In a preliminary report of annual results, Waterstone’s parent HMW is claiming that bookstore sales are improving, with same-store sales for the 16-weeks ending April 24 down 4.8 percent–which is indeed better than the full-year same-store decline of 6.2 percent, and also an improvement over the poor Christmas holiday comp decline of 8.9 percent. Overall bookstore sales for the year are down 6 percent as well. It’s the second straight annual decline for the chain. Though they did not report actual figures today, based on last year’s numbers, sales will be down to approximately 515 million pounds for the year. […]
International News
Random House Discloses Sale of Japanese and Korean Units
Random House revealed quietly in an internal personnel announcement that over the past 10 months the company has retrenched from two pieces of the Peter Olson expansionist years. In September, they discontinued their Japanese joint venture, Random House Kodansha, which began in 2003, and in February they divested their Random House Korea, which they had started as a joint venture with JoongAng and bought full control of four years ago. In both cases, the units were sold to the CEOs and executives who run the companies. Random House Kodansha ceo Yuji Takeda led the buyout of what is now called […]
Sales Fall 4 Percent at WH Smith; Publishing Remains Soft for Courier
The UK’s WH Smith reported results for the six months ending February 28, with high street sales of 503 million pounds down 4 percent, both in absolute terms and on a comp-store basis. Books as a category were also down 4 percent compared to a year ago. The company says “the books market was soft during the key Christmas period, but performance varied by sub-category with the poor publishing schedule in non-fiction acting as a key driver behind the market decline.” Nonetheless, they insist that “we continue to implement our strategy to build on our authority as a popular book […]
Quiet London Book Fair Opens As Those Who Made It Worry About Getting Home
The London Book Fair officially opened today to lighter crowds and many empty booths as a result of the extraordinary air travel restrictions due to the spreading cloud of volcanic ash from the eruption in Iceland. UK airspace was closed throughout the weekend, and according to the latest update it will remain closed at least until 1:00 am local time on Tuesday. For all those who were triumphant in getting over to London in time for the fair, now comes the substantial question of when they’ll be able to return home. (In the meantime, Bloomsbury Press publisher Peter Ginna recounts […]
People, Announcements, Etc.
Wylie O’Sullivan has been promoted to senior editor at Free Press, where she started in 2001 as an editorial assistant. Christina Biamonte will join Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division as new Content Account Manager, eBooks. She has been Subsidiary Rights Manager at Houghton Mifflin. At Sony, she will forge new publisher relationships and act as relationship manager for existing publishing partners. On Tuesday, Zondervan laid off 30 employees as part of a “streamlining [of] our operations,” with a total workforce of 374 people. At the same time, the company is hiring for its digital and multimedia operations, with the Grand […]
Distribution, People, Etc.
Soho Press will move their worldwide distribution–including ebooks–to Random House as of January 1, 2011. They have been distributed by Consortium since 2003 Marcy Posner, formerly agent and foreign rights director at Sterling Lord Literistic, has joined Folio Literary Management as an agent specializing in children’s and young adult as well as women’s fiction, romance and serious and commercial non-fiction. Celeste Fine will continue as the foreign rights director. Lottchen Shivers will join Abrams on April 19 in the new position of executive director of adult marketing and publicity, reporting to vp of sales and marketing Mary Wowk. Shivers will […]