Eric Yang Takes Over to RH Asia As Chi Leaves Random House’s Asian star Y.S. Chi is stepping down from his position as the founding head of Random House Asia, exhausted from “the tremendous personal physical toll of his constant round-trip travel from New York” and in response to a recent request from one of his daughters to spend more time close to home. Chi will keep seats on the boards of the Random House Kodansha and Random House JoongAng joint ventures, and will take a job outside the book business. Random CEO Peter Olson comments, “Y.S. leaves us with […]

Behold Our Tiny Booth: 3173 At this year’s BEA the entire operation of PublishersMarketplace.com and Publishers Lunch will squeeze itself into one very modest 10 x 10 booth. Our primary attraction will be a small computer and a large and handsome screen, so that you can view a demonstration of our site and follow show news as we post it. We will also feature a very large piece of canvas, decorated with very large reproductions of our logos. We’ll have actual copies of our DEAL BOOK: 2004 for your perusal, along with our special DEAL BOOK: BEA EDITION, which is […]

AAUP Pops Quiz on Google Print for Libraries Questions about — and potential objections to — Google’s ambitious program to scan and index online the contents of major academic libraries have moved to a new level with the publication online by Business Week of a letter dated last Friday from Association of American University Presses executive director Peter Givler to Google senior counsel Alexander Macgillivray. Givler says the public posting of the letter “was a complete surprise.” While noting his members were initially enthusiastic about Google Print, Givler cites “mounting alarm and concern” over the library scanning program, saying it […]

Mag’s Research Says Borders May Tempt Buyers BusinessWeek crunches numbers on thousands of public companies to identify a list of 15 ripe for takeover bids — and Borders makes the list: “Antitrust regulations may keep a market leader from falling prey to a major competitor. But private-equity funds, flush with an estimated $200 billion bankroll, could buy such companies without riling the watchdogs. One leader on the list, bookstore chain Borders Group (BGP), gets 16% of its revenues from selling recorded music. With the music business in the dumps, Borders is in more pain than its main rival, Barnes & […]

Clinton to Reflect through New Lens It’s hard to believe that it was only a year ago that we were compelled to write nearly every day about Bill Clinton’s forthcoming MY LIFE. Though we’ve been spared the same fervor over the paperback editions of the book, which have a May 31 laydown, Knopf is already seeing anticipation in excess of original projections. The trade paperback edition of the book is getting a 300,000-copy first printing (up 50,000 copies from the original announcement) and a second printing of the mass-market edition of volume one, THE EARLY YEARS, has pushed that launch […]

Borders’ Down Quarter, As Predicted In line with warnings from a month ago, Borders reported a consolidated net loss of $5.3 million for the first quarter, compared to income of $2.3 million the same time last year. Borders superstores hit $579 million in sales (down 0.7 on a comparable-store basis); what’s now called Waldenbooks Specialty Retail (reflecting the conversions of many stores to Borders Express, plus Borders Outlet and airport stores) registered $143 million, still declining year-by-year, and down 3.1 percent on a same-store basis; and the international stores did $125 million in business. Ironically — and/or amusingly to those […]