Cambridge University Press is laying off almost 160 people in the UK. Chief executive Stephen Bourne says: “We know that this is an incredibly difficult time for those staff that are affected and we will be doing all we can to support them through these changes.” He added, “This has been a very hard decision to make. There are parts of the business doing very well and a lot of them are overseas but two parts are not and one is simply not viable in the long term.” Hardest hit is their Cambridge Printing Services unit, where 133 jobs are […]
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Headline publishing director Harriet Evans is leaving her job to focus full-time on writing, with her fourth novel due for publication this fall. Correcting yesterday’s report, Victoria Stapleton‘s promotion at Little, Brown Children’s is to associate director, school and library marketing.
Wimpy Opens Strong
In its first week on sale Jeff Kinney’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE LAST STRAW recorded sales of approximately 240,000 copies in outlets tracked by Nielsen Bookscan, as publisher Abrams says that first day sale alone “exceeded 100,000 copies” and “first-week sales totaled more than 300,000 copies.” Two reprints comprising 500,000 copies will bring the copies in print up to 1.5 million units. Abrams ceo Michael Jacobs says, “Booksellers of all sizes are thrilled with the popularity of this series, and it’s clear that the huge response…has far exceeded expectations. In this difficult economic climate, with reports of bad […]
BAM Has the Best Holiday Comps, As Indies Take A Hit
Books-A-Million reported sales for the nine-week period ending January 3 of $127.5 million, down 2.5 percent from a year ago, and a decline of 5.6 percent on a comparable-store basis. Which actually makes them the top performer among the three biggest book chains. CEO Sandra Cochran says, “Given the challenging retail environment, we were pleased that we could record an improvement in the sales trend we saw during the third quarter. Holiday sales came later than ever this year, reflecting a cautious and price-sensitive consumer. The success of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series was the big story in books this season. […]
BN.com Gets a President, and More People News
BarnesandNoble.com, which has been operating without a chief executive since Marie Toulantis left the position of ceo in August, is getting a new leader. Still with the lesser title of president, William J. Lynch, Jr. will take over on February 2. He was evp of marketing and general manager of HSN.com, and from 2004 to 2008, he was ceo and co-founder of gifts.com. Barnes & Noble ceo Steve Riggio says, “He has experience in product development, brand marketing, relationship marketing and direct marketing; he has managed both a technology start-up company and run large e-commerce organizations.” Sales fell 11 percent […]
Barnes & Noble Holiday Comps Down Only 7.7 Percent
Sales for the nine-week holiday period ending January 3 declined 7.7 percent on a same-store basis at Barnes & Noble, and fell 5.2 percent overall compared to a year ago. With store sales of $1.1 billion, BN says they “experienced diminished traffic, and as a result, diminished sales, due to the unprecedented fall-off of retail shopping during the last quarter of the year.” Like Borders, they say holiday sales improved towards the end: “After a slow start to the holiday season, our store performance improved and we were able to post comparable store sales increases during the last two weeks […]