In a memo today, Simon & Schuster ceo Jonathan Karp advised staff on the future of in-office work for the company, taking a “departmental approach.” Working from the office had been voluntary for most employees throughout the lengthy sale process. Managers will determine the schedule for their teams, which may be fully in person, 2 to 3 days in the office, or fully remote. In the NYC office in Rockefeller Center, employees who are not coming in at least two days a week by December 1 will forfeit their office space and “share new office space, which will be created […]
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Bomb Threat at The King’s English Bookstore in Salt Lake City
The King’s English Bookstore in Salt Lake City, UT was temporarily shut down by a bomb threat on Sunday morning targeting a drag queen story hour. Salt Lake City police heard of a “suspicious circumstance” around 9:30 and, after determining it was a bomb threat, evacuated the store to search for explosives, clearing it to reopen around 11. Tara Lipsyncki has hosted that drag queen story hour for five months. Lipsyncki wrote in an Instagram post, “In the face of hate and threats you have two options, to fight back or to back down. I will always fight and stand […]
Layoffs at Insight Editions
Insight Editions laid off a number of staffers earlier this week as part of a “refinement of [their] organizational structure.” The company would not provide a number of fired employees on the record. They add in a statement, “We are confident that these changes will improve the way we do business and ensure that we are in the best position possible to most effectively continue our mission of “crafting the extraordinary” for fans, readers, and our content partners. Unfortunately, this reorganization brought about the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of positions within the company.
Agent, UK Publisher Stop Work with Russell Brand After Assault Allegations
Publisher Bluebird Books, an imprint of Pan Macmillan in the UK, has “paused” all future publishing with comedian Russell Brand. Brand was accused of sexual assault and rape by four women, as well as allegations of “controlling, abusive and predatory behavior” by other women, in a lengthy joint investigation from the UK’s Sunday Times, Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches. Brand has denied all allegations. Bluebird was slated to publish Brand’s next book, RECOVERY: THE WORKBOOK, in December. “These are very serious allegations and in the light of them, Bluebird has taken the decision to pause all future publishing with Russell […]
Penguin Random House Will Reduce Office Space, “Encourage” Employees to Return “More Frequently”
Penguin Random House interim ceo Nihar Malaviya wrote to US employees on Tuesday about adjustments to their policy on office attendance as well as their use of space at 1745 Broadway. Notably, the company will “reduce our footprint at 1745 Broadway this fall” in order to “save costs on the spaces that are not being used today.” The company declined to indicate how many floors they expect to vacate. (In 2016, PRH took over all of the office condo space from floors 2 through 23, with the exception of the 20th floor, in a lease extension running through mid-2033.) Malaviya […]
Dymocks Data Breach Impacts Over 836,000 Customers
Dymocks Booksellers, a 65-store bookstore chain in Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong which also sells books online, experienced a data breach, which exposed 836,120 unique customer accounts. The leak includes customer email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, mailing addresses, and more. The chain was informed of the leak by data breach notification service ‘Have I Been Pwned’ on September 6. But the service says the stolen data has been circulating on hacker forums since June. The chain says it has not yet discovered how its systems were penetrated. They wrote to customers on Friday, September 8, “On (Wednesday), Dymocks became […]