On Thursday, Disney-ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney told employees that the division would eliminate 200 jobs spread throughout the group’s units and would leave another 200 open positions unfilled. The division employs almost 7,000 people in all. Hyperion is part of the group–but publisher Ellen Archer tells us there have been no layoffs at the book publishing unit.LAT
Finance
Amazon Beats the Street (and Passes BN)
Anaysts exected Amazon to stumble in the fourth quarter due to the economy and the etailer surprised investors with another strong report card. Sales increased 18 percent to $6.70 billion as operating income was flat at $272 million. Net income rose 9 percent to $225 million in the fourth quarter, or 52 cents per share. (Analysts were expecting only 39 cents a share, and sales of $6.44 billion.) For the coming quarter, the company expects sales to continue growing from between 9 percent and 19 percent. North American media sales (defined as sales from all sellers in categories such as […]
Harper Presents Retirement Offer
This morning HarperCollins presented to US employees internally a voluntary retirement package, available to people over age 55 who have been with the company for more than five years. The offer was made to employees at the company’s New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles offices and their Scranton warehouse. It does not extend to Zondervan or any Harper units outside of the US for now; spokesperson Erin Crum notes that “each business area has different needs and legal requirements.” Noting that they company “has never done anything like this before,” Crum would not indicate a target number of job […]
Bowker Parent Takes Stake In LibraryThing
LibraryThing has sold a minority interest in the enterprise to Cambridge Information Group, which owns Bowker (as well as AquaBrowser, ProQuest, Serials Solutions and RefWorks). LT’s Tim Spalding writes on his blog that a key factor was “moola.” He notes, “LibraryThing has been profitable for a while, but we didn’t have much of a cushion. It was a nail-biter. We needed servers and new employees, but what if we had a few down months? And did I mention the economy is sick? (Cut to Tim worrying.) The CIG deal frees us from worry and gives us room to grow. While […]
Horn Book Sold
The Horn Book, Inc.–the Boston-based publisher of The Horn Book Magazine and The Horn Book Guide, which review over 4,000 children’s books annually–has been acquired by Ohio’s Media Source, best-known for their Junior Library Guild review and selection service for children’s and YA books. Horn Book will continue to run editorial operations from their Boston office. Editor-in-chief Roger Sutton says in the announce: “The expertise, enthusiasm, and resources that Media Source brings to the table will allow us to enlarge our audience while maintaining our independent viewpoint and high standards. Our print and digital publications will be refreshed, redesigned, and […]
O'Reilly Media Lays Off 30 People
On Thursday O’Reilly laid off 21 employees at its Sebastopol, CA headquarters and more throughout the company. The local paper says “the cuts affected almost 14 percent the company’s 222 employees.” Spokesperson Sara Winge says “we’re being hit by the economic malaise.” She indicates that “the Digital Media branch was restructured into one publishing division along with the company’s Missing Manual group, O’Reilly Technology Exchange and its Head First series.” The report says the company had sales of about $70 million in 2007.Press Democrat