Schedule Note I’ll be at the AAP meeting all day tomorrow, multi-tasking away; Lunch will be served at some point, but there’s no telling exactly when. Perseus Drops Harper Perseus will no longer distribute its books through HarperCollins, beginning September 1 in the US, and January 1 in Canada. In an uncharacteristic fashion that we’ll…
Lunch for Tuesday, March 1
Von Mehren to Boost Random Trade Paper; Ebershoff Becomes Editor-at-Large Jane von Mehren is leaving her post as editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Penguin to take the new position of publisher, trade paperbacks at the Random House publishing group. Starting March 23, she will oversee lines from Ballantine, Modern Library and Random House, and will…
Lunch for Monday, February 28
Triple Problems at Penguin Pull Down Pearson Results; Weak 2005 Forecast Means $10 Mil Charge at Penguin US Following their warning to financial markets in mid-January, Pearson’s annual performance came in at the low end of expectations, and profits fell 6 percent overall, reflecting a triple whammy: the weak dollar, the Penguin UK warehouse mess,…
Lunch for Friday, February 25
Audible Shareholders Sue, Saying Company Broadcast the Wrong Message A group of Audible shareholders has filed a class action lawsuit against the company following its recent quarterly report and ensuing stock swoon (now down almost 50 percent from its recent high). The complaint charges that the company misrepresented its plans and objectives by not disclosing…
Lunch for Thursday, February 24
S&S Revenues Up, As Viacom Takes Huge Writedown and Begins Asset Sales Viacom’s quarterly report is headlined by a whopping $18 billion writedown related to the declining value of their radio and billboard advertising businesses. In a conference call with investors, co-president Tom Freston indicates that the asset sales that have been “hinted” at over…
Lunch for Wednesday, February 23
French Library Wants In on Digitizing Books for the World The head of France’s national library Jean-Noel Jeanneney has offered remarks to both Le Monde and Le Figaro indicating concern that Google’s plans to digitize the collections of academic libraries presents “a risk of crushing domination by America in defining the idea that future generations…