Publishers

While none of the major New York City publishers who took part in PW's survey about their efforts to return employees to their Manhattan headquarters had fixed plans, no companies said they expected to begin bringing staff back in a meaningful way before Sept. 1. For the most part, they see the week of Labor Day as a target, but acknowledged that date may not be realistic.  Read more

The Covid-19 pandemic has had disastrous consequences across the economy, and with the IMF predicting a 3% contraction of the economy this year, that will only get worse. While this will hit many industries hard, there is a particularly deep fear for those in the relatively privileged cultural industries.  Read more

More than 100 pages of court filings precede a hearing expected this week in the US publishers' lawsuit of Amazon's Audible. Publishers allege copyright infringement, the audiobook company asserts fair use.

The new publisher Boldwood Books in London has placed a robust rights strategy at the heart of its business model. The house is seeking world English language rights for commercial fiction in print, ebook, and audio formats. Chief executive Amanda Ridout argues that conditions have never been better for a start-up publisher to exploit rights globally.

Profits rose in 2018 over 2017 at four of the five major trade publishers that report their financial information-and the one company at which earnings were down, Lagardère Publishing, reported an increase in profits at its U.S. subsidiary, Hachette Book Group.  Read more