According to
Publishers Weekly, B&N has cut a reported 45-50 jobs in its buying and merchandising departments, including a few VPs, and is planning to reorganize at that level to concentrate on the growing portions of their business, such as digital sales.
Speculation is high, and further details are scarce at this point. I speculate that they hope to automate as much of their current processes as possible, in order to cut down on necessary personnel, and downsize and streamline in a tough economy... if so, there could be more job cuts coming later.