Simon & Schuster is creating a dedicated digital sales team as well as a new retail sales force comprised of national accounts, field sales and telemarketing. The company is also pursuing what ceo Carolyn Reidy calls an “even greater focus on marketing, at both the imprint and the corporate level.” New marketing staff will be added to each of the company’s imprints, and the children’s marketing team will move back to the children’s division. Liz Perl will now report directly to Reidy, and the company’s digital group under Ellie Hirschhorn will add “responsibility for our corporate social media efforts, and […]
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RLJ Equity Partners Acquires Parent Company of LJ, SLJ and Horn Book
Media Source Inc., the parent company of Library Journal, School Library Journal, The Horn Book and the Junior Library Guild, was sold to RLJ Equity Partners, one of the hedge funds created by Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson. 21st Century Group, LLC and New Canaan Funding Mezzanine, LLC also took part in the deal, for which terms were not disclosed. LJ and SLJ had been acquired by Media Source in early 2010; Media Source was in turn previously owned by Riverside Company, which bought them in 2007. Media Source had been on the block for a while, according […]
HarperCollins Paid $200M To Acquire Thomas Nelson
News Corp disclosed in its quarterly 10-Q report on Friday that HarperCollins acquired Thomas Nelson for $200 million, and that the deal took place in October. The number is less than half the $473 million former owner InterMedia paid for Thomas Nelson back in 2006. The filing also disclosed that HarperCollins is now subject to 23 different consumer class action suits filed in New York and California relating to purported anti-trust issues and the use of the agency model by the six largest publishing houses. The defendants, including HarperCollins, filed a motion with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to […]
BN Introduces the $249 Nook Tablet, Takes Multiple Shots at the Kindle Fire
You would think the drama would have been taken away from Barnes and Noble’s presentation of their new Nook devices Monday morning in New York, following the thorough (and completely accurate) leaking of that information last week, as we reported on Friday. What’s most important is that BN answered the lingering question of “can they really compete with Amazon?” with a clear indication that they have come to play. What’s more, and unlike previous Nook presentations, the gloves are clearly off and every aspect of Monday’s presentation focused on why BN believes they have better devices and “incredible values” that take Amazon head […]
Briefs: Opening Week Sales for STEVE JOBS; The Numbers on Amazon Publishing; and More
Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs sold more than 382,000 print copies in its first week on sale in the US, with an additional 37,244 copies sold in the UK, according to Bookscan numbers obtained by the Bookseller. The numbers make STEVE JOBS the 18th bestselling book of the year after just six days on sale, based solely on the outlets Bookscan reports from. It is not known yet how many digital copies Simon & Schuster has sold so far. Amazon Publishing has released 149 titles to date from its various imprints (with at least another hundred to follow in […]
Bookselling: OFT Clears Amazon/Book Depository Merger; St. Mark’s Rent Won’t Be Reduced; and More
As some of us expected, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading has cleared the way for Amazon’s proposed acquisition of The Book Depository. The OFT said that according to the evidence it received, The Book Depository only accounted for “between two to four per cent of online retailing of hard-copy books,” and as such didn’t qualify as a “significant source of competitive rivalry to Amazon.” Further, the OFT added, “the evidence indicated that competition within Amazon Marketplace would continue to be strong post-merger, for a wide range of book titles.” As to whether the merger would reduce competition in “deep-range” […]