Thomas Nelson ceo Michael Hyatt announced layoffs at the company today via his active Twitter feed and then wrote further on his blog. “Today, was a very difficult day at Thomas Nelson. We informed fifty-four of our friends and co-workers (about 10% of our workforce) that we have eliminated their jobs, effective this Friday. This will affect nearly every department in our company.” In April, the company eliminated “about 60” positions “because we have changed our business strategy.” But “this second round was purely a result of the slowdown in the economy,” Hyatt now writes. He admits, “As recently as […]
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Briefly: Laura Bush Still Shopping; Coulter's GUILTY; Updike's Bad Sex; UK Sales Keep Falling; A New Standard for Digital Content
* First Lady Laura Bush has confirmed the previous confirmation that she is talking to publishers about a book deal. “I’ve been talking to some publishers, but nothing has happened yet — just a few visits.” * How will Ann Coulter fare in an Obama world? Her new book is GUILTY: Liberal “Victims” and their Assault on America, which “exposes and mocks, in graphic detail, the media’s love affair with all things Democrat and Obama” according to the hyping on the Drudge Report. * The UK sales decline continues, as year-on-year, unit sales were down 5.1 percent in the past […]
$6 Billion Federal Reading Program a Failure
The Washington Post reported last week that “students in the $6 billion Reading First program have not made greater progress in understanding what they read than have peers outside the program, according to a congressionally mandated study…. Students in schools that use Reading First, a program at the core of the No Child Left Behind law, scored no better on comprehension tests than students in similar schools that do not get the funding.” As the article adds, “Federal investigators have found that some people who helped oversee the program had financial ties to the publishers of Reading First materials.”Post As […]
NY Judge Tentatively OKs Google Deal
While blog posts and press releases around the world have been full of carping about the proposed settlement of two lawsuits against Google related to their Book Search library project, the judge in the matter had a much simpler response: tentative approval. Judge John Sprizzo’s order was made public yesterday, and he set a June 11 date for a fairness hearing to “decide if the deal is fair, reasonable and adequate.” AP
Graywolf's Success
St. Paul’s City Pages has an extensive profile of the rise of Graywolf Press, led by their successful publishing of Norwegian novelist Per Petterson, “until recently, little more than an obscure, aging novelist with a tragic past.” Director and publisher Fiona McCrae says of his Out Stealing Horses, “It seems like a quiet book, until you realize it’s stolen your heart and your mind. We really liked it, but we didn’t think it was going to be a big, big book. We’re not that bright.” But they are bright enough, and passionate enough, to have put together a run of […]
How Badly Does Reed Need RBI Sale?
The longer the auction for the Reed Business Information goes on, the more the reported price drops, as the economy continues to slide. The latest rumor in the British media has the offering prices heading below 1 billion pounds, against an initial valuation of at least 1.25 billion pounds. The three bidders left are Bain Capital, TPG and Strauss Zelnick. One person involved in the deal tells the FT, “Reed Elsevier won’t sell at any price but buyers can’t ignore what they are hearing and seeing in the marketplace.” Plus, “Just how much below £1bn remains to be seen.” But […]