At Random House Struik in South Africa, founding managing director Stephen Johnson will step down in March 2012, the end of the unit’s fiscal year, as he reaches retirement age. Johnson will become chairman of the company’s board in April. Current managing director of London’s New Holland Publishers (and a former Struik md) Steve Connolly will return to South Africa to run Random House Struik as of April. Nicola Way will join Harper Children’s UK as marketing director in January. She was most recently a board director at Iris Nation, a UK integrated marketing agency. Sumya Ojakli has been named senior […]
International News
Trading Updates from Bertelsmann and WH Smith
Today is Bertelsmann’s turn for a brief, European-style third quarter trading update, with no breakouts by division. If you strip out the recent quarter by itself, sales of 3.575 billion euros were up 3%, and operating EBIT of 355 million euros was up 36 million euros, or 11 percent. For the year-so-far, sales are up slightly, and operating EBIT is down a little, with both of those categories performing better in the third quarter than earlier in the year. Release In the UK, WH Smith said in a brief update of their own that High Store sales declined 5 percent […]
Bookselling: BN Asked Justice to Investigate Microsoft; Australia Prepares to Reduce Import Ban to 14 Days
In documents filed with the International Trade Commission as part of the patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Microsoft, Barnes & Noble indicated that over the spring and summer they appealed to the Justice Department to investigate Microsoft on anti-trust grounds. “Microsoft’s willingness to bully small players with expensive litigation raises a substantial barrier to entry in any market in which it claims dominance,” general counself for BN Eugene DeFelice wrote, the WSJ reports. “Microsoft’s exorbitant licenses for its patents entrench the dominant players in the relevant markets because those players can afford to take a license, while small players cannot.” WSJ […]
eNews: Amazon Augmented Reality App; La Vanguardia’s New eBookstore; and More
Though Amazon’s ebook lending service for Prime members is the big story for the day, they also launched another service (through subsidiary A9.com) worth remarking upon. Flow Powered by Amazon is a free augmented reality iPhone app that, when pointed in the direction of any good with a UPC barcode (like video games, DVDs and books) will display Amazon product information, including the option to play multimedia content and read customer reviews. Release La Vanguardia, Spain’s 4th largest newspaper (and the top newspaper in Barcelona, where most of Spanish book publishing is located) announced on Wednesday that it is launching […]
Struggling Eichborn Is Bought by Luebbe
Germany’s Eichborn Verlag, which has endured a year of troubles and transition, is being sold to privately-owned Bastei Luebbe. Owner and publisher Stefan Luebbe says in the announcement, “Eichborn also has great authors and a strong reputation for unconventional, off the beaten track iconic books. Both companies share a belief in the creative power of authors, editors and marketing. Together, we will be in an enviable position to face future challenges as a major independent media force.” Luebbe sold 30 million euros of bonds recently, though the publisher said the borrowings were unrelated to any acquisitions. Die Welt says that […]
Imprints: Dennis Lehane Books; Amazon’s SF/F Imprint Called 47North
Recently Ecco announced its longtime author Anthony Bourdain would acquire and edit a handful of titles each year under his own eponymous imprint. Now William Morrow has followed suit in working with Dennis Lehane, whom they have published since 1994, on an imprint of his own. Dennis Lehane Books will “help identify and acquire literary fiction with a dark urban edge.” The announcement did not specify a launch title or a release date beyond saying Lehane would oversee publication of a “select number” of fiction titles annually and that he would work with his longtime editor Claire Wachtel. (Lehane’s agent […]