Distribution

Anderson News filed a suit against major magazine publishers and two major distribution competitors, similar to the suits filed by Source Interlink, alleging that the parties conspired to put the mass market book and magazine distributor out of business. Separately, in the suit filed by four major book publishers to put Anderson into involuntary bankruptcy, a Delaware judge denied a request yesterday to appoint an interim trustee of Anderson News’ assets.Knoxville News Sentinel

The latest announcement in a week of see-saw reports about the status of mass-market giants Anderson News and Source Interlink has Anderson saying that it is suspending operations immediately. Mediaweek says the wholesaler indicated “that it would continue talking with publishers and retailers to find a way to stay in business, but that it had no choice but to cease operations to staunch years of financial losses.” There is no clear word on whether the move has any effect on Anderson’s handling of mass market books.MediaWeek Competitor Source Interlink dropped its demand for a fee of seven cents per magazine […]

Let’s Go, the Harvard Student Agencies travel guide book line, has announced a new “publishing and distribution partnership” with Perseus Books Group’s Avalon Travel imprint and their distributor Publishers Group West. (We reported in September 2007 that longtime partner St. Martin’s Press had decided not to renew their contract with Let’s Go when it expired in fall 2009, after 25 years together.) Avalon will print and market the guides, with PGW handling sales and distribution, beginning with the 2010 series. Twenty-six guides will initiate the relationship in November 2009, coinciding with Let’s Go’s 50th anniversary.

In a note posted on its web site, the Poughkeepsie, NY-based wholesaler announces that they will close this Friday. (They are taking final orders today, and will “accept customer returns and process claims for damaged books” until the 23rd.) “A wholesaler, however committed to or respected by its customers, cannot be a wholesaler for very long without books.  Over the course of the last year, we have not been able to raise the capital necessary to fund BookStream’s inventory in a way that compensates for never having established, after three years of being in business, trade credit commensurate with the […]