Reacting to disappointing sales in 2007, Bloomsbury USA has eliminated seven positions, including that of publishing director Annik LaFarge. Bloomsbury USA head Karen Rinaldi said the difficult market conditions left no choice but to cut costs. Rinaldi said the cuts were made across the company. LaFarge’s responsibilities will divided up among other Bloomsbury executives. In September, parent company Bloomsbury plc said the U.S. division would not be profitable in 2007 and that it hoped to reduce costs through attrition, although it said it would consider layoffs if sales didn’t improve. The cuts, which included not filling one opened spot, bring the number of fulltime employees to 50.
Rinaldi said Bloomsbury will make a slight cut in the number of new adult titles it releases in 2008. Including its children’s operations and Walker division, Bloomsbury published about 300 titles last year. “We’ll try to put more focus on what we publish,” Rinaldi said. The company also released the first titles in its new Bloomsbury Press imprint this month with approximately 15 books set for publication this year.
