News Briefs
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 9/17/2007
Blackwell Boosts Wiley
With $116 million in sales from its Blackwell Publishing subsidiary, revenue at John Wiley rose 48% in the quarter ended July 31, to $389 million. Excluding Blackwell, which Wiley acquired this past February, sales were up 3%. Blackwell added $15 million in profits, helping to lift operating income 32% in the quarter to $46.3 million. In the quarter, revenue in Wiley’s professional/trade group rose 7%, to $89.7 million. Sales in the higher education group were down 8%, while STM group sales were flat at $55 million.
Green to Retire From Knopf
Ash Green, the well-known and respected Knopf editor, is retiring at the end of the year. Called one of the “most significant” editors of his generation by Knopf chairman Sonny Mehta, Green, in his 43 years at the prestigious Random House imprint, edited books by Ken Burns, Walter Cronkite, Douglas Brinkley and Joe Ellis.
Hachette U.S. Strong
Total sales at Hachette Publishing rose 10.6% in the first half of 2007, to 897 million euros ($1.22 billion), parent company Lagardère reported. The jump included full six-month results from the former Time Warner Book Group, which the company bought in April 2006. Excluding TWBG—now known as Hachette Publishing Group US—sales were up 1.7%.
New E-book Standard
The International Digital Publishing Forum has voted to accept the OPS 2.0 e-book specification as an official industry standard. The adoption of OPS 2.0, and the .epub file format that goes with it should mean lower production costs, more e-book titles and make it easier for readers to use different devices to read titles.
NBF to Honor Didion
The National Book Foundation will present Joan Didion with its 2007 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at its November 14 awards ceremony in New York City. Didion won the National Book Award in 2005 for her last book, The Year of Magical Thinking. Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Michael Cunningham will present the medal at the NBA ceremony, which Fran Lebowitz will host for the second consecutive year.
Also that evening, the NBF will award Terry Gross, host and executive producer of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air, the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
