06-13-2009, 03:39 AM | #1 |
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UK: Travel writers urge boycott of W H Smith & Penguin
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/co...vel-guide.html
"The British Guild of Travel Writers called this week for a boycott of WH Smith over its policy on the sale of guidebooks at airports and stations." Seems a lot of publishers are worried about this policy. Arthur Frommer is definitely unhappy. |
06-13-2009, 05:16 AM | #2 |
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Sounds like a case of jealosy to me. W.H. Smiths are in the business of making money. If they can do so by signing an "exclusivity" deal with Penguin for travel books, they are entirely within their rights to do so. It's not as if they are the only chain of bookshops around.
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06-13-2009, 06:37 AM | #3 | |
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Huh? What (amusingly FUD-y) nonsense.
Quote:
From what I've seen of them they aren't all that good, but that doesn't appear to be what's worrying this guy. |
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06-13-2009, 09:52 AM | #4 |
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Airport and station bookstores are very small. They usually carry a fraction of the number of books at a regular store. Standardizing on one line of travel books makes sense. They may or may not have made the right choice as to which line to carry, but standardizing on one makes sense.
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06-13-2009, 10:55 AM | #5 | |
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06-13-2009, 11:04 AM | #6 |
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Another point here is that W.H. Smiths are not who one immediately thinks of when booksellers are mentioned. They are primarily stationers - most of their business is selling newpapers and magazines, writing pads, pens, sticky tape, etc. They sell books too, yes, but it's not their primary business.
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06-13-2009, 12:36 PM | #7 | |
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The Interim Results Statement for April 2009 seems to give books top billing in the 'Category Performance' section, and makes a big play about their expansion into the 'Travel' market: "In Travel, improved merchandising and strong promotions, such as Deal of the Week, have helped support our books performance.We have made further progress with our specialist bookstore format, expanding our portfolio by opening 8 new units in the period, for example at Manchester and Stansted airports, bringing the total number of books only stores to 17." |
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