling: Cobble Hill’s The Community Bookstore Sells Building, Will Close; and More
The Community Bookstore in Cobble Hill (not to be confused with Community Bookstore in Park Slope) is set to close in 2016 after owner John Scioli agreed to sell the three-story building that houses the bookstore on the ground floor for $5.5 million to a real estate group that owns several buildings in midtown. Scioli has 10 months to clear out the bookstore, where between 60,000 and 100,000 titles are stocked from floor to ceiling, and two years to move out of his apartment upstairs. “I’ll be the first to admit I’m a bit of a hoarder,” Scioli, who has operated the bookstore […]
After Education Spinoff, Barnes & Noble Will Reinstate Dividend
Barnes & Noble announced a final date for the BN Education spinoff — distributing the new stock on August 2 (to BN shareholders of record as of July 27). BNED stock is expected to begin trading on a “when-issued” basis starting July 23 and will convert to regular trading on August 3. More importantly to investors and those concerned with the financial health of Barnes & Noble Inc., the company announced that it will resume paying quarterly dividends after the spinoff. They will pay at the annual rate of 60 cents a share, with the first quarterly record date of August 7. The bookseller had […]