More adjustments to Borders’ deck, as the company has hired yet another complete outsider for a top position. This time it’s mattress executive Bill Dandy who joins the bookseller as svp, marketing, reporting to cmo Mike Edwards, after a three-year stint as evp of marketing at Mattress Firm. Art Keeney–who has been svp, marketing–will move over to svp, store operations. And Larry Norton, who joined Borders recently as svp, merchandising and distribution, changes his position to svp, merchandising for adult trade and children’s books, leading the book buying teams. Elsewhere, at Harlequin’s parent company Torstar, interim head since May David […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: Shirky's Advice to Indie, and More
Clay Shirky wrote interestingly, if at excessive length about local bookstores and what they might need to do in order to survive and prosper. You can skip a big chunk of the first part of the essay… The crux is “the local bookstore creates all kinds of value for its community, whether its providing community bulletin boards, putting rocking chairs in the kids section, hosting book readings, or putting benches out in front of the store. Local writers, harried parents, couples on dates, all get value from a store’s existence as a inviting physical location, value separate from its existence […]
Barnes & Noble Answers Burkle with Poison Pill, As He Keeps Buying
Following investor Ron Burkle’s accumulation of a large block of BN stock, the company’s board announced yesterday the passage of a “shareholder rights plan,” aka poison pill–largely out of favor now (except at companies where the founder still controls a third of the stock). The adopted the measure “in response to the recent rapid accumulation of a significant portion of Barnes & Noble’s outstanding common stock” and insist it “is intended to protect the company and its stockholders from efforts to obtain control of the company that are inconsistent with the best interests of the company and its stockholders.” The […]
Burkle Doubles Barnes & Noble Stake; May Agitate for Change
There could be a battle of the billionaires brewing at Barnes & Noble, as companies controlled by investor Ron Burkle disclosed to the SEC that they have more than doubled their stake in the bookseller recently. Burkle’s companies now control 16.8 percent of the bookseller’s stock. That’s still only about half as much as the big block of stock controlled by chairman Len Riggio. Burkle’s recent purchases likely played a role in the recent upturn in BN’s stock, which lifted after reporting strong pre-orders for the nook. (Traders had been betting against BN, holding a lot of stock shorts that […]
In Turnabout, Australia to Keep Import Rules In Place
The Australian government has overturned the efforts by the previous Labor government to throw out the country’s parallel importation restrictions on books that protect local publishers. They write: “In the circumstances of intense competition from online books and e-books, the Government judged that changing the regulations governing book imports is unlikely to have any material effect on the availability of books in Australia. If books cannot be made available in a timely fashion and at a competitive price, customers will opt for online sales and e-books.” In concert with the policy change, the government also made it clear it will […]
Bookselling: Two Schwartz Successors Concerned About Third
Another Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop alum is opening a new store, Open Book run by Lisa Zupke–this time billed as a cooperative, supported by a $35,000 low-interest municipal loan, and located within miles of two other Schwartz successors, Daniel Goldin’s Boswell Book Company and Lanora Hurley’s Next Chapter Bookshop. “They’re definitely targeting my customers,” Goldin tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Hurley adds, “I’m just concerned that splitting the pie three ways will take all three of us out.” Open Book is selling memberships ranging from $50 to $500, and soliciting loans from wealthy individuals.MJS