Two editors at Pocket, including editorial director Maggie Crawford, and an editorial assistant at Simon Spotlight Entertainment were laid off last week, the Observer reports. At Little Brown UK, David Shelley has been promoted to the new position of deputy publisher. French-language bookstore Librairie de France will close at the end of September after 74 years in business at New York’s Rockefeller Center. The store faced a tripling of its rent.NYDN
Bookstores
Bookselling: Study Says 400 Bookstores Could Close This Year
A study by Chicago’s Grant Thornton warns that 10,000 retail stores across the US may close this year–twice the number of last year’s closings. Among the sectors they predict will be hardest hit are bookstores, with the firm saying that 400 bookstores could close in 2009, which they calculate as a 500 percent increase over 2008. (That would seem to undercount the 2008 closings given the reductions at Borders Group. And we could only find the prediction on bookstores in this Chicago Sun Times article, rather than the report itself.)Sun TimesDownload study
Borders Earnings Preview is Somewhat Neutral
Borders is set to report its quarterly earnings later today and analysts aren’t expecting much in the way of good news, considering the retailer has spent much of the year reshuffling management and facing “intense competition” from other retailers. One analyst pointed to Borders’ inability to keep pace on selling electronic books, but added “it could not reasonably have been expected to invest in an alternative given its financial distress.” Still, stock prices, which have risen 33 percent since May 3, are “mostly undervalued” based on high-term cash flow.Earnings Preview
Canadian Publishers Express Alarm at High Indigo Returns
After a report in Quill & Quire earlier this month about “higher than normal” returns by Indigo Books & Music this summer, The Bookseller follows up with more information on what one publisher deems a “catastrophic” situation. Carolyn Wood, executive director of the Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP), confirmed that some members had mentioned they were having a hard time with Indigo returns. “I would say it varies between our membership. Some have mentioned it’s been a heavy summer, but others are OK.” She explained that the biggest problem publishers faced was the sudden loss of sales. “It has quite […]
More B&N News: Shareholders Sue Over College Deal; New Program to Republish Out-of-Print Titles
A group of Barnes & Noble shareholders, led by the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System, has filed suit in a Delaware Chancery court to block the retailer’s proposed purchase of privately-owned Barnes & Noble College. The plaintiffs allege breach of fiduciary duty by the company and its directors. Shareholders are concerned that the deal lacks transparency in not providing more historical financial data on the College retailer; pays Len Riggio more than another buyer would; reduces BN”s working capital; and represents an investment in a segment that is in “permanent decline.”Courthouse News Separately, in a complex posting about the […]
B&N Shutters Quamut
Barnes & Noble has closed down its how-to site Quamut, designed to provide simple instructional pieces on a variety of subjects using a mix of user-produced wikis and professionally produced guides. Despite the change (and the message that greets those who try to access the Quamut.com site), B&N continues to run in-house ads for the site on its online store.CNET