Barnes & Noble stock rebounded a little from its morning low on Friday to finish at just above $10 a share — still down $17 percent on the day (with Barnes & Noble Education falling over 7 percent as people sold anything either Barnes or Noble). In a down market overall, Barnes & Noble is declining again Monday morning, down over 7 percent so far. In the company’s quarterly SEC filing, they detailed the components of the recent period’s sales decline. The problematic relaunch of the BN.com website decreased online sales by $17.5 million — or 22 percent, which is significant […]
Finance
Robert Hale Ltd Closes After Nearly 80 Years
UK publisher Robert Hale Ltd will shut down after almost 80 years in business, the Bookseller reports, leading to the immediate loss of 10 jobs, with 4 more set for elimination next year. The company’s lists and imprints, including NAG Press, J A Allen and Buried River Press, have been bought by The Crowood Press. Chairman John Hale “intends to retire and realize the family’s assets next spring.” The publisher is no longer active as of December 1, but will continue some operations as it calculates remaining royalties and winds down. “It is a sad time, but we are delighted that our […]
Corporate: Big Quarto Investors Exit, NGS Closes Fox Deal
The Quarto Group disclosed that two significant shareholders — Harwood Capital and Wellcome Trust — have sold their holdings in the company. As a result, Harwood managing partner Christopher Mills will step down from his position as a non-executive director of the company when a replacement has been appointed. Mills notes in the announcement, “In the three years since Harwood took a hands-on approach to our investment in Quarto with the support of Wellcome and others, the share price has improved by close to 50 percent. The corporate governance of the company is now in accordance with best practice, the management team of Tim Chadwick, Chairman, and Marcus […]
Corporate: Expanded S&S Library Option, Expanding Orbit, and More
Simon & Schuster is testing an expansion of their business proposition for library ebook lending. Announced by Overdrive on their blog, the new pilot offers an expanded two-year lending term for a roster of about 550 titles, with the second year priced at 50 percent of the one-year lending sales price. The starting selection includes at least some bestsellers and frontlist releases. Hachette Book Group’s sci-fi/fantasy imprint Orbit will increase the number of titles it publishes by 50 percent starting with the fall 2016 season, growing to about 90 titles a year. The line says it will hire additional editorial, marketing, and design staff to […]
Bertelsmann Earnings Gain In Third Quarter
In a brief third quarter trading update (in the European tradition) Bertelsmann says they had “stronger growth in revenues and profits” over the past three months “than during the first half of the present fiscal year” — when sales had grown modestly, though due to currency exchange and acquisitions, sliding on an organic basis. Sales were up €141 million in the third quarter (or 3.5 percent), to €4.112 billion, as “operating EBITDA improved markedly.” For the first 9 months, Bertelsmann has earned €573 million in operating profit, a record for this point in the fiscal year and equal to what they earned […]
People, Etc.
Martha Rago has been appointed to the newly created position of executive creative director, Random House Children’s Books,reporting to Judith Haut, as the children’s art departments are united. Isabel Warren-Lynch, executive art director for the Knopf, Delacorte, Crown, and Wendy Lamb Books imprints, and her team, will report to Rago, as will Tracy Tyler, executive art director, licensed publishing; associate art director Nicole de las Heras; and Jason Zamajtuk, art director, Random House/Golden Books for Young Readers. Colleen Lindsay has joined Open Road as senior marketing manager, reporting to Mary McAveney, focused primarily on sci-fi/fantasy, mystery, and thriller titles. Previously she […]