Layoff tracker
Digital Age Hurts Random House, Simon and Schuster
Major book publishers are feeling the crippling effects from a slow economy and video-driven culture.
Dark clouds formed on the horizon last month, when Barnes and Noble halted its plan for new store openings and downgraded its holiday sales forecast. Simon & Schuster cut 35, which is only 2% of the staff, but CEO Carolyn Reid admitted the entire publishing industry is coping with “truly difficult circumstances.”
Last month, I suggested our society may be suffering form book burnout, and the latest news from the Associated Press affirms my hypothesis.
At Random House, the country’s largest general trade publisher,Stephen Rubin,the man who helped give the world “The Da Vinci Code” is in talks for a new position, while Irwyn Applebaum the publisher of Danielle Steel and other brand-name authors is leaving altogether.
These unfavorable conditions should pressure publishers consider a significant shift to alternate forms of media, especially digital publishing via audiobooks and software similar to the Stanza application for iPhone.
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