Bloomsbury U.S. Sales Up
Revenue at Bloomsbury's U.S. subsidiary rose 36% last year, to £15 million ($27 million), but higher investments resulted in a small loss for the year, £260,000 ($481,000) compared to earnings of £48,000 in 2005. Total revenue for the publisher fell 31%, to £75 million, and pretax profit dropped 74% to £5.2 million as sales in its U.K. home market fell 42% due to weak holiday sales and no new Harry Potter title. Expansion plans for 2007 include more Web initiatives and acquisitions.
NAL Adds Mystery Imprint
New American Library is adding a new imprint, Obsidian Mysteries, which will house all of NAL's mystery titles. Obsidian will launch in September with its first hardcover original, Alison Gaylin's Trashed. The imprint will be overseen by senior editor Kristen Weber and will also include a number of paperback originals, including a new line of tie-ins based on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds.
Nelson Shuts Fund-raising Unit
Thomas Nelson is discontinuing the Nelson Enrichment Program, which assisted Christian schools with fund-raising through the sale of Nelson products. Launched in 2004, NEP will be suspended May 1, though support will run through the end of the school year. The decision affects about 22 of Nelson's 654 employees, some of whom will be placed in other spots at the company. NEP accounted for less than 1% of revenue and had not been profitable.
Borders Delays Offering
After receiving feedback from shareholders, Borders Group has postponed a planned $250-million note offering. The company said it will reevaluate the offering and other financing alternatives before it issues an update on new financing plans. Borders had planned to use proceeds from the note sale to repay some of its senior debt and for general corporate purposes.
B&N Finds Improper Grants
The special committee appointed by Barnes & Noble to investigate the way the retailer awarded stock options to employees has determined that there were "numerous instances of improperly dated stock option grants by the company." The committee, however, found no attempts at fraud by the company, noting that the misdated and backdated options were given uniformly to all 3,300 employees who received options between 1996 and 2006. B&N will make a number of charges to account for the improper grants, but will not need to restate previous financials. An SEC probe into the issue continues.
Conaway Joining Writers House
Just two years after joining Putnam as executive editor, Dan Conaway will join Writers House later this month as a literary agent. As an editor, Conaway has worked on both fiction and nonfiction titles. Before joining Putnam, Conaway was an executive editor at HarperCollins, director of literary acquisitions at PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and worked in sales at W.W. Norton.
