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Borders Beats Competitors with Increased Holiday Comps (but Not Increased Earnings); Flat Holidays at BAM Breaking a longstanding pattern, Borders is the only of the three big bookselling chains to report increased same-store sales for the holiday period. Same-store superstore sales of $755.4 million were up 2.4 percent in the nine-week holiday sales period, “as both customer transaction count and average ticket increased.” Music was down at Borders as well as at BN, with the segment declining 13 percent. They say that without music, their same-store superstore sales rose 4.3 percent, and that books as a category were up 3.4 […]

Soft Holiday Comps for BN, as Earnings Estimate Is Reduced Same-store sales at Barnes & Noble declined 0.4 percent for the the nine-week holiday period from November 4, 2007 to January 5, 2008, registering $1.2 billion overall. But book sales were somewhat stronger — the company says “sales of recorded music were significantly below forecast,” and excluding music same-store sales rose 0.8 percent. For the 48 weeks of the fiscal year so far, same-store sales (including the summer’s Potter bump) are up 2 percent, with total store sales of $4.3 billion. BN.com sales rose almost 11 percent during the holidays, […]

Big Cuts at McGraw-Hill Yesterday McGraw-Hill announced restructuring in “a limited number of business operations” that includes the elimination of over 600 jobs. McGraw-Hill Education is one of the hardest-hit units, with a $16.3 million pre-tax restructuring charge. About half of the job cuts will come from this division. The Higher Education, Professional and International Group “has taken steps to consolidate certain sales, editorial, marketing and administrative functions, primarily in our international locations, to better address new and existing revenue streams for textbooks, facilitate its strategic shift toward increased investments in digital and custom products, and enable greater efficiencies. The […]

Lawsuit Puree: Sneaky Chef Charges Seinfelds with Plagiarism and Defamation Sneaky Chef author Missy Chase Lapine filed suit in New York yesterday against Jessica Seinfeld and Jerry Seinfeld, alleging copyright and trademark infringement in Jessica’s book Deceptively Delicious, and accusing Jerry of a “malicious campaign” against Lapine, in which he called her a “nut job” and “a wacko.” Up until now, Lapine has had a more modest position on the issue of infringement. When the story first broke in October, she told the NYT, “Honestly I can’t speculate, and I’m not going to accuse anyone of anything. I suppose it’s […]

Bhutto Book Set for February Harper announced that they will publish the late Benazir Bhutto’s RECONCILIATION: Islam, Democracy, and the West, on February 12. Bhutto’s husband and children have added a “short afterword.” They call the book an “argument for a reconciliation of Islam with democratic principles, in the face of opposition from Islamic extremists and Western skeptics. Drawing on her own faith, and on her own bitter experience of division and hatreds in Pakistan, she speaks movingly and persuasively of a future for Pakistan within the Islamic world and presents arguments that resonate with extraordinary power.  In the book […]

CQ Press on the Market Congressional Quarterly announced that “it is exploring the sale of its CQ Press division” and has hired the Jordan Edmiston Group to manage the transaction. They hope to complete a sale by the end of January. CQ president Bob Merry says, “This decision has nothing to do with either the past performance or future promise of the CQ Press division, which has operated at an outstanding pitch over the past decade. Instead, with changes throughout the publishing industry, it’s no longer possible for a company such as ours to direct investment capital to all of […]