Newsletter 2286 Issue 228620081241076

TODAY'S NEWS

Profits Jump at McGraw-Hill on 7% Sales Gain
By Jim Milliot
Total revenue at McGraw-Hill Education rose 7.2%, to $2.70 billion, in 2007, with operating income jumping 21.5%, to $400 million. Profits in the year include a $16.3 million charge to account for the elimination of 304 jobs. Sales in the school education group rose 6.8%, to $1.4 billion, which the company attributed to a strong performance in adoption markets. MHE estimated that it captured 32% of adoption sales in the year in the K-12 markets, which company chairman Terry McGraw said underscores the successful integration in 2006 of the elementary and secondary group, a move that cut about 400 jobs. The strong gains in adoption states helped to offset soft market conditions in both open territories and the supplementary market. Read on »

Back and Forth Over Beah's Memoir Continues
After The Australian ran a story January 19 challenging facts, namely the chronology of events in Ishmael Beah's memoir about being a boy solider in Sierre Leone's Civil War, A Long Way Gone, the newspaper and the book's publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Sarah Crichton Books, have continued a public back and forth about whether the paper's asserions have any merit. Beah initially issued a statement asserting his book is based entirely on fact. The newspaper then countered, on January 23, with this statement of their own. Now FSG has issued another response, which you read here.

Bloomsbury USA Eliminates Seven Jobs
by Jim Milliot
Reacting to disappointing sales in 2007, Bloomsbury USA has eliminated seven positions, including that of publishing director Annik LaFarge. Bloomsbury USA head Karen Rinaldi said the difficult market conditions left no choice but to cut costs. Rinaldi said the cuts were made across the company. LaFarge’s responsibilities will divided up among other Bloomsbury executives. In September, parent company Bloomsbury plc said the U.S. division would not be profitable in 2007 and that it hoped to reduce costs through attrition, although it said it would consider layoffs if sales didn’t improve. The cuts, which included not filling one opened spot, bring the number of fulltime employees to 50.

Rinaldi said Bloomsbury will make a slight cut in the number of new adult titles it releases in 2008. Including its children’s operations and Walker division, Bloomsbury published about 300 titles last year. “We’ll try to put more focus on what we publish,” Rinaldi said. The company also released the first titles in its new Bloomsbury Press imprint this month with approximately 15 books set for publication this year.

Karibu Books to Close
By Judith Rosen
Three months after James Fugate announced that he was considering closing 20-year-old Eso Won Books in Los Angeles, one of the leading African-American bookstores in the country, the largest chain of African-American bookstores has also faltered. Fifteen-year-old Karibu Books, headquartered in Temple Hills, Md., which at its height had six stores and 45 employees in Maryland and Virginia, will shut down by mid-February.

Karibu's Pentagon City store has already closed. Locations in Security Square and Forestville are slated to close on Sunday, with remaining stores in Bowie Town Center, the Mall at Prince Georges and Iverson Mall closing on February 10. Inventory at all five stores has been marked down 50%. Read on »

Picture Book to Commemorate "I Have a Dream" Anniversary
By John Sellers
Scholastic has signed a picture book written by Christine King Farris, the sister of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to be published on the 45th anniversary of his march on Washington and his "I Have a Dream" speech, which he delivered on August 28, 1963. The book, March On!: The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World, will be illustrated by London Ladd. Andrea Davis Pinkney, v-p and editor-at-large at Scholastic, negotiated the deal with Jennifer Lyons at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Bookseller Trip to LBF Planned
Chuck and Dee Robinson of Village Books in Bellingham, Wash., are leading a group of U.S. booksellers to the London Book Fair as special guests. The excursion will include, in addition to special passes to the Fair, a literary pub crawl of Bloomsbury, author breakfasts and lunches, and a trip to Oxford. Booksellers are making their own travel arrangements and paying for their hotel accommodations at a specially arranged book fair price.

Robinson said he thinks the booksellers will use the trip to see how things are done elsewhere and to scout for business opportunities. Among those already signed on for the trip are Barbara Morrow from Northshire, Roberta Rubin from The Bookstall at Chestnut Court, Neil Van Uum of the Joseph-Beth and Carla Cohen of Politics and Prose. For more information go to chuck@villagebooks.com.

The PW Morning Report: A daily round-up of the latest publishing news
By Dermot McEvoy
Canseco in New Vindicated Flap; Borders Original Voices Awards; Karibu Books Chain to Close; Joke Book Editor Loses to Leno; Hoch Dead; and Three Little Pigs Aren't Politically Correct Anymore Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Coal River; Poet in New York; Comrade J
This morning on The Diane Rehm Show, Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Shnayerson navigated Coal River (FS&G, $25), described by PW as "an incriminating indictment of the Appalachian 'ing Coal'industry in West Virginia, and of the man he defines as its rapacious kingpin, Massey Energy's CEO, Don Blankenship." Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Weber Has His Cake...And Eats It, Too
Kensington got in touch with its sweet tooth to celebrate the publication of Carl Weber's latest, Something on the Side (Dafina Books). Weber is seen here, with Kensington staffers, slicing into an edible version of his jacket at the publisher's offices.
Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

PW VIRTUAL EDITION

To access the latest issue of Publishers Weekly no matter where you are, be sure to take a look at PW's Virtual Edition -- available online anytime. If you're not already a subscriber, take a look at a sample issue here.