Sales at Scholastic fell $24.7 million or 8 percent, at $290.9 million for their fiscal first quarter, and the operating loss (before interest and taxes) was $46.8 million, 33 percent higher than a year ago. In their children’s book and publishing division, sales of $72.8 million were down 3.4 percent, with an operating loss of $51.6 million. But Scholastic says trade sales rose 9 percent, thanks in part to Suzanne Collins, while expenses reflected “the planned increase in spending on digital initiatives.” The company says Scholastic Education revenue suffered from comparisons to last year, when they “benefited significantly from the […]
Books In the News: NYT Breaks Woodward, Questions for Betancourt
The NYT “obtained” an embargoed copy of Bob Woodward’s OBAMA’S WARS in advance of next week’s release–and serialization in the Washington Post. The Times leads with the theme that some of President Obama’s national security team has doubted his Afghanistan strategy and “spent much of the last 20 months quarreling with one another over policy, personalities and turf.” The Post followed with their own story, emphasizing even more explicitly than the Times that Obama wanted “to hand it off and get out of Afghanistan” rather than triple troop levels, “repeatedly pressing his top military advisers for an exit plan that […]
eNews: Poll Says 8 Percent Own eReaders; Another 3 Percent “Very Likely” to Buy One Soon; Konrath’s Sales Report; Blackberry’s “BlackPad” Due Soon
The Harris Poll released an interesting survey on ereading conducted among almost 3,000 adults conducted in August. They find that 8 percent of American adults currently use an “electronic reader device, such as a Kindle, an iPad or a Nook.” Another 3 percent are “very likely” to purchase an eReader in the next six months, and another 9 percent said they were “somewhat likely” to do so. But a big fat 80 percent are not likely to do so. Over half of ereader owners believe they are reading more than they did before–and the poll confirms that those owners read […]
People, Etc.
Joe Scalora has moved over to the Random House Publishing Group’s marketing department as associate manager, working on the Del Rey and Spectra lists, as well as the Star Wars and graphic novel publishing programs. He was a publicist for the group. Former managing director of the UK’s The Friday Project Clare Christian has started a web-based service offering “friendly independent advice on self-publishing.” Edwards Brothers has hired Andrew Pate for the new position of director of digital and program sales, part of their expansion into short-run offset, digital and print-on-demand book and journal manufacturing. Alibris Holdings has renamed itself […]
Barnes & Noble Stock Surges
The stock market in general rose this afternoon after the Federal Reserve said it was “prepared” to act further to support recovery, but Barnes & Noble’s stock outperformed other gainers with a 9.25 percent rise on the day with the contentious annual meeting less than a week away. (By comparison, the Dow Jones Average rose over 7 percent, but the broader S&P 500 actually declined almost 3 percent on the day.) Borders stock also rode the updraft, gaining almost 14.5 percent for the day on unusually high volume of 3 million shares (though at just over a dollar a share, […]
Macmillan In Long Tail Inventory Management Deal with Ingram
Macmillan will draw on Ingram’s print-on-demand service and physical distribution infrastructure to “manage traditional inventory and POD for ‘long tail’ titles…that no longer make sense to print and hold.” Macmillan’s chief operating officer Peter Garabedian says in the announcement that “the traditional methods of solving the logistics and print business challenges cannot remain the same.” Their new arrangement with Ingram “helps us reduce our overall inventory commitment and frees up capacity in our distribution center as well as resources to invest in the future success of our company.” Macmillan will “continue to fully service its customer relationships from its primary […]