TODAY'S NEWS

Baker Reports 16% Growth
By Lynn Garrett
Baker Publishing Group reported record results for its fiscal year ending April 30, 2008, with publishing sales up 16%, to $57.9 million. President Dwight Baker emphasized that although sales of its bestselling 90 Minutes in Heaven helped the company achieve the gain, “this is much more comprehensive, with growth in all divisions.” Revell was up 26 %; Chosen, 25 %; Baker Books, 15 %; Baker Academic, 13 %; Brazos, 10 %, and Bethany House, 9 %. “In just about all channels and all categories we are up,” Baker said. Read on »

New Job for Sarnoff
Lost in the din surrounding the naming of Markus Dohle to succeed Peter Olson as chairman of Random House yesterday was the appointment of Richard Sarnoff as co-chairman of Bertelsmann, Inc. the American holding company for the German giant. He joins Bertelsmann chairman Hartmut Ostrowski as co-chair of the company. Sarnoff has held a number of positions at both Random and Bertelsmann and at one point had directed RH's acquisition and investment strategy. According to Bertelsmann, Sarnoff will "play a key role in Bertelsmann's strategic and corporate developments in the U.S., where he will work in close cooperation with executives from the divisions and the Corporate Center." Sarnoff will also continue in his present position of Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments; he currently has no official duties at Random.

MHE Axes 149 Positions
McGraw-Hill Education, which has undergone several rounds of layoffs in recent years, is losing another 149 positions, parent company the McGraw-Hill Cos. announced yesterday. The majority of the cuts are in the assessment business, which produces various testing products, as the company takes steps to consolidate its resources as well as shift more resources to its digital and custom publishing offerings. MHC is taking an $8.5 million pre-tax restructuring charge to account for the downsizing at MHE, mostly related to severance costs. The layoffs at the educational and professional publishing group are part of a larger downsizing at MHC which also cut 246 jobs in its financial service segment, which consists mainly of Standard & Poor’s. S&P has struggled due to weakened conditions in the financial markets.

The Sequel to ‘Coldest Winter Ever’ Slated for October
By Felicia Pride
Atria Books has announced plans to publish Midnight, the long-awaited sequel to Sister Souljah’s bestselling 1999 novel The Coldest Winter Ever, which is in its twentieth printing and has more than one million copies in print. Midnight is slated for an October release and will have an announced first printing of 500,000 copies.

World rights for the sequel were acquired by Emily Bestler, v-p and executive editorial director of Atria Books. Bestler originally acquired The Coldest Winter Ever, which she describes as an “evergreen” for the company. “For everyone who has read it,” she said, “there’s a new crop who haven’t.” Read on »

The PW Morning Report
By Dermot McEvoy
B&N Looking to Acquire Borders?; Staff Cuts at Random?; State Dept. Drafts Writing Icons; Who Wrote "Footprints"?; and New Borgnine Autobio Read on »

Blogs

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Swine Not?; Wretched Sisters; Bad Days in Basra
Tonight on The Late Show with David Letterman, songwriter turned bestselling author Jimmy Buffett discusses his new novel Swine Not? (Little, Brown, $21.99; Hachette Audio unabridged CD, $24.98). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

'Idol' Time
While the “two Davids” are currently occupying the minds of American Idol fans—this season’s winner will be decided tonight—a former Idol was recently caught getting his Harry Potter fix. Here’s last year’s runner-up, Blake Lewis, hanging at the Scholastic Store in Soho.
Photo credit: Christopher Petrock Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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