Wednesday, December 10, 2008

More Publishing Economy Woes

Where would you be without knowing the continuing woes of the publishing industry? (Reflecting the overall woes of our economy.)

Macmillan has instituted a pay freeze for all employees earning over $50K/year. Employees earning less than that will be "modest" increases. In a staff memo, CEO John Sargent wrote, "We are now clearly in a recession and there is still no clarity on how long or deep it will be. What is clear is that retail book sales are down, advertising revenues are down, and even countercyclical businesses like education are struggling in many cases."

Chronicle Books is laying off close to 5% of their staff. While they say their children's book sales have grown, they are reducing the number of adult titles, and have seen a decline in backlist sales.

Added 12/11: Perseus Book Group has announced it is freezing salaries, suspending company contributions to retirement accounts, and not filling open positions.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These are certainty hard times. But it is like my grandfather would say "tighten up your boot straps and keep going." I think is is good for Americans to get a reality check. Learn to save, be thrifty and not wasteful. We will all survive, even us in the book business.

Brenda Rogers
http://authorsonthenet.com