BTW News Briefs

HarperCollins Announces Layoffs

This week, HarperCollins became the latest major U.S. publishers to announce a restructuring and layoffs as a result of the economic downturn. In the last several months, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Macmillan have all announced job cuts.

HarperCollins will close its Collins division, and Collins President and Publisher Steve Ross is leaving the company. Also leaving is Lisa Gallagher, publisher of William Morrow, and the company is closing children's imprint Bowen Press.

The New York Times reported that, although HarperCollins declined to say how many others had been laid off, "people familiar with the changes said at least five editors at Collins had been let go, including Gillian Blake and Caroline Sutton, well-respected executive editors who had been with the company for less than a year. Several sales, marketing, and publicity staff members were also let go from Collins and other divisions."

Online Sales Expected to Continue Climb

Forrester Research is projecting that U.S. online retails sales will increase 11 percent to $156 billion this year, excluding revenue from travel, as reported by the Associated Press. However, the 11 percent growth actually represents a slowdown from 2008, when online sales increased 13 percent, AP noted.

Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru told AP that most of the 2009 growth in online spending will come at the expense of bricks-and-mortar stores. Online sales are predicted to account for seven percent of overall retail revenue in 2009, as compared to six percent in 2008, AP noted.

Read Across America Day on March 2

The National Education Association's Read Across America Day will take place on Monday, March 2, and new resources to help make the event a success, including certificates, bookmarks, posters, and proclamations, are available at www.nea.org/readacross.

Read Across America also has a Facebook Fan Page, www.causes.com/readacross, where participants will "soon gain access to even more exciting news and resources," NEA reported.

2009 Audie Finalists Announced

On Monday, February 9, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) announced the finalists for its 2009 Audie Awards. Winners will be announced at a gala on Friday, May 29, at the New York Historical Society in New York City.

A new awards category -- Distinguished Achievement in Production -- has been added this year.

This year's Fiction finalists are:

• Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult, narrated by Danielle Ferland, Jim Frangione, Jenny Ikeda, Stafford Clarke-Price, and Nicole Poole (Recorded Books)
• Duma Key, by Stephen King, narrated by John Slattery (Simon & Schuster Audio)
• Prisoner of Birth, by Jeffrey Archer, narrated by Roger Allam (Macmillan Audio)
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows, narrated by a full cast (Books on Tape)
• The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry, narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan (HarperAudio)

For the full list of nominees, visit www.audiopub.org.