Brooklyn-based digital publishing technology player Atavist “has laid off half its staff and is looking for ways to cut costs and stick around,” Nieman Lab reports, after failing to secure additional funding. Seven people have been laid off over the past month and another three people left in the last quarter and have not been replaced. The company last raised $2 million a little over a year ago, as the separate but related IAC-backed digital publisher Atavist Books closed. At the time, ceo Evan Ratliff told us, “Atavist itself is currently stronger than ever, and we’re excited about the growth in both […]
Financing/Start-Ups
Corporate: Canongate Falls In 2014, 3M Exits Library Market
Sales at Canongate fell 24 percent in 2014, down to £7.9 million, with a pre-tax loss of £1.3 million in a “difficult and dispiriting” year. The company blamed a bad fall list, with “some very significant advance write-offs we subsequently made.” 3M sold their North American Library Services division to One Equity Partners — which owns Bibliotheca — and they have “entered into agreements” to sell the remaining global Library Systems business as well. Bibliotheca promises that the expanded group “will combine the best of both worlds to help libraries captivate their communities, providing innovative library-focused solutions that connect with people at home, at the library, and […]
Corporate: Holtzbrinck Will Also Drop DRM In Germany; BookTrack Raises More
A meaningful portion of the big ebook publishers in Germany — where Kindle has lower market share than in many other developed ebook markets — is moving away from formal DRM to digital watermarking instead. Holtzbrinck’s trade imprints are the latest to make the move, as of August. Their lines include Droemer Knaur, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Rowohlt and S. Fischer. Bonnier Germany dropped DRM on their ebooks as of July 1, and other German publishers of note including dtv, Hoffman & Campe, and Luebbe gave up DRM earlier in the year. Separately, Booktrack has raised an additional $5 million in Series B financing, with the […]
Ingram Launches Accelerator
The book publishing-focused start-up world has always been missing an incubator or accelerator to help refine and mentor promising new companies, and now Ingram Content Group is answering that need. Building on investments made through ICG Ventures, the company announced Tuesday their 1440 Accelerator “to find and accelerate startups creating the next breakthrough innovations in the publishing industry.” (It is named for the year Johannes Gutenberg perfected his printing press.) Ingram is working with the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (which John Ingram also chairs) and Jumpstart Foundry. Set to begin in September, the program will put up to 10 startups into […]
People, Etc.
At Hachette Livre, Pierre Danet has been promoted to group chief digital innovator, reporting to Arnaud Nourry, while continuing to supervise digital projects in France, reporting to Catherine Cussigh. In addition, Eva Dunoyer moves up to innovation project manager. At Sourcebooks, Susan Raasch is being promoted to senior accounts receivable specialist, and Sara Bonnar is being promoted to accounting manager. Due to a US sales restructuring at DK, svp, sales Therese Burke and director of special sales Vicki Korlishin have had their positions eliminated. Burke may be contacted at trez914@gmail.com and Korlishin may be reached at vkorlishin@gmail.com. Head of Bilheimer & Associates (and head of PR for […]
BookBub Raises Another $7 Million for Growth; Vook Rebrands As Pronoun; Pandora Buys Next Big Sound/Book
BookBub announced that they recently closed another financing round of $7 million in equity and debt financing. The capital comes from the same investors who provided a $3.8 million round a year ago (led by NextView Ventures and Founder Collective, joined by Avalon Ventures and Bloomberg Beta). Co-founder Josh Schanker says in the post they “decided to take additional capital to accelerate expansion.” He also indicates that they have added over 20 employees in the last year. In what looks to be the next of many pivots for Vook (and their acquired properties Byliner and Booklr), the company has announced “the formation […]