Kobo has announced the opening of their New York office, focused on publisher relations andUS content acquisition. Ami Greko joins the company as senior manager, vendor relations, books. She was director of business development for GetGlue after having managed digital marketing for Macmillan. Jan Ehrlich has been hired as director, newspapers and magazines. She was most recently director of business development for Texterity. Kobo notes in the announcement, “Publisher relationships are something we take very seriously at Kobo. Our work with US-based publishers is growing at a frantic pace as we continue to add new vendors, deepen our retail relationships, […]
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Bloomsbury Does Better with Publishing than Investments
Sales at Bloomsbury rose 4.5 percent in the first half of the year, to 36.8 million pounds, though pre-tax profit fell by a little more than half, at 949,000 pounds. Profits on the publishing side fell by 23 percent, mostly due to the inclusion of the new Bloomsbury Professional unit (based on their acquisition of law and tax publisher Tottel), “which is typically loss making in the first half of the year.” Investment income on the mountain of residual Harry Potter cash declined much more sharply, down from 842,000 pounds to 180,000 pounds, reaffirming that the company is much better […]
People, Etc.
At William Morrow, Peter Hubbard has been promoted to senior editor. At Touchstone, Lauren Spiegel has been promoted to associate editor. In the Eataly food and wine center opening at the end of August in the former Toy Building on lower Fifth Avenue in New York, led by Lidia and Joseph Bastianich and Mario Batali, Rizzoli Bookstore will be the exclusive bookseller. They will also manage book signings by chefs giving classes and demonstrations in the space. Tyrus Books, founded last year, announced that they are acquiring fellow crime fiction publisher Busted Flush Press. Busted Flush publisher David Thompson “will […]
This Time Borders Hires, and More
Borders has hired Michele Delahunty-Cloutier as evp, chief merchandising officer, overseeing merchandising, marketing and supply chain and reporting to Mike Edwards. Most recently she was brand president for Chico’s FAS, and she had been svp, general merchandise manager for Ann Taylor Stores. Borders has also named Eric Kovats regional vp for the Southeast and Beatrice Vicente as regional vp for the West Coast. Kovats was regional vp at Stores for Heartland Automotive Services, “the largest franchisee of Jiffy Lube Stores in the country.” In other personnel news, at Crown, Rachel Berkowitz has been promoted to manager, foreign rights, and Nidhi […]
Barnes & Noble Today: Waiting for Earnings, As Riggio and Burkle Both Say They Don’t Want to Work Together
The next news event for Barnes & Noble will be the reporting of first quarter earnings tomorrow morning. Analysts surveyed by Thompson Reuters are expecting a loss of 80 cents a share on sales of $1.42 billion, though the company’s guidance was for a new loss in a range of 85 cents to $1.15 a share. The net loss for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010, reported June 28, was 89 cents a share. At the time, BN said they expected first quarter Barnes & Noble.com sales–where Nook revenues are recorded–to increase between 30 percent and 50 percent. BN store […]
Books-A-Million Comps Decline 3.4 Percent As Earnings Improve
The bookseller reported second quarter sales of $120 million, down 2 percent overall and down 3.4 percent on a same-store basis compared to a year ago. Net income of $1.9 million was up $500,000 compared to last year. BAMM ceo Clyde Anderson says in the release, “our team did a good job to deliver solid results in a tough environment” (which is what they usually say). They claim in the release that it was a difficult comparison to a year ago–“the success last year of the Twilight series and titles from Glenn Beck and Mark Levin proved difficult to match […]