Deborah Leonard will become the new executive director of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association, replacing Jim Dana, who is leaving, effective October 15, to join the Peace Corps.Leonard was most recently a sales manager at Cengage Learning, where she won the President's Award for Top Sales Manager in 2006. Earlier she was a national account manager at Scholastic and Simon & Schuster and was a children's book buyer for Waldenbooks. She began her career as a bookseller at Zibart's in Nashville, Tenn., and worked as a bookstore manager for seven years.
GLIBA president Sally Bulthuis said that Leonard "brings a wealth of knowledge from her many years of experience in the publishing industry."
Both Leonard and Dana will be at GLIBA's fall trade show, which will be held October 8-10 at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Mich.
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Former President Jimmy Carter stayed again last night in a hospital in Cleveland and has canceled several appearances on his tour for White House Diary, including one at Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C.Carter had been taken to the hospital on Tuesday after arriving in Cleveland by plane and complaining of an upset stomach. According to the New York Times, the hospital described him as in "very good spirits" and said his doctors had recommended "additional observation."
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The Borders Group special shareholders meeting scheduled for yesterday was postponed at the last minute until today, "to allow additional time for its shareholders to consider the proposals submitted to them for a vote." The meeting will be held at 5 p.m.
The proposals include a proposal to issue to LeBow Gamma Limited Partnership, which is controlled by CEO Bennett S. LeBow, a stock purchase warrant exercisable to acquire 35.1 million shares of Borders stock at $2.25 a share as well as to issue the shares underlying the warrant. Another proposal will require the company to obtain the consent of LeBow Gamma before it appoints, terminates or transfers the CEO or CFO or any executive officer or makes significant changes in their employment.In a statement, Borders Group president Mike Edwards said, "While support for the proposals contained in the proxy statement has been strong, there are a significant number of shareholders who have not yet had the opportunity to vote and we want to give them time to consider the proposals and vote."
LeBow invested $25 million in Borders in May, obtaining exactly 11,111,111 shares, a stake amounting to nearly 16% of the company's stock. If the warrants are approved and exercised, his stake will rise to 35% of Borders. Also, as the AP noted, if the warrants are approved, Pershing Square Capital Management, which used to be the largest shareholder of Borders, will be eligible for a similar deal for 8.5 million shares at 65 cents a share. If Pershing Square, controlled by Bill Ackman, exercises those warrants, its stake in Borders will rise to 31%.
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Barnes & Noble employees and former employees with B&N stock who sided with chairman Len Riggio were a key factor in the victory by Riggio and his slate at the company's annual meeting on Tuesday, according to a New York Times Deal Book analysis of the voting. Other significant factors: several large funds that usually follow the advice of proxy voting advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services, which recommended a vote for Ron Burkle and his slate, ignored the ISS recommendations and voted for the Riggio slate. In addition, Yucaipa Companies ally Altheia did not vote 1.7 million of its 9 million shares, possibly because they were on loan to brokers and the firm did not want to appear to be acting in consort with Yucaipa. And State Street, which sided with Burkle, voted its million shares too late to be counted.
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Children between the ages of 6-17 spend less time reading for fun and more time going online and using their phones for fun, but a majority of them are interested in reading an e-book and a third say they would read more books for fun if they had access to e-books, according to a study of 1,045 children and their parents sponsored by Scholastic.Other findings of the survey:
39% of the kids said that information they find online "is always correct."
25% count texting with friends as reading and 28% consider catching up on Facebook reading.
25% of kids have read a book on a digital device, most on a computer.
66% of children surveyed said that they will always want to read printed books.
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Book trailer of the day: Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson (Riverhead).
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Kinney commented: "When I think of all of the iconic characters that have flown in years past, I feel humbled and honored that my character will be a part of the parade's history."
To celebrate, Amulet Books is holding a sweepstakes: the winner and three guests win a trip to the parade, including VIP grandstand tickets.
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Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth said that Kindle's
lower price point should "keep Amazon safe from the effect of the iPad,"
and estimated that Amazon would sell about five million Kindle
e-readers this year, Electronista
reported, adding that he predicted the "numbers would more than double
over the course of the next two years to reach 11.5 million in 2012."
Anmuth
observed that Amazon would "reap the benefits of work by Apple: as the
Kindle app is still one of the most popular titles on the iPad, it still
benefits when someone buys the competing tablet. The company could
handle as much as 43% of the content on tablets, including not only
Apple's but RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook."
Electronista also
noted, however, that "Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has predicted
iPad shipments that would at least double Kindle figures, reaching 10.7
million in 2010 and 21 million in 2011."
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Annabel Lyon, author most recently of The Golden Mean, selected her top 10 books on the ancient world for the Guardian.
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HarperMedia has made the following changes:
Christy Mirabal has been promoted to associate director, HarperAudio. She joined the company three years ago.
Beth Ives has been promoted to marketing manager, HarperAudio.
Galit Vaturi has joined HarperMedia as a product manager. Vaturi previously worked at ABC, WB Network and Walt Disney Records.
Esther Kim has been promoted to senior rights associate. She has also worked at the company for three years.
Isabel Tewes has joined HarperMedia as managing editor. She was formerly a managing editor at the Free Press and Scribner.
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Effective November 1, Ingram Publisher Services will distribute Zondervan books, Bibles and other Christian materials to Zondervan's field sales, gift and special market segments.