We’ve been busy reporting everyone else’s quarterly numbers, so we thought we would share a few of our own. Most notably, Publishers Marketplace has been hitting all-time high traffic numbers for the entire quarter. For March our true page views (leaving out hundreds of thousands of views from search engines, spiders, etc.) were over 1.2 million–with both page views and unique visitors up 32.5 percent over a year ago. And traffic was building throughout the quarter; up 12 percent in January, and 16 percent in February, and 20 percent overall for the quarter. We think a lot of it is […]
Free
ABA Stays the Course Naming Teicher New CEO
The ABA has picked longtime chief operating officer Oren Teicher to succeed Avin Domnitz as the organization’s CEO. President Gayle Shanks writes to members, “His encyclopedic knowledge of everything associated with ABA’s past and current programs, coupled with his thoughtful and insightful analysis of how ABA can meet our future challenges, combined to make him our clear choice.” Shanks also notes that “as recommended several years ago by our Governance Review Committee, details surrounding the new CEO contract will be made available to the membership after they are finalized. The Board wants to assure the membership that the terms of […]
People
USAir Captain Chesley Sullenberger will appear at BEA on Saturday afternoon, speaking from one of the convention’s new floor-based Author Stages and then signing a promotional piece for his forthcoming book from William Morrow. Globe Pequot group publisher Gary Krebs is leaving the company, and will join McGraw-Hill Professional as a group publisher next month. Author of THE MEANING OF NIGHT and THE GLASS OF TIME Michael Cox, 60, died Tuesday morning after a long battle with cancer.
Announcements
Granta continues to revamp their web site, now featuring articles and interviews that will not appear in the print magazine. They have finally added RSS feeds as well. Helen Chase, wife of William Chase and a former editor of Chase’s Calendar of Events died after a battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She co-managed Chase’s Calendar from its inception in 1957 until McGraw-Hill acquired it in 1989, and remained involved in the publishing process “right up until the last day of her life.” On April 6 John Mackey will join Oxford University Press as the Barnes & Noble national accounts manager. He […]
Borders' Sales and Margins Continue to Fall, But At Least their Debt Is Smaller
Fourth quarter sales at Borders were $1.1 billion overall, down 12.9 percent from a year ago. The superstores comprised $816.1 million, down 15.3 percent on a same-store sales basis (and book comps were down 11.7 percent), and 14.8 percent overall. Waldenbooks accounted for $195.6 million in sales, down a more modest 4.7 percent on a same-store basis, and down 14.3 percent overall. International sales added $43.2 million, and Borders.com did $26.4 million in business. The company had net writedowns totaling $34.9 million in the quarter. Goodwill impairment was the largest charge, followed by store closures and severance costs. Adjusted income […]
What Should BEA Do?
BEA show director responds to some of the chatter (and complaints) about the recently-announced decision to keep BEA in New York and change to a mid-week rather than a weekend show. “This fall we went through a process of recreating the event as if there never had been a BEA before… The location seemed like an easy choice, you’d base it in the capital of the publishing world, just like the biggest gaming show is in Vegas and the auto show is in Detroit.” As for dates, “after booksellers, the majority of attendees are professionals and they are not typically […]