Barnes & Noble will close a Paper Source warehouse in Forest Park, IL on April 1, eliminating 107 jobs, NBC Chicago reports. The lease on the warehouse expires at the beginning of 2026. “We have to vacate and have started the process with all our employees about the closure.” B&N senior director of store planning and design Janine Flanigan said. “As a retailer whose business is especially concentrated in the holiday period, we have to make the move in the summer to be able to meet the seasonality of the year-end.” The bookstore chain bought the stationery retailer out of […]
Bookstores
Barnes & Noble Changes Buying and Campaign Teams, Lays Off Veterans
Following the quick departure of chief merchandising officer Jackie De Leo earlier in the month, Barnes & Noble has laid off a number of veteran staff as part of a “realignment of our buying and campaigns teams.” Senior director, books Shannon DeVito wrote in an email, “The aim is to streamline our responsibilities and better focus our efforts to improve our bookselling. Unfortunately, this has meant that a number of colleagues have left the business as their roles were removed.” PL is aware of at least seven longtime buyers and publisher liaisons whose roles were eliminated. As of today’s newsletter […]
Bookshop Launches Ebook Platform
Bookshop.org has launched an ebook platform at long last, allowing indie bookstores to sell ebooks directly from their websites or through Bookshop, retaining the full 30 percent commission that publishers provide to retailers. (As with print books, sales without a specified brick and mortar store will go into a pool that is distributed among the participating bookstores on the platform.) Three million titles are initially available from all the major publishers according to the release, and the company says it will add self-published “for authors publishing through Draft2Digital or IngramSpark” and more indie publishers in the future. Ebooks from the […]
Full Circle: HMV Said to be Interested in WH Smith High Street Stores
HMV, the UK retailer that oversaw the near-death of Waterstones before selling the book chain in 2011 — and then went through two bankruptcy reorganizations — is now reported by the Sun to be “in discussions” about purchasing WH Smith’s high street stores. HMV is now owned by Doug Putman, a Canadian entrepreneur. Restructuring firms Hilco and Alteri and PE firm Modella Capital are also considered as likely bidders. The paper says, “The retail group has been in negotiations with several prospective buyers of the high street division for several weeks.” The Telegraph notes that “analysts have suggested the business, […]
WH Smith Explores Sale of Bookstores
UK retailer WH Smith is looking to sell their High Street business–that is, their trade bookstores–as it focuses on its more profitable airport stores. “WH Smith confirms that it is exploring potential strategic options for this profitable and cash generative part of the group, including a possible sale,” the company said in a statement. “Over the past decade, WH Smith has become a focused global travel retailer. The group’s travel business has over 1,200 stores across 32 countries, and three-quarters of the group’s revenue and 85% of its trading profit comes from the travel business. “There can be no certainty […]
Amazon and Bloomsbury Reach an Agreement After Brief Standoff
Bloomsbury has reached a new supply agreement with Amazon, after Amazon announced on Thursday that its contract with the publisher was expiring, and it would stop selling Bloomsbury print books in the UK, Europe, and Australia, and Bloomsbury Kindle books worldwide at midnight on January 23. Amazon posted an update late Thursday evening, writing, “As of 10.30 p.m. on 23 January, an agreement in principle has been reached between Amazon and Bloomsbury, and Bloomsbury books continue to be available for our customers.” Bloomsbury confirmed on their corporate site that they have “reached a new long term supply agreement with Amazon.” […]