Lonely Planet announced to Melbourne staff Thursday that it will shift the bulk of its web operations to the company’s UK offices and slash costs by 18 percent, cutting 70 jobs in the process. The company said the move was due to a strengthening Australian dollar and declining sales. “Despite the fact that we’ve delivered on everything we set out to achieve this past year, the devastating impact of foreign currency exchange shaved over $13 million off our 2010/11 revenues. And at the moment, we have more than 80 per cent of our revenues coming from outside of Australia & New […]
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Bookselling: Laredo Gets a Chain Bookstore Again; Diesel Close to New Malibu Digs; World Book Night in US; And More
The city of Laredo, TX, which last year famously became the largest American city without a new bookstore when a B. Dalton branch closed, will no longer have that distinction as of today – thanks to the arrival of Books-A-Million in the very same space. (A used bookstore, Escape Again Bookstore, did open in the city last year.) AP Diesel, A Bookstore is close to finding a new home in Malibu after it was forced to close earlier this year because of landlord and construction issues. Malibu Country Mart owner Michael Koss said at Monday’s City Council meeting that he […]
Dorchester Tells Now-Disbanded Unofficial Creditors Committee It Does Have a Plan
Early last week Dorchester enthusiastically announced that they will resume publishing “a full trade line” next month. That hopeful message was preceded by a vote of no confidence from the authors whom Dorchester still is said to owe royalties (and in some cases, reversions of rights as well). On April 22, representatives of a group of authors and publishing professionals who had formed unofficial unsecured creditors committee told Dorchester they were disbanding. “The Unofficial Committee has taken this step,” said the representative from law firm Lowenstein Sandler in an email obtained by us, “because it has determined that Dorchester will […]
Bookselling: BAMM Won’t Get Joseph-Beth Inventory; Stores Closing in SF and Brooklyn
Books-A-Million‘s planned takeover of the Joseph-Beth bookstore in Fredericksburg, VA has hit a snag. While the retailer will still occupy the space, they were not able to reach an agreement with Gordon Brothers, the liquidation company that won the store in last month’s auction, for the rights to Joseph-Beth’s inventory. Joe Bell, spokesman for the company that owns the mall where the store is located, told the Free-Lance Star: “Unfortunately, they could not come to an agreement. Therefore, Gordon Brothers has opted to conduct a liquidation sale, something we just learned about.” The liquidation sale began last Friday, and is […]
Briefs: Borders HQ Asking Price Slashed; ‘Mirkwood’ Lawsuit Settled; Publisher Acquisitions; And More
Agree Realty, hit particularly hard by Borders’ bankruptcy as a result of owning 14 properties where the retailer held long-term listings, has slashed the asking price for the company’s Ann Arbor headquarters from $18.349 million to $10 million. Earlier this year Borders indicated it was seeking cheaper and smaller space in the suburban Detroit area, as the 330,000 square-foot headquarters used to house as many as 1800 employees, but that number is down to 500 or less. AnnArbor.com The Tolkien Estate settled its lawsuit against author Stephen Hilliard, whose novel Mirkwood features JRR Tolkien as a character. The estate argued […]
Publishers Line Up Instant eBooks on Bin Laden Death
President Obama’s announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death Sunday was followed quickly by book publishers planning what they could issue digitally as quickly as possible. The WSJ reports that Random House executive editor Jon Meacham will oversee and write the introduction for “Beyond Bin Laden: America and the Future of Terror,” an essay collection featuring a half-dozen other contributors that the publisher hopes to release as an ebook next week. (One essay that seems certain to be included is Salman Rushdie’s op-ed published by The Daily Beast yesterday.) In addition, Free Press is “eager” for a digital book on the […]