Barnes and Noble plans to save itself from inevitable death by “expanding its offerings of toys, games, gadgets and other gifts and reshaping the nation’s largest bookstore chain into a ‘lifestyle brand.’” Eh. Gawker readers once suggested “Turn them into bars,” which seems more likely to succeed.
Anyone Got Any Good Ideas for Barnes & Noble?
William Lynch, the CEO of Barnes & Noble, resigned this week after less than two years on the job, having failed to turn around the earnings of the Last Remaining Book Store by selling color tablets. So, uh... anybody have any other ideas? For making money?
We've Passed Peak Barnes & Noble
The national book store chain Borders folded in 2011, leaving Barnes & Noble as the undisputed king of Big Huge Chain Bookstores. In that specific industry, B&N has had no competition for the past year and a half. Yet they are preparing to downsize anyhow. The Big Huge Chain Bookstore golden era has passed.
Is Barnes & Noble in Trouble?
Borders, America's second biggest book store chain, died this summer, its red-trimmed outlets sinking inexorably into a savage sea of red ink. (Beat that lede, Wall Street Journal!) For Barnes & Noble, the most popular book chain, this could be interpreted as good news: its biggest competitor was gone. Or, bad news:…
Why Buy Barnes & Noble?
Liberty Media, the owner of QVC and a random assortment of other media crap, has put in a billion-dollar bid for Barnes & Noble. What does a media conglomerate want with a book store, these days?
Borders & Noble?
The hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management has offered to help Borders buy rival imperiled bookseller Barnes & Noble. Since Ron Burkle's not involved in this bid, you probably won't hear much more about it unless it's successful. [WSJ]
Jay-Z Will Not Set Foot in Barnes & Noble
Jay-Z's new book for the extremely slow, Decoded, is coming out soon. Perhaps you had high hopes of catching a Jay-Z book signing at your local Barnes & Noble? Yea right.
Ron Burkle Loses Battle for Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble's mustachioed chairman Leonard Riggio defeated Ron Burkle's vigorous battle to wrangle control of the failing bookseller's board. Riggio will now return to supervising the company's descent into nothingness. [WSJ. Pic: AP]
Barnes & Noble's Old-Tyme Chairman Sees the Future
Model-wrangling billionaire Ron Burkle scored a victory this morning in his battle to grab control of Barnes & Noble, when an advisory service recommended that shareholders vote for Burkle's slate of directors. What's B&N chairman Leonard Riggio (pictured) doing wrong?
Barnes & Noble Calls Ron Burkle Stupid
Billionaire Clinton pal Ron Burkle is trying to get his model-caressing paws on Barnes and Noble, the bookstore where you love to sit right on the carpet and read, which is gross. Anyhow. B&N says Burkle will "destroy"(!) it.
Ron Burkle vs. Barnes & Noble
Billionaire Clinton pal and model wrangler Ron Burkle is salivating metaphorically at the prospect of getting his hands on Barnes & Noble, the once-mighty book chain that's now in play. Why?
The Decline and Fall of Barnes and Noble
Barnes & Noble is putting itself up for sale! Remember when everyone thought B&N would become the Wal-Mart of book selling, an indomitable corporate force controlling the literary world? Boy how wrong that was, huh?
[. Pic ]Comcast's Plans For NBC; Blagojevich's New Gig
• Comcast is "leaning toward" keeping Jeff Zucker as NBC Universal's CEO if it goes ahead with a deal to buy take control of the company. [Bloomberg]
• The Fine Living Network will be rebranded as the Cooking Channel—and positioned as a Food Network competitor—in the second half of 2010. [AdAge]
• Some laid-off…
The Return of Imus, Hachette To Sell Elle?
• Two years after he was booted from MSNBC and CBS Radio for making racist comments, Fox Business is now in talks to team up with Don Imus. [LAT]
• Is Hachette selling Elle? The company seems to be hedging. [AdAge]
• Magazine publishers are allowing advertisers to slap their ads just about any place they want these…
Janice Min Leaves Us Weekly, The Trouble at Conde
• Janice Min isn't renewing her contract as editor-in-chief of Jann Wenner's Us Weekly. Her No. 2, Michael Steele, will become acting editor in chief. [NYT]
• Condé Nast announced yesterday that it had retained the management consulting firm McKinsey to "develop new perspectives." They sure have their work cut out for…
Grey Re-Ups, Another Magazine Falls
• Paramount chief Brad Grey has renewed his contract for 5 more years. [NYT]
• Meredith Corp. is shutting down Country Home magazine. [MW]
• The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet is ending this summer. [NYT]
• Barnes & Noble reports sales dropped off in 2008, not surprisingly. [WSJ]
• CBS slashed its Tel Aviv bureau…
Barnes & Noble in Snit Over Amazon's Exclusive With Obama Book
After Amazon announced an exclusive deal with the publisher of
American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner's new book, —in which they will be the book's only seller for its first two weeks—Barnes & Noble cut their order of the title. "A spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble later said she couldn't recall another example where a…
How Barnes & Noble Will Kill Your Sophomore Effort
Brand-new author with a book coming out? Turns out your literary star may burn brighter than you think! Publishing houses have long been known to pay bookstore giants for prime sales floor positions for the titles they're putting their weight behind-that's nothing new. But it turns out chains like Barnes and Noble…
Jeff Bezos wants me to be a happy customer
Last week I
bitched
wrote about a delayed order for the new Fake Steve Jobs book, Options, from Amazon.com. An email from the online store told me that the book, out today at a Borders near you, had been rescheduled for a December shipment. I emailed CEO Jeff Bezos with my sob story and got a very apologetic email…
