Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo reported a 5.9 percent decrease in sales of $185.6 million for the fiscal second quarter. Though the company sold their stake in Kobo, they still blame “a delay in the planned launch of the new Kobo devices” as the primary cause of the revenue drop. They claim “book sales for the quarter were down only modestly” yet the superstores sales comps were down 6.5 percent, and small-format store comps fell 2.2 percent. Their operating loss of $5.9 million was much better than a year ago–but that’s because they had a major writedown against Kobo’s goodwill last […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: All 57 Cokesbury Stores to Close; Argosy Book Store Suffers Storm Damage; and More
The United Methodist Publishing House will close all 57 of its Cokesbury retail shops — 38 standalone bookstores and 19 operating in seminaries — between January and April 2013, the Tennessean reports. 185 full-time and 100 part-time employees will lose their jobs as a result. “This is just part of the evolution that bookstores are all experiencing,” a company spokesperson told the paper. “The stores have been declining as a percentage of sales for Cokesbury and the cost to operate them have been increasing. They’re no longer financially viable.” They are changing their focus to sell books online and through […]
eNews: Kobo Opens in South Africa; Brazil’s Saraiva Looks to Sell Online Division; “Patent Troll” Moves to Amazon and BN with New Suit
Kobo has partnered with South African retailer Pick n Pay to launch their devices and ebookstore there, offering books in both English and Afrikaans. There’s further news on Brazil’s leading bookseller Saraiva, whose stock jumped earlier in the month on reports that they might be in acquisition talks with Amazon. The updated Reuters account says Saraiva is looking to sell their online business only, while retaining their 102 bookstores and publishing operation. That goal would seem to fit quite well with Amazon’s continuing aspirations to launch operations, and Kindle in particular, in Brazil–though it could also appeal to other international […]
Briefs: Jacques Barzun Dies; Strand Central Park Stalls Up For Grabs; And More
Cultural critic, historian, and essayist Jacques Barzun, 104, died Thursday evening in San Antonio. Barzun was a longtime professor at Columbia University and the author of dozens of books, including TEACHER OF AMERICA (1945), THE HOUSE OF INTELLECT (1959), THE DELIGHTS OF DETECTION (1961), and most recently, FROM DAWN TILL DECADENCE (2000). NYT Obit In a separate bit of news from Pearson, evp for Content Management, North America Dan Lee will become ceo of Pearson Canada on December 31, when current CEO Allan Reynolds retires. The Central Park stalls currently operated by The Strand Bookstore on Fifth Avenue and East […]
Bookselling: Random House Brings Back Holiday Shipping Offer
Starting November 1, Random House is relaunching their two-day transit program for independent booksellers for the holiday season for their entire list. Orders received by 3 PM ship out of their warehouse “no later than the following business day.” Director of account marketing Ruth Liebmann notes, “Faster replenishment via our 2-day transit program means fewer lost sales and more robust displays.” The program runs through March 1, 2013.
Amazon, From New York Publishing to Potential Brazilian Acquisition
We know how you can be, and some of you may be enjoying the WSJ’s piece “Amazon Struggles to Crack Publishing” piece a little too much this morning. The focus of the article is that print sales for Amazon’s recently launched New York-based trade imprint are low–because most other outlets are not stocking the company’s titles. (Nielsen BookScan shows sales of approximately 7,000 hardcover copies of Penny Marshall’s My Mother Was Nuts, which includes print sales through Amazon.com itself. But there is no data available on ebook sales.) Tim Ferriss, who approached Amazon directly to sell them his next book […]