It’s practically poetic. As Dana Gioia prepares to leave his post as chairman of the NEA, a new report called Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy finds that “for the first time in more than 25 years, American adults are reading more literature.” In talking to the NYT Gioia “attributed the increase in literary reading to community-based programs like the [NEA’s own] Big Read,” among others. The survey says “the overall rate at which adults read literature (novels and short stories, plays, or poems) rose by seven percent” with “the biggest increase (nine percent) in literary […]
Pershing Exits Barnes & Noble
Pershing Square disclosed in an SEC filing Friday that as of December 22, the investment firm sold its holdings in Barnes & Noble stock. They had previously disclosed holding an 11.8 percent stake in BN.
Nicolas Cheetham to Run New Atlantic Books Imprint; Quercus Cuts Salaries; Layoffs at Waterstone's
Editorial Director at Quercus Nicolas Cheetham will move to Atlantic Books in early February where he will be publishing director of Corvus, a new genre fiction imprint. Publishing approximately 15 titles a year and launching in fall 2009, Cheetham will focus on crime, thrillers and speculative fiction, building a list of around 15 books per year. B2B Cheetham’s position will not be filled at Quercus, and another unnamed employee has left the company. Quercus staff has “voluntarily taken a pay cut to avoid the need” for layoffs, the Bookseller reports. In other cutbacks in the UK, bookseller Waterstone’s is eliminating […]
Don't End that Era, Yet: Third-Party Release Misleads on Book Club Plans
The press release we cited earlier today regarding changes at the US book club giant was an “erroneous press release issued by a vendor with whom we have an arm’s length relationship,” Bookspan editorial director Sharon Fantera reports. That release has been pulled from PR Newswire. Bookspan underscores that there has been no change in the company’s name (our erroneous inference from the release) or primary strategy. They do operate on the web under the URL BooksOnline.com but the company itself remains Bookspan. While “positive option has made up a small portion of book club membership for years,” (that’s the […]
BAM Has the Best Holiday Comps, As Indies Take A Hit
Books-A-Million reported sales for the nine-week period ending January 3 of $127.5 million, down 2.5 percent from a year ago, and a decline of 5.6 percent on a comparable-store basis. Which actually makes them the top performer among the three biggest book chains. CEO Sandra Cochran says, “Given the challenging retail environment, we were pleased that we could record an improvement in the sales trend we saw during the third quarter. Holiday sales came later than ever this year, reflecting a cautious and price-sensitive consumer. The success of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series was the big story in books this season. […]
BN.com Gets a President, and More People News
BarnesandNoble.com, which has been operating without a chief executive since Marie Toulantis left the position of ceo in August, is getting a new leader. Still with the lesser title of president, William J. Lynch, Jr. will take over on February 2. He was evp of marketing and general manager of HSN.com, and from 2004 to 2008, he was ceo and co-founder of gifts.com. Barnes & Noble ceo Steve Riggio says, “He has experience in product development, brand marketing, relationship marketing and direct marketing; he has managed both a technology start-up company and run large e-commerce organizations.” Sales fell 11 percent […]