Barnes & Noble looks to sell publishing arm

[afv011]

Barnes & Noble Inc. has put its Sterling Publishing business up for sale, say people familiar with the situation, signaling a likely end to its decades-long involvement in the publishing of its own books.

Source

[Tony1988]

This would seem a logical decision on their part. It should come as no surprise. Bookstores will mostly be gone in the next ten years I think. Except for smaller vintage stores etc. With ereaders becoming mainstream this christmas I am not surprised. They are doing the right thing focusing on their ereader business.

[fjtorres]

It should bring a decent price; mid-sized specialty publishers (if well-run) should weather the transition to digital just fine.

Note that B&N is *not* getting out of publishing; their Pub-it venture is still in place and growing.

They're most likely just raising cash to fund the company for a few more months after the Liberty Media loan runs out.

[kennyc]

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/05/bar...shing-company/

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by kennyc

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/05/bar...shing-company/

Good find.
This sounds like an epitaph:

Books that never would have seen the light of day, full of vampires, florid prose, and covers that look like they were done by a medicated third-grader, are selling like Dickens for 99 cents a pop. Back catalogs are being decimated by digital reprints and even the dream of print on demand is reaching it’s obvious conclusion. There is no such thing as vanity publishing anymore, just writing that is good and writing that is bad. The market then decides.

The market decides.
Hard to argue with that.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Good find.
This sounds like an epitaph:


The market decides.
Hard to argue with that.

And the quote echos pretty much what many folks have predicted would evolve.

Publishing as it existed before required the high cost of entry to be sustainable. The moment competition for shelf space and the costs of printing, storage, and shipping could be bypassed the end game was predetirmined.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Publishing as it existed before required the high cost of entry to be sustainable. The moment competition for shelf space and the costs of printing, storage, and shipping could be bypassed the end game was predetirmined.

Worse, shelf space is *shrinking* and about to get very expensive to *the publishers*.
Remember, Indigo is demanding coop marketing money to "feature" new releases and give'em extra visibility. The idea may be alien to publishing today but it is common in the supermarket business and far from unheard of in clothing and home electronics retailing.
Even with reduced print runs, pbook shelf space is going to be at a premium and publishers are going to have to compete for the best placements.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The market decides.
Hard to argue with that.

Yep. It was coming sooner or later.