Barnes & Noble used its third quarter conference call to try to undo the damage caused by a Wall Street Journal story that said the chain is accelerating its store closings and would close about one-third of its outlets over 10 years. Mitch Klipper, who was quoted in the article, reiterated on the call that B&N has no plans to speed up its store closings, noting it has always closed between 12 to 20 outlets annually for the last 10 years. During the most recent quarter is closed 14 outlets and opened two, giving the store 677 outlets. Klipper said B&N will likely continue closing 15 to 20 underperforming stores annually, but noted that 95% of its stores are profitable and that it has no plans to close any of those stores. The company also has plans to open three to five new stores in fiscal 2014 that begins May 1.