Borders Expected to Hire Department Store Exec Borders is close to hiring the former head of Sak’s department store group George Jones to replace Greg Josefowicz as CEO. Jones ran the unit (which does not include the Sak’s stores themselves) for four years before resigning last September, and he was previously president of world-wide licensing and studio stores at Warner Bros. The WSJ reports that the board will consider Jones imminently. They quote a “person familiar with the situation” as saying Jones sees the job as a chance to “do something great.” In other personnel news, John Oakes has decided […]
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Lunch for Monday, July 10
Original Felt Co-Author Sues Over Value that Never Materialized Ralph de Toledano filed suit last week in Washington, DC against Mark Felt, his son and attorney John O’Connor, alleging that he would not have signed away rights for just $5,000 to the 1979 book he co-authored with Felt if they hadn’t concealed that Felt would reveal he was Deep Throat. The suit claims that the Vanity Fair article which broke the news “increased the value of the book rights to a reported $1 million,” the Washington Times says, though the marketplace has already proven that sum as vastly overstated. Washington […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, July 10
Monday, July 10 Our Usual Reminder If for some reason this has reached you even though you are not a paying member of PublishersMarketplace, please visit the link below to join us all the time for complete deal reports and more. Click to register http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/register.shtml Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time […]
Lunch for Friday, July 7
Brock Presses on Coulter Crown author David Brock’s organization Media Matters isn’t letting go of the Ann Coulter plagiarism charges, and this morning the group released a letter to Random House executives. It states in part: “Coulter has exhibited a pattern of behavior suggesting that Godless itself may include other examples of plagiarism beyond those Barrie has already identified. Now that the newspaper syndicate that publishes Coulter’s column has indicated it will investigate the charges, we urge Random House to undertake a comprehensive review and consider all appropriate action, up to and including pulling the book.” Media Matters August Book […]
Lunch for Thursday, July 6
Waterstone’s Keeps Falling Waterstone’s continues to take a pounding, with same-store sales for the past nine weeks down 6.1 percent. This time they blame the distractions of the World Cup, along with the uncomfortable fact that other large companies are selling the same products at discount. As part of the announcement, parent HMV said they will close three Ottakar’s offices and lay off over 100 people, consolidating operations into the Waterstone’s head office. They expect to change all of the Ottakar’s 142 locations to Waterstone’s outlets before the end of the year, and have told investors they expect the acquisition […]
Lunch Weekly for Tuesday, July 4
Tuesday, July 4 Our Usual Reminder If for some reason this has reached you even though you are not a paying member of PublishersMarketplace, please visit the link below to join us all the time for complete deal reports and more. Click to register http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/register.shtml Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time […]