Barnes & Noble is a pretty easy target for everyone in the publishing industry as it awaits a magnificent turnaround by its new CEO, James Daunt, but this latest commentary from a publishing consultant uniquely demonstrates the lack of vision at B&N. Michael Cairns writes, “In their Union Square (New York) location, B&N has one of the finest retail footprints of any retailer. The store should be the chain’s flagship location, where they can build the kind of brand loyalty companies like Nike, Apple, Burberry, and others have created. … Walk into the Union Square store today and it is a mess: books, games, and outdated electronics. But what if the first floor … was a theater space? … Take, for example, African American History Month: rather than [make] an insulting and ill-considered gesture, what if B&N Union Square gave up the entire ground floor to the African American Museum of History and Culture?”
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.
