On Tuesday Powell’s Books laid off 31 staffers, or approximately 7 percent of its unionized work force, at its stores in Burnside and Beaverton and two industrial warehouses, a move they cite as a response to the “unprecedented, rapidly changing nature of the book industry.” In a statement Powell’s cited “changing consumer behavior” – namely, the rise in e-book sales – as causing a significant impact over the past three years, along with “an industry-wide decline in new book sales, rising healthcare costs, and the economy.” President Emily Powell stated “I feel it is critical to make some very difficult […]
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Wiley to Write off $9M in Bad Debt From Borders
Wiley won’t report its 3rd quarter earnings until March 10, but today the publisher stated they will write off a pre-tax bad debt expense of approximately $9m (or $6m after-tax) from Borders. According to the SEC filing, “This net charge represents the difference between Wiley’s outstanding receivable with Borders and our expectation of potential offsets and recoveries in the future, and existing reserves for this customer.” Wiley stopped shipping books to Borders in December, when the retailer first indicated it would delay paying vendors, and as such Wiley further states that “no additional charge or bad debt expense with respect […]
Canadian Distributor HB Fenn Initiates Bankruptcy Proceedings
Meanwhile, the surprise bankruptcy filing came yesterday from Canada, where the country’s largest distributor HB Fenn & Company initiated bankruptcy proceedings under the country’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. In a brief statement Fenn said it had “encountered significant financial challenges due to the loss of distribution lines, shrinking margins and the significant shift to e-books, all of which have significantly reduced the company’s revenues.” The company’s Lisa Winstanley told the National Post more bluntly, “we’re ceasing operations effective immediately.” The paper calls it “the largest collapse of a Canadian publishing company since General Distribution Services/Stoddart Publishing went under in August […]
The New York Times Unveils Their E-Book Bestseller Lists
The NYT’s first-ever e-book bestseller lists will appear in print on February 13 and online on February 11 (reflecting rankings for the week ending January 30), as the paper previewed for publishing people at an event this morning. Not only will the paper publish a separate e-book list, but there will also be a hybrid print and e-book bestseller list. A spokesperson said the paper “wanted to provide more comprehensive lists of which books are selling.” Unlike USA Today’s approach, the hybrid lists give no indication of whether e-books outsell print editions; a note on their methodology says only that […]
OFT Opens Investigation Into UK Agency Pricing
With agency pricing now starting to take hold among some of the largest UK publishers, the Office of Fair Trading is opening an investigation “into whether arrangements that certain publishers have put in place with some retailers for the sale of e-books may breach competition rules”, according to a release obtained by the Bookseller. It’s the first time in four years since the OFT took a long look at industry practices, when the merger between EUK and Bertrams caught its attention and eventually led the Competition Commission to rule it was not anti-competitive. The OFT claims to have received a […]
Announcements: Murakami’s 1Q84 Has a US Pub Date; FCIC Chipped in $40K In Shipping Costs; and More
Knopf has announced that all three volumes of Haruki Murakami‘s novel 1Q84 will be published as a single, 928-page book on October 25. The first two volumes were translated by Jay Rubin and the third by Philip Gabriel, and the combined edition will have a hardcover list price of $30 and an e-book edition published simultaneously. The UK edition of 1Q84 will not include the third volume, but will be published around the same time. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released its final report on Thursday, with Public Affairs’ book version going on-sale the same day. Demand has evidently been […]