Shortly before Thanksgiving, Barnes & Noble announced a new chief operating officer, but not a new CEO. It was something of a surprise, since B&N remains without a CEO, having dismissed the last one (due to poor fit) after less than a year on the job.
The new COO comes to his position from Staples; Michael Cader of Publishers Lunch said of the appointment (subscription required), “The hire implies the CEO search is either going very slowly, or has been called off for now.”
At around the same time, Barnes & Noble released their quarterly earnings report: revenues fell 4 percent, which they blamed on lower store traffic due to the election season. The decline happened despite the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, one of the biggest books of the year, and—even worse—Nielsen BookScan indicates that print sales across all channels were performing okay (even increasing) during that timeframe. So B&N is underperforming relative to the rest of the market.
Current acting CEO Len Riggio commented, “We think we’re going to be back on track before the holidays and through the holidays…. We don’t know at this moment where the new normal is, and we won’t know until well into the holiday season.” You can find more of Riggio’s remarks summarized by Publishers Lunch (subscription required).
Meanwhile, B&N’s much talked about concept store has opened in Eastchester, New York, and media outlets have had a bit of fun pointing out exactly what the concept is:
- Barnes & Noble Pairs Booze and Bestsellers in Eastchester
- Beer-Serving Barnes & Noble Sets New Opening Date
- Booze and Books: Barnes & Noble to Open Next Week in Eastchester
- Cheers? Barnes & Noble Is Getting into the Bars and Restaurant Business
Apparently, it’s booze to the rescue. Of the store’s 22,000 square feet, the restaurant and bar area accounts for 2,600; plus there’s a 3,000-square-foot patio with stone fire pit, outdoor seating, and bocce ball court.
Bottom line: Most publishers were unhappy to hear of Barnes & Noble’s CEO’s departure as the chain retailer headed into the holiday season, since it’s the most important time of year for book sales. The continued declines aren’t surprising to industry observers, and the overall outlook isn’t expected to improve much—sales are expected to be flat in the new year. In the face of very steep declines on the ebook side, B&N released a new $50 Nook tablet in time for Black Friday. As Cader often observes at Publishers Lunch, B&N’s ebook business will disappear entirely within a couple years unless they do something quickly to forestall the decline. Notably, it took B&N a long time to update their Nook app for iOS 10; the new version was released just before Thanksgiving, despite iOS 10 having been around since September.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
