TODAY'S NEWS

Foreign Exchange, Professional/Trade Softness Dent 2009 Wiley Results
By Jim Milliot
Hurt by the negative effect of foreign exchange and a weak performance in its professional/trade division, total revenue at John Wiley & Sons fell 3.7% in the year ended April 30, to $1.61 billion. Adjusted net income, which excludes a $18.7 million tax benefit in fiscal 2008, was flat at $128.3 million. Excluding the $120 million in foreign exchange declines, revenue at the publisher would have increased 3.4%. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.15, a figure that excludes the impact of foreign exchange. In a statement, Wiley CEO Will Pesce said he was pleased with the company’s performance given the difficult economic environment, noting that two of Wiley’s three operating segments met or exceeded expectations.

The one unit that performed below forecast was the professional/trade division, where revenue fell 13%, to $412.7 million. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, revenue was down 10%. The decline was attributed to the weak retail environment in the U.S., while international operations showed modest growth. During the year, the professional/trade group continued to push digital initiatives, among them making 9,000 titles available for the Kindle. In its online initiatives, the new Dummies.com site had 29 million page views, up 23%, while CliffsNotes.com pages views rose 5%. Frommers.com had 137 million page views, a decline from 2008. During the fourth quarter, in addition to its deal with Meredith, Wiley renewed its publishing agreement with General Mills to publish cookbooks under a variety of brands including Betty Crocker and Pillsbury. Read on »

Hachette Signs with Attributor to Fight Online Piracy
By Jim Milliot
To help it battle unlawful postings of its works, Hachette Book Group has contracted with Attributor to use that company’s anti-piracy protection service to monitor the Web for illegal use of its content. First developed in late 2007, Attributor’s Web-crawling tool checks a variety of sites, including document hosting sites, and social media and social networking sites for unauthorized posts drawn from Hachette’s books. Attributor alerts Hachette to its findings, who can then demand that the posts be taken down. David Young, HBG CEO, said that while the publisher’s legal team is spending an increasing amount of time checking sites for pirated content, it became clear the company needed to “automate and augment our monitoring,” as the number of illegal postings spread. “Attributor is an essential resource in achieving HBG’s commitment to combating online piracy and protecting our authors’ work,” Young said. Read on »

Ingram Content Group Gets New Structure
By Jim Milliot
Skip Prichard, president and CEO of the Ingram Content Group that was formed last month through the integration of the Ingram Book Group, Lightning Source and Ingram Digital, has announced the new structure of the company. The new organization is aligned into two groups--the content group that will serve publishers, and the commercial group that will serve retailers and libraries. Phil Ollila has been named chief content officer and will head the content unit, while Shawn Everson has been named chief commercial officer and will lead the commercial side. Read on »

Tor Launches Online Bookstore
By Lynn Andriani
Science fiction/fantasy publisher Tor, a division of Macmillan, has launched an online bookstore, selling Tor books as well as books published by other houses. In keeping with the publisher-agnostic attitude of Tor.com, which was created last July, the Tor.com Store offers science fiction and fantasy media from most major publishers, the only requirement being that books relate to the genre.

Producer Pablo Defendini, who is running the store, said that since Tor.com launched, visitors have been asking for an online store. “We didn’t want to do another direct to consumer retail outlet from a publisher,” he said. “We wanted to do it in Tor.com’s publisher-agnostic attitude.” For now, the store—officially an initiative from the Macmillan digital marketing department—carries about 45,000 titles, in hardcover and paperback. Read on »

Simon & Schuster Launches Teen Networking Site
By Jim Milliot
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing hopes to attract more teens to its books through the creation of a new Pulse It social networking site (www.simonandschuster.com/pulseit). The site is aimed at 14 to 18 year-olds and will let teens do things they can do on such places as Facebook--like create personal profiles and befriend other members--as well as read and react to S&S titles. S&S will make two books per month available to be read online for free and members can choose one of those titles and have 60 days to finish the book. Message boards will let readers discuss the book and rank it. The site will also have an author section where teens can interact with their favorite writers. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Upper East Side Barnes & Noble Flagship Set to Open
Although it is only opening a few new outlets this year because of the economy, Barnes & Noble is excited about the prospects for the new store it is opening Friday on New York City’s Upper East Side at 150 East 86th St. and Lexington Ave. B&N has had smaller stores in the area in the past, but, according to Mitch Klipper, B&N chief operating officer, the new outlet “is the store the neighborhood deserves.” Read on »

Page to Screen: Shopping a Facebook Update; 'Lavender Queen' Is Optioned
This week in Page to Screen—PW's weekly column tracking film rights circulating and sold in Hollywood—Howie Sanders at UTA tries to option a Facebook update (along with a canine's life rights) and Inkwell sells Lavender Queen for film.

If Twitter tweets are being bought by New York editors, and HarperCollins is turning Chesley Sullenberger into a published poet, who's to say you can't build a book, and a film, from a Facebook update? Howie Sanders, at UTA, and Christy Fletcher are currently trying to do just that for Lisa Hamilton Daly. Daly, a former exec at Dreamworks and friend of Fletcher's, wryly posted last week: "Lisa Hamilton Daly's Pomeranian raided Chinese takeout bag overnight, opened and ate a fortune cookie. Her fortune: You have strong spiritual powers, and you should develop them." Read on »

The PW Morning Report: Thursday, June 18, 2009
A daily roundup of book and publishing news from across the Web: Rowling Accuses Chinese Author of Plagiarism; Novel About Hemingway Sells for Big Bucks; Amazon May Terminate Relationships with North Carolina Affiliates; Scholastic and The Book People Part Ways; HarperCollins’ 2D Bar Codes; S&S Launches Teen Book Site. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: L.A. Candy; The Lassa Ward; How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll
Today, The Early Show, The View and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon all interview Lauren Conrad, star of MTV's The Hills, whose YA novel, L.A. Candy (HarperCollins, 978-0061767586, $17.99), is out this week. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Grogan and Johnson at Printers Row Book Fest
Attending the Printers Row Book Festival in Chicago June 6 and 7 were Stephen Grogan (l.), author of Vegas Die; and Craig Johnson (r.), author of the Sheriff Walt Longmire series, who is doing a cross country tour promoting The Dark Horse. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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