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The Weekly Wrap: May 17-23
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com The Weekly Wrap: May 17-23 James Daunt’s Bad Week James Daunt, the CEO of Barnes & Noble sat down with Jenna Bush recently to discuss the turnaround of Barnes & Noble and recent book trends, including AI-generated books. And here’s the statement that got him into trouble: “Yes, I have actually no problem selling any book, as long as it doesn’t…
James Daunt told the Business Studies podcast he rejected the "sensible retailing principles" that made other bookstores "inherently boring.
James Daunt fought Amazon and rescued the country’s biggest bookstore chain. Now comes Chapter 2.
August 8, 2019
By David Segal
(The New York Times) -- James Daunt, the man who will soon try to revive Barnes & Noble, once spent weeks in a noisy, arm-waving debate about the ideal angle of tilt for bookstore shelving. His opponent was an Italian showroom designer who argued, in a series of otherwise congenial meals in some of London’s best restaurants, that the shelf should be tilted four degrees.
Wrong, countered Mr. Daunt. The right answer is three degrees. Yes, the cover of a book catches a bit more light, and attention, if tilted at four degrees, especially on shelves below eye level. But the spine of a book starts to bend, ever so slightly.
“He prioritized presentation. I prioritized the condition of the book,” Mr. Daunt said, grinning to acknowledge just how wonky this discussion was. “These are my stores, so I went with three degrees.”
Mr. Daunt is talking about Waterstones, Britain’s largest bookstore chain, which he began to run in 2011, when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. A soft-spoken 55-year-old with a puckish smile and iron resolve, Mr. Daunt steered Waterstones out of a death spiral by rethinking every cranny of the company, from small (those shelves) to large (the business model).
The changes have filled Waterstones’ 289 shops, mostly in Britain, with books that customers actually want to buy, as opposed to the ones that publishers are eager to sell. And store managers have been given plenty of leeway to transform their shops into places that feel personally curated and decidedly uncorporate...
... Defying predictions that chain bookstores were doomed in an Amazon world, the privately held Waterstones returned to profitability in 2015, Mr. Daunt said, and earns a steady 10 percent margin on sales of roughly $500 million.
Now comes the question that will rivet American book lovers as much as any page turner: Can he do it again?
How Amazon Destroyed Publishing
How Amazon Destroyed Publishing
Then, Amazon came along and turned everything upside down. Including typewriters!
In my previous post, How Amazon Destroyed Barnes & Noble, I explained how Amazon (alone) could not be held responsible for the bookstore’s troubles.
This post addresses another common complaint, that Amazon has destroyed publishing.
Again, things are not as black and white as that. Yes, Amazon is a shark. But it was…
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How Amazon Destroyed Barnes & Noble
How Amazon Destroyed Barnes & Noble
What B&N should be like (in my dreams)
I apologize for the click-bait title. I only used it because I’m fed up with that claim, especially now that Barnes & Noble were sold on June 7 to a hedge fund after years of trouble. Everyone seems to be blaming Amazon for that, instead of placing the blame squarely where it belongs: the disastrous decisions of Barnes & Noble’s management.
But let’s take…
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A very bizarre rationalisation
I was just listening to the director of Waterstones (James Daunt) rationalise his argument for not giving his staff a real “living wage” and wow - he is very good at bending logic.
Apparently he has no objection to giving a living wage to the staff who are on a minimum wage - that is perfectly fine and not a problem, and wouldn’t be too expensive.
No - his argument for NOT doing it was that if he gave all the staff on a minimum wage he would have to give all the other staff a raise. He would have to give people earning hundreds of pounds a week, hundreds of pounds an hour, a raise as well.
Essentially he is saying he can’t help the poorest members of his staff because he would have to give a raise the richest members of his staff.
He is refusing to help those who need help the most because he can’t afford to help the richest.
That is some next level shit when it comes to rationalising not giving a raise to his poorest staff.
When it comes to helping those who need helping the most.
https://www.ft.com/content/aef579bc-4fb3-11e9-9c76-bf4a0ce37d49
March 6, 2016
Keith is sick this week so there will be no recorded podcast available. Please enjoy this news list nonetheless.
Here is the news from the past week:
Amazon Books to open at UTC in summer
2015 Nebula Award Finalists Announced
Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland
Object Lesson: Why we need physical books
Pat Conroy, Author of ‘The Prince of Tides’ and ‘The Great Santini,’ Dies at 70
Judge Seals Harper Lee’s Will From Public’s Scrutiny
Waterstones’ James Daunt: ‘Student of Bookshops’
Bring late books back with food gifts and be spared fines, say libraries
Nosy Crow crowned IPG Publisher of the Year
NoVa TEEN Book Festival
Academy of British Cover Design (ABCD) 16 Winners
Independent Book Publisher Trolls NRA Over Gun Violence
Has Harry Potter made the trend for longer children's books fly?
Shaughnessy Cohen Prize finalists include books on Harper, fracking, climate change
Historical Fiction Anthology A Tyranny of Petticoats Tells Girl-Powered American Stories
New university press from Goldsmiths, University of London to partner with renowned MIT Press in landmark deal
Call for submissions for the 2016 Ingrid Jonker Prize for English Poetry
Mark Rylance Talks Poetry and Ice Fishing
YA fiction is about far more than political correctness
Hachette Book Group buys Perseus
HOGARTH SHAKESPEARE
Atkinson, Harris and Boyd compete on Walter Scott longlist
A new poet for St David's Day: Ifor ap Glyn appointed national poet of Wales
Hong Kong booksellers to be ‘released soon’
Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo says he will abandon UK residency
Preview Version of the New Microsoft Academic Search Engine is Now Online, API Also Available
Louise Rennison dies
Carol Ann Duffy to tour UK for IBW
Detained US student confessed to stealing political slogan, North Korea claims
Retail sector 'could lose 900,000 jobs over next decade'
Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit gets his own 50p coin – and he didn't have to steal it
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Waterstones' lesson to Barnes & Noble: Think like an indie?
Waterstones’ lesson to Barnes & Noble: Think like an indie?
Stephen Heyman has written a long panegyric in Slate to the achievement of Waterstones in the UK, and its head, James Daunt, in reviving group sales and even the very concept of a chain bookstore. And he continuously contrasts the dire fortunes of Barnes & Noble, and all the wrong steps it’s taking instead. Is he right? Has Waterstones found a template for book chain success that B&N can use to…
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