Hachette Book Group has reorganized its Online Marketing efforts. Effective today, Kelly Leonard will be VP, Executive Director, Web Strategies, responsible for responsible for the strategy and ongoing development of all HBG corporate and product websites. Associate Director Online Marketing Brad Parsons and Online Marketing Coordinator Brianne Beers move to Grand Central and report to Jennifer Romanello. Anna Balasi joins Little, Brown as Online Marketing Associate, while Sarah Reck will continue to work as a Web Publicist on Center Street titles, but will now report to Harry Helm. Sally Kim will join Touchstone as editorial director, reporting to publisher Stacy […]
Ingram Isn’t Shipping to Borders for Now
Though Ingram had supplied Borders with books even after the bookseller stopped paying publishers, the wholesaler tells us via spokesperson Keel Hunt that “Ingram is currently not shipping to Borders as they are working through the bankruptcy process. We look forward to helping them through the restructuring as the process allows.” Separately, Ingram ceo Skip Prichard said in a general statement earlier on Wednesday, “This is regrettable news for the whole book industry, obviously, but I hope the filing can give Borders a chance to reorganize, re-define and re-emerge to be successful for a long time to come. Borders and […]
Judge Approves Borders’ Financing–But They’re Missing A Budget
Chief Judge Arthur Gonzalez approved a number of Borders’ initial motions at the end of the day on Wednesday, including one that allows the bookseller to access $400 million of their $505 million in debtor-in-possession financing to fund operations. Borders’ attorney David Friedman “said Borders needs the $400 million on an interim basis to cover immediate expenses if it’s to keep operating and reorganize”–which makes you wonder how they are going to fund anything more than bare subsistence. A number of attorneys for creditors objected to portions of the loan agreement–particularly distressed that Borders had not submitted a detailed budget […]
Borders: What Publishers Are Saying, and Whether Business Resumes
So far only the largest publisher, Penguin Group, has commented on the record on Borders’ bankrupty filing. They said in part, “Penguin hopes that Borders will emerge from this process as a smaller but stronger book retailer, and will work closely with Borders management to support this transition. Penguin has been following developments at Borders very closely for many months and has taken appropriate steps to mitigate the financial impact of the company’s bankruptcy on Penguin.” Simon & Schuster’s parent company CBS reported fourth quarter (and full-year) earnings after the close of the market today. As we report separately, they […]
So Many Filings, So Much Debt
Borders has filled their bankruptcy web site with a raft of filings and we’ve been poring through them, as well as continuing to talk to publishers about next steps in their bankruptcy process. We’ve provided sub-header breakouts to make some of the detail easier for you to follow. The Good NewsThis morning we noted that the 30 largest unsecured vendor creditors are owed roughly $272 million. Additional documents indicate the bookseller owes vendors a total of just over $303 million. That means smaller, not listed vendors are owed a total of another $31 million–so collateral damage beyond the biggest publishers […]
What Does Borders’ Decline Do to Book Sales?
Everyone wants to know the impact of Borders reduction and potential disappearance on the market for printed books. The conventional wisdom, as one publisher told us, is that a third to half of Borders’ market share will be captured by other sellers, while the rest could simply disappear in lost sales. With Nielsen BookScan updating their weekly data earlier today, which they estimate covers 75 percent of physical retail sales, we thought it would be interesting to look at the last six weeks of sales–covering most of the period since Borders stopped paying vendors. Of course it’s hard to separate […]