S&S Down 3% in '08
Simon & Schuster reported a sales decline for 2008, with publishing revenues down 3%, to $857.7 million, from $886.1 million in 2007. The decline reflects lower book sales compared to the 2007 period, with the megaseller The Secret. Operating income for 2008 decreased 11%, to $78.7 million. Trade paperbacks, teen titles and e-books were up, while mass market struggled. S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy said the house will be “watching every penny” in 2009.
Updike Bio From Harper
HarperCollins will publish a comprehensive bio of John Updike by Adam Begley, books editor of the New York Observer, in 2011. The deal for world English rights was negotiated by Harper v-p and executive editor Tim Duggan and literary agent Georges Borchardt.
Finney Buys Great Outdoors
Minnesota educational publisher/distributor the Finney Company has acquired Great Outdoors Publishing and will relocate the company to Lakeville, Minn. This is the 11th acquisition by Finney in the past six years to expand its reach into the trade market.
HMH Gets Unpublished Tolkien
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired a previously unpublished work by J.R.R. Tolkien, written while he was a professor at Oxford during the 1920s and '30s. The house will publish The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún in the U.S. and worldwide on May 5.
Eisner on iPhone
Melissa Pope and Helen Cho Anthos, co-CEOs of Genus Corp., have developed Kamikaze, an application for reading graphic novels on the iPhone and iPod Touch. They have a licensing deal with W.W. Norton that allows Kamikaze to be downloaded with Will Eisner's graphic novel A Contract with God for $1.99.
Borders Cuts Staff
Borders has eliminated 136 positions, mostly at its Ann Arbor, Mich., headquarters. The reductions target entry-level and middle-management employees and represent 12% of the corporate workforce. Borders CEO Ron Marshall called the cuts “necessary steps.”
Cheaper Hotels For BEA
BEA has negotiated hotel rate reductions for the 2009 show ranging from 10% to 25% at a number of Manhattan hotels, including the Doubletree Metropolitan, the Park Central, the DoubleTree Times Square and the InterContinental.
Borders Extension
The deadline for Pershing Square Capital Management to acquire Border's Paperchase subsidiary for $65 million has been extended until April 15. Borders's repayment of a $42.5 million loan due Pershing has also been postponed to April 15.
Distribution Conflict
The wholesaler/distributor recently Andersen News laid off staff from its magazine distribution, IT group and News Group joint venture Prologix, following a surcharge dispute with publishers. Meanwhile, distributor Source Interlink, also seeking a 7¢ surcharge, has filed a lawsuit against Time Inc. and Hachette, charging them with trying to destroy its business and give its competitors, Hudson and News Group, a wholesale monopoly.
