JetBlue’s has launched their “Fly-Fi” content platform, currently available on about 35 percent of all flights as part of their rollout of inflight wi-fi, offering free content, including excerpts of more than 20 ebooks from HarperCollins, their “exclusive book content partner” at launch. Penguin Random House will join the program in the first quarter of 2015. The ebook excerpts will include buy buttons to allow customers to purchase any of the available titles from a variety of retailers. HarperCollins chief marketing officer Angela Tribelli says in the announcement: “This is a terrific opportunity for travelers to enjoy some of the best books […]
Bookstores
People, Etc.
Jill Smith has been appointed director of the Denver Publishing Institute, effective January 1, 2015. Smith has worked at the Institute since 2003 and is currently co-director. She succeeds Joyce Meskis, who is retiring as director after seven years (though she will keep her responsibilities at Tattered Cover Bookstore.) Rayhane Sanders will join Lippincott Massie McQuilkin as Agent, effective January 1, continuing to build her list of upmarket and literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir. Most recently she was an agent at WSK Management and before that she assisted Dorian Karchmar at William Morris Endeavor. At Little, Brown, Fiona Brown has been […]
Cutbacks At Nook Include Executive Ranks
Barnes & Noble’s Nook division has eliminated an unspecified number of jobs as the company continues to manage costs in anticipation of a spinoff of Nook Media (or parts thereof) some time next year. The layoffs include three executives: Longtime team member Theresa Horner, vp, digital content and general manager of Nook Press, and one of the founding executives of Nook after joining Barnes & Noble in 2008; David Rowland, vp, ecommerce and Nook.com; and Jonathan Shar, vp, new media, who oversaw newsstand and video. Responding to our query on Wednesday, Barnes & Noble spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating confirmed by email: “We made […]
November Picks: Amazon, iBooks and Costco
In the new monthly lists, Amazon makes Stephen King’s Revival their spotlight pick for November and Lev Golinkin’s memoir A Backpack, A Bear and Eight Crates of Vodka is their featured debut. The rest of their top books for the month are: Fields of Blood, Karen Armstrong The Laughing Monsters, Denis Johnson Lives in Ruins, Marilyn Johnson Us, David Nicholls Napoleon, Andrew Roberts There Was a Little Girl, Brooke Shields Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible, Peter Pomerantsev Let Me Be Frank With You, Richard Ford The Happiest People in the World, Brock Clarke Apple’s iBooks Store also lists King, Johnson and […]
Barnes & Noble to Close One Queens Store — And A Few Others
Media attention helped extend the presence of Barnes & Noble in the Bronx as the borough’s last remaining bookstore, but now the company says they will close one of their three Queens locations at the end of the year. BN indicated they were unable to negotiate a new lease for their Fresh Meadows store, near St. John’s University. The end of the year often brings a number of store closing announcements, as leases expire (and after the brisk holiday selling season is over). It’s still early in the season for such disclosures, though the company has already acknowledged additional year-end […]
Posman Books to Close Grand Central Location, and More
Posman Books will close its Grand Central Station location after “15 wonderful years” by the end of the year, Shelf Awareness reports. The store has to leave its 5,000-square foot space as part of the Terminal’s plan “to upgrade and improve pedestrian circulation” and as part of the larger One Vanderbilt Project, a proposed 65-story office building whose owner has offered to pay for $210 million in Grand Central pedestrian passageway and subway platform improvements. Posman’s Robert Fader explained to the publication: “We have been in discussions with Grand Central for several years, but they have been unable to find […]