Consistent with HarperCollins’ “investor day” presentation we cited recently showing the company plans to have just four warehouses worldwide by 2014, the publisher is closing their New Zealand-based warehouse and switching distribution and support services to the company’s distribution center in Australia. The number of job losses was not clear, though general manager Graham Mitchell will leave the company after a transition period. Harper Australia chief executive James Kellow said in a statement the company “remained committed to publishing New Zealand books for New Zealand readers and looked forward to maintaining a local publishing programme in the future.” He added: […]
Finance
People, Etc.
Co-founder and ceo of Figment.com Jacob Lewis will join the Crown group on July 8 in the new position of vp, publishing director for Crown, Hogarth, and Broadway Books, reporting to Molly Stern. He will “partner” with Stern on “the day-to-day strategy and business development of the lists, with particular focus on the publishing of our nonfiction titles and marketing initiatives in the digital space.” Prior to launching the online reading and writing community for teens in 2009, Lewis had worked for 12 years at the New Yorker and then was managing editor at Condé Nast Portfolio. Founder of Bloomsbury […]
Harper Shares Data on Light Third Quarter; Shows Investors Profitability of eBook
Overlooked in the run up to BEA was the “investor day” presentations regarding the new News Corp., held in New York last Tuesday, and the release of additional financial data through the company’s fiscal third quarter. In early May when the parent company reported results through March 31, they did not break out HarperCollins’ third quarter performance — but it can be derived out of the new year-to-date data. For the period, Harper recorded sales of $311 million (their lightest quarter of the fiscal year so far) and EBITDA of $29 million. eBooks comprised 21.3 percent of Harper’s sales in […]
People, Etc.
Bill Harris has joined BookEnds Literary Agency as director of digital content. Formerly a senior managing editor at Penguin, he has most recently been a freelance editorial and web development consultant. In addition, Beth Campbell has been promoted to literary assistant and rights coordinator. Skyhorse and Start Publishing have finalized their joint acquisition of Night Shade Books, an agreement reached “following a spirited and public debate” among authors, agents, fans, and publishers. According to a statement, Night Shade had net sales in 2012 of approximately $1.5 million. In Denmark, Lindhardt and Ringhof has acquired independent Danish literary house Per Kofod […]
China Signs Off; Penguin and Random House to Merge In July
China’s antitrust authority has “cleared the planned merger of Penguin Group and Random House without conditions,” the two publishers reported, and they “welcome the Beijing authorities’ decision as an important step toward the combination of their respective publishing companies.” This was the final international approval required for the deal to go through, so “subject to the integration planning, Bertelsmann and Pearson are confident about being able to close the transaction in July 2013.”
“Difficult Negotiations” Persist Between S&S and B&N, Limiting Author Events, Too
One controversy not evident on the BEA show floor but still very heated off the floor is the stand-off on terms between Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster that has resulted in reduced business between the publisher and the bookseller since the beginning of the year. (For some publishers, discussion of revamped terms with B&N began last summer, and we’re told there is renewed pressure from the booksellers on those who have not changed business terms.) It landed back on the radar when S&S author William Kent Krueger blogged that he was told to cancel two events scheduled for […]