The UK bookselling chain, which also has a presence in the US, expects to lay off 1,500 employees, or roughly 10 percent of its workforce. A good deal of WH Smith’s business is related to travel—stores in airports, train stations, and so on—and those stores’ sales are down by 73 percent in July versus last year. WH Smith’s High Street shops (not travel-based retail) have fared better, down only 25 percent in July.
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.
