In a December 5 article (subscription required), the Wall Street Journal offered a profile of Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt and an update on the bookstore chain’s performance during the pandemic. Echoing statements from his other interviews over the past year, Daunt said B&N expects to see sales decline 20 percent in 2020, assuming December sales are good. It also expects to be profitable, which may be partly the result of layoffs: 7,500 employees have been let go since April 2019, although the majority of those positions were part-time. About 125 people (roughly half the staff) in the New York corporate office were let go. B&N now employs about 16,500 people.
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.
