Lectorum Publications, the largest distributor of Spanish-language books in the US, is closing its Pine Brook, NJ headquarters and liquidating its inventory. An auction is being held on December 4 for over 700,000 new and used Spanish-language books and other materials. The company has been in business for almost 65 years, and also served as Spanish-language publisher in the US for translations of children’s books including works by Kate DiCamillo, and Kevin Henkes, and from the Magic Tree House series.
Baker & Taylor Sends WARN Notice To Georgia Employees; Will Lay Off 289
As part of its closure, Baker & Taylor has sent a WARN notice to Georgia employees, announcing that it will shut down its Commerce facility and lay off 289 workers. Previously, the company sent notices to 112 employees at their headquarters in North Carolina and another 67 in New Jersey. (In other recent New Jersey notices, Audible will lay off 67 people by January 26, 2026.) As previously reported, Baker & Taylor has not filed for bankruptcy, and is handling liquidation privately with their main bank lender, CIT Northbridge Credit. B&T will not provide any severance to employees, and has terminated benefits […]
Bertelsmann Crowns A Coesfeld (Thomas, The Younger) As New CEO
Berteslmann announced that Thomas Coesfeld, 35, will become the new chair and ceo of the company on January 1, 2027, after Thomas Rabe’s 15-year tenure comes to an end. He was chosen over his older brother, Carsten Coesfeld, in the competition to see which of the controlling Mohn family members would take over. Carsten, who is on the company’s executive board and is responsible for Bertelsmann Investments and Bertelsmann Education, is not mentioned in the release. Chair of the supervisory board Christoph Mohn says in the announcement: “On behalf of the supervisory board, I would like to congratulate Thomas Coesfeld […]
Released Emails Show Michael Wolff’s Advisory Role to Epstein
The more than 20,000 pages of emails from Jeffrey Epstein that government officials released on Wednesday reveal that the journalist and author Michael Wolff corresponded with the disgraced financier several times from 2015 through 2019, giving Epstein advice about his public reputation and how to deal with Donald Trump. In a 2015 email, Wolff told Epstein that, the night of a presidential debate, CNN was planning to ask Trump about his relationship with Epstein. Epstein responds by asking, “if we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” Wolff replies, “I think you […]
OpenAI Loses Copyright Suit In Germany, Whines In New York
For once justice is moving faster in Europe than here, as a German court became the first to find OpenAI guilty of copyright infringement. The case, brought by GEMA–the German music rights organization–accused ChatGPT of violating German copyright laws in reproducing lyrics by musician Herbert Groenemeyer and others. OpenAI’s defense was to argue that its own users were the ones infringing copyright when they prompted ChatGPT to generate the lyrics. Judge Elke Schwager found that OpenAI trained its LLM on copyrighted content from nine German songs. OpenAI will have to pay damages, though the amount was not specified. The ruling […]
Hot Desks and Younger Trivia
The latest Open Book podcast interviews Colin Dickerman (editor-in-chief at Grand Central) his sister Laura Dickerman, author of the recently-published HOT DESK, which Colin helped to conceive. For the first time on the record, Colin discusses his work as the publishing consultant to the TV show Younger: “I went to college with Eric Zickland, who was a writer and producer on the show. He just kept calling me and saying, what about this? And so they would send me all the scripts and I would call into the writer’s room when they were talking through ideas. And it was incredibly […]