The spirit of the article can be summed up in this paragraph--
Like many businesses across the retail sector, the publishing industry has been hit by a raft of doom and gloom in the past few weeks. Leonard S. Riggio, chairman and largest shareholder of Barnes & Noble, said in an internal memorandum predicting a dreadful holiday shopping season, as first reported in The Wall Street Journal last week, that “never in all my years as a bookseller have I seen a retail climate as poor as the one we are in.”Like the rest of the country, the publishing industry is feeling the effects of the economy. Operating income for HarperCollins dropped 92% from $36 million to $3 million for the first quarter this year versus last year. Doubleday had a 10% staff cut.
There is not a great deal of optimism about the forthcoming Holiday season although one publisher pointed out bravely that books make a lovely gift.
Read the article here.
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