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Literacy experts face the axe

Publication Date: Wed, 08/07/2009 - 14:19

Up to 550 literacy and numeracy consultant jobs could be axed following the disbanding of National Strategies announced last week.

National Strategies has been responsible for guiding how numeracy and literacy are taught since 1997. However, the Department for Children, Schools & Families (DCSF), which announced the news in the...

Caroline Horn | children's | DCSF | Home | literacy
David Cooke to leave Tesco

Publication Date: Wed, 08/07/2009 - 14:19

David Cooke, category manager at Tesco, is leaving the supermarket chain later this year to join newspaper and magazine company Menzies Distribution.

Cooke will join the company as its commercial and marketing director in September. He has been with Tesco for 21 years and oversaw the book team as the supermarket dealt with the collapse...

David Cooke | Graeme Neill | Home | Retail | tesco
British Bookshops consults over redundancies

Publication Date: Wed, 08/07/2009 - 14:00

British Bookshops has opened a consultation period with its staff about possible redundancies at the retailer.

The Bookseller revealed last month that c.e.o. John Simpson, who was parachuted in to turnaround the business after it was...

British Bookshops | Endless | Graeme Neill | Home | John Simpson
Makinson defends exclusive WHS Travel deal

Publication Date: Wed, 08/07/2009 - 07:51

Penguin has admitted that its exclusive deal with W H Smith Travel was to "protect" its books and "generate more book sales" in the current "difficult market".

The acknowledgment came in a letter from John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of the publiser, which was sent to Mark Le Fanu, general...

chairman and chief executive Mark Le Fanu | Home | John Makinson | Penguin | The Society of Authors | Victoria Gallagher | W H Smith Travel
Transworld acquires Telegraph expenses title

Publication Date: Wed, 08/07/2009 - 07:50

Transworld has bought the rights to an inside story on the expenses scandal written by journalists from the Telegraph. Publisher Bill Scott-Kerr acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from agent Robert Smith, acting for Telegraph Media Group.

No Expenses Spared is written by Gordon Rayner (left) and Robert Winnett, the two...

Home | Rights deal | Telegraph | Transworld | Victoria Gallagher
Digital dangers

Publication Date: Tue, 07/07/2009 - 16:17

Long, absorbing stories have been the domain of the book for centuries. Since the advent of the novel, humans have happily lost themselves in worlds created by writers. But could digital yet be the death of lengthy fiction? Not if we're careful.

A survey by Entertainment Media Research (...

blog | digital | e-books | Home | Peter Crawshaw
Transworld reveals The Lost Symbol

Publication Date: Tue, 07/07/2009 - 15:16

Transworld has unveiled the cover to the long-awaited follow-up to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol.

From the cover, it seems the action in Brown's next novel will take place in America's seat of power, with Capitol Hill in Washington DC the bottom image. All that has been previously revealed about the...

Dan Brown | Graeme Neill | Home | random house | The Da Vinci Code | The Lost Symbol | Transworld
Fraser makes way for 'new generation' at Penguin

Publication Date: Tue, 07/07/2009 - 08:30

Helen Fraser, outgoing managing director of Penguin, has said that a "phalanx of 40-plus talent" is ready to drive the company forward for the next 15 years, with her successor Tom Weldon set "to lead the next Penguin revolution".

Speaking to The Bookseller after announcing her own retirement, amid a wider...

Helen Fraser | Home | John Makinson | Penguin | Philip Jones | Tom Weldon
John Makinson: cuts not about current trading

Publication Date: Tue, 07/07/2009 - 08:29

John Makinson, chief executive of the Penguin Group, has stressed that the changes announced at the publisher yesterday (6th July), which include 100 jobs cut, are not about the company's current performance.

Nielsen BookScan figures show that Penguin's UK retail sales in the first quarter have dropped 7.1%, with its market share...

Financial | Home | John Makinson | pearson | Penguin | Philip Jones
Home sales down by 6.5%, according to PASM

Publication Date: Tue, 07/07/2009 - 07:39

The first quarter of 2009 has seen home sales decline by 6.5% on the same period in 2008, according to the latest figures from the Publisher's Association Sales Monitor. In volume terms, sales declined by 4%, the PASM has shown.

Overall, however, sales declined by 0.6% on last year, bolstered by the growth of export sales – up...

Catherine Neilan | Home | publishers association | Simon Juden