June 1st, 2014
Indigo Books and Music reported its 4th quarter and annual sales last week. A few of the news stories reached for an alarmist tone. Canada’s Financial Post headlined its account with “Indigo annual revenue falls for third consecutive year.” Publishers Weekly went for the more startling “Indigo Has Big Fiscal 2014 Loss.”
September 3rd, 2013
O.K., the blog title is hyperbole. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was brilliant. Bundling print and digital books is an idea that’s been floating around. But it’s exciting to see Amazon put its heft behind the concept. Now we can declare bundling as a growing part of how we transact publishing. Newspapers and magazines have given the…
May 12th, 2013
After a vague but vaguely credible report earlier this week from TechCrunch there’s no end to the discussion about whether Microsoft really intends to purchase the portion of Nook Media still held by Barnes & Noble and what that could mean to both companies.
October 18th, 2012
The big book publishing news this week is that Barnes & Noble’s boycott of Amazon publishing titles is proving effective and hitting authors and publishers where it hurts the most: hardcover sales of big new titles.
August 28th, 2012
I’ve got a soft spot for well-run employee-owned companies, so John Lewis is my kind of firm. Founded in 1864, the company’s 81,000 employees are all partners in an enterprise with 29 department stores, 8 at home shops, 283 Waitrose supermarkets and the John Lewis online and catalog business. The combined operation has annual gross…