Vroman's Bookseller of The Year; Schonfeld Gets Rep Honors

The 114-year-old Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., has been named PW's Bookseller of the Year. The store was cited for its tremendous service to the community, responsiveness to customers, fairness to employees and financial successes.

Rep of the year is Roy Schonfeld, from Abraham Associates Inc. Schonfeld has called on bookstores in the Midwest for 15 years.

Both Vroman's and Schonfeld will be honored at PW's 16th annual award ceremony at this year's BEA in Los Angeles.

Hachette U.S. Hits $500 Million

Sales in Hachette's publishing operations in the U.S. and Canada were close to $500 million last year, representing 18% of total group sales of 2.13 billion euros ($2.77 billion). The North American contribution, which includes a full year's results from the former Time Warner Trade Group, was 16% in 2006, with sales of about $408 million.

Blackwell Drives Wiley

With a $115-million contribution from the Blackwell purchase, total revenue at John Wiley & Sons jumped 45% in the third quarter ended January 31, to $429.3 million, and net income rose 25%, to $40 million. Excluding Blackwell, revenue, which benefited from currency changes, would have been up 6%. In the U.S., sales in the professional/trade group rose 2% in the quarter, to $103 million, driven by sales in business and consumer segments partially offset by softness in technology and higher returns. Sales in the STM segment also rose 2%, to $58 million, while higher education group sales rose 3% in the year, to $50 million. Internationally, sales were up 8% in Europe and 13% in Asia/Australia/Canada.

The company expects that revenue growth for fiscal 2008, excluding Blackwell, will be in the mid-single digits.

January Store Sales Up

Bookstore sales got off to a solid start in 2008, posting a 4.7% increase, to $2.28 billion, in January. The increase was nearly the same as gains for the entire retail segment, which had a 4.8% increase.

Borders Aussie Sale Off

Negotiations between Borders and Angus & Robertson Whitcoulls to sell the bookstore chain's ANZ unit to the firm collapsed last week, with both sides saying a sale now seems unlikely. Borders CEO George Jones said the company will continue to explore ways to sell its Australian stores.

Audible Accepts Amazon Bid

Despite some protests from minority stockholders, Amazon's $11.50 per share offer for Audible was accepted last week, with shareholders holding 87% of Audible's stock tendering their shares. Amazon said it hopes to complete the purchase, valued at about $300 million “as soon as practicable.”

Appointments At Bloomsbury

Colin Dickerman has been promoted from editorial director to publisher at Bloomsbury, where he will oversee the adult trade division. Also, Richard Charkin, executive director of the company's parent company, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, will take over as president of Bloomsbury USA. The appointments follow the departure of Karen Rinaldi to Rodale.

Nudo to Shelfari

David Nudo, who stepped down as publisher of PW in January, has joined the social networking site Shelfari where he will be director of sales and marketing, based in NYC.