Sales Soar at Amazon
Led by sales in its electronics and general merchandise segment (home to Kindle), total revenue at Amazon jumped 51% in the second quarter ended June 30, to $9.91 billion, though increased investments lowered net income to $191 million, from $207 million. Worldwide sales in the egm segment rose 69%, to $5.89 billion, with Amazon reporting that Kindle sales growth accelerated in the second quarter compared to a year ago. Worldwide media sales increased at a more moderate pace of 27%, to $3.66 million. Media is home to print and e-book sales. Amazon's slowest growing segment, at 20%, was its North American media unit, where revenue rose to $1.58 billion.

Courier Has Weak Third Quarter
Borders's bankruptcy and soft demand for el-hi textbooks combined to drop revenue by 5% at Courier Corp. in the third quarter ended June 25, to $61.9 million. The sales decline as well as an $8.6 million impairment charge tied to a write-off of goodwill for its Research & Education Association unit led to a loss of $3.2 million in the quarter compared to net income of $1.8 million in the same period in fiscal 2010. Revenue in Courier's publishing segment fell 9%, to $9.9 million, while sales in the printing side declined 3%, to $55 million.

‘L.A. Times' Cuts Review Freelancers
In a move as significant for its breadth as its implications for the future of book coverage, the Los Angeles Times book review laid off all of its freelance book reviewers and columnists on July 21. Four staffers remain in the book review section: David Ulin, Carolyn Kellogg, Nick Owchar, and Jon Thurber, the editor of the book review. In December 2009 the Times laid off 40 features writers, but brought many of them back to work part-time.

Morgan Takes Over It Books
Cal Morgan will take over HarperCollins's It Books imprint as senior v-p and publisher. The position is being vacated by Carrie Kania, who announced on July 25 that she is leaving HC to become an agent with Conville & Walsh. Morgan will also assume Kania's role overseeing the Harper Design team, led by v-p and publisher Marta Schooler. In addition to Morgan's promotion, Jonathan Burnham, senior v-p and publisher of Harper, will oversee Harper Perennial, while Liate Stehlik, senior v-p/publisher of the William Morrow, Avon, and HarperVoyager mass market imprints, will assume responsibility for the Harper paperbacks mass market titles, which will be combined with the recently formed William Morrow Paperbacks imprint.

Monacelli Buys Back Namesake Press
The Monacelli Press, a division of Random House that specializes in art and design books, has been reacquired by its publisher and founder, Gianfranco Monacelli. RH bought Monacelli in 2008, and although the house will be returning to its independent roots, it will not be severing all ties with RH; Monacelli will continue to use RH as its distributor. Monacelli, which has a library of 325 titles, was part of the Crown Publishing Group and, more than doubled its sales while publishing 85 titles.

AudioGO, Audio Bookshelf Merge
AudioGO has merged with independent audio publisher Audio Bookshelf. All Audio Bookshelf children's and young adult titles will be recorded, packaged, and distributed by AudioGO under the company's AudioGO Children's imprint. David Dittman, publisher at Audio Bookshelf, will join AudioGO as children's publisher. Under the new imprint, the company will add one new title per month starting in September.