News - Vendors

Book Sense is pleased to announce the addition of four publishers to the ranks of its Publisher Partners: Rugged Land, Words Distributing Company, Red Wheel/Weiser, and Four Walls, Eight Windows.

Viacom has announced its decision to integrate its Simon & Schuster publishing operation with the Viacom Entertainment Group (VEG). And while Viacom expects the move to positively impact Simon & Schuster, the question remains: What will its impact be on booksellers? According to Adam Rothberg, vice president and director of corporate communications for Simon & Schuster, it will be business as usual.

As part of an ongoing campaign, Windstone Editions, a company located in North Hollywood, California, supports independent bookstores with an unusual profit-sharing program: It donates 10 percent of the company's profits from the sale of its line of cast stone bookends to independent booksellers associations. Windstone is the exclusive vendor of bookends, figurines, candleholders, sconces, and other sculptural items designed by artist M. Peña.

Advanced Marketing Services, Inc. (AMS) announced on, January 17, that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Publishers Group West (PGW) for a reported price of about $38 million. Under the terms of the deal, PGW founder Charlie Winton will continue to serve as company president for the next year to implement the transition. AMS -- which has built its business on supplying warehouse price clubs and other large retailers -- had revenues last year of about $700 million, as reported by the New York Times. PGW had sales of over $125 million in 2001.

Random House has begun a reorganization of its company sales group. It is the first company-wide reorganization in three years, and Ruth Liebmann, director of independent bookselling for Random House, told BTW that a major impetus for the changes is that "a lot has changed in the last three years, in the marketplace, in the needs of booksellers, and in the needs of our publishers."

In December, Scholastic launched a marketing campaign to promote books as a source of understanding, comfort, and connection. The "Read for Life" campaign -- featuring original artwork by Harry Potter illustrator Mary Grand Pré -- is a part of a continuing outreach by Scholastic in the aftermath of September 11, and it carries the message "Read for Comfort ... Read for Closeness ...

The Bloomsbury publishing house has garnered its biggest industry headlines for signing J.K. Rowling, whose Harry Potter titles have been published in the U.S. by Scholastic. This week the U.K.-based publisher -- which has a U.S. publishing program distributed by Holtzbrinck -- released its first catalog of 19 children's books to be published in America.

Book Sense is pleased to welcome its newest Publisher Partner, Charlesbridge Publishing of Watertown, Massachusetts. Founded in 1980 as an educational publisher, Charlesbridge began publishing children's books in 1989 with the release of five nature titles, including the bestselling The Icky Bug Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta and illustrated by Ralph Masiello.