Perseus Books Group ceo David Steinberger announced “a reduction in staff” to employees last Thursday, along with “a summer furlough program, in order to limit the size of the reduction” with employees taking off no more than six unpaid days (including two extended holiday weekends). Steinberger also reported that “the senior leaders of the company have accepted a more significant compensation reduction to help prevent the company and our people from greater cuts.” Steinberger says “approximately 20 people are leaving the company” with “most reductions” coming from the company’s publishing units rather than the distribution services group. He indicates the […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, June 22
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 to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Alicia Bessette’s ALL COME HOME, in which a young widow forms […]
LibreDigital Delivers 100k Titles for ScrollMotion's App
iPhone app maker ScrollMotion has provided the first additional details on their “in-app” bookstore that was highlighted at Apple’s worldwide developer’s conference. LibreDigital is a “key partner” in provisioning that store and “central” to ScrollMotion’s plans, now ready to deliver “the first 100,000 books, newspaper and magazine titles” out of a promised one million titles. LibreDigital spokesperson Heidi Johnson says that “we estimate we’ll be about one to two years before we hit that [one million titles] number, based on the work we’re doing with dozens of major publishers and folks like Baker & Taylor.
Appeals Court Says S&S Violated Telephone Law with Text Message Solicitation for King Book
The ever-unpredictable Ninth Circuit (e.g. California) Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a lower court verdict and held that Simon & Schuster violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act as currently interpreted by the FCC in sending unsolicited text messages to cellphones in promoting Stephen King’s THE CELL. MediaPost says “the decision appears to mark the first time that a federal appellate court has said that the telephone law applies to text messages.” S&S had argued that a text message is not a “call” under the law–the Appeals court disagreed, saying the law itself “is silent as to whether a text […]
Random UK Children's Creates Joint Venture to Develop Film/TV Properties
Random House UK’s Children’s Book division has created a new joint-venture in partnership with Komixx Entertainment to produce animated and live-action children’s and family films and TV programs. Called Random House Children’s Screen Entertainment, they will develop the publisher’s books and characters, and plan to include both film and TV partners as well as video game producers, toy manufacturers and other merchandisers. Fiona Macmillan will lead the venture for Random House, and advisor and minority shareholder Catherine Robins is joining the management of the new entity. Random UK Children’s managing director Philippa Dickinson says “it marks a huge step forward […]
U. Presses Wrestle with Threats, Change
Inside Higher Ed has a nice overview of discussions at the Association of American University Presses meeting in Philadelphia on Saturday. “some speakers focused on ways for university presses to better position themselves to survive university budget-cutting processes in these bad times. Others, however suggested new business models — with more of an emphasis on digital and/or free content. These discussions were based on the reality that university presses aren’t just being hurt by the bad economy, but by changes in reader habits.” Among the speakers: – A collection development librarian at York College of Pennsylvania emphasized that students want […]