Earlier this month, Lagardère reported that 2024 HBG sales were up 7% over 2023—the biggest jump posted by any of the groups in Lagardère’s publishing business, which posted €2.87 billion in revenue last year (or just over $3 billion at the current exchange rate). - Publishers Weekly
Mind you, we didn’t say newspapers. “Two upmarket London news start-ups are finding a growing (albeit small so far) market for paid online news about the UK capital. Meanwhile a third, more ambitious, title – London Daily Digital – has launched with 18 staff based on Fleet Street.” - Press Gazette (UK)
"They want to do things in a time frame that suits them, rather than hope that they will find an agent, and that the agent finds a publisher, and at some point, in the future, that book is published. New writers are saying: ‘I can do something relatively quickly and learn how to be an entrepreneurial, self-starting author.’” -...
What some in the east suspected, but very few knew for sure, was that the uncensored literature flooding the country wasn’t reaching Poles by chance. It was sent as part of a decades-long US intelligence operation, known in Washington as the “CIA book program.” - The Guardian
Chaim Grade was considered one of the greatest novelists in the language, and his last work. Sons and Daughters, was serialized in Yiddish newspapers without ever getting published. After Grade died, his widow obstructed access to his papers. So the discovery of missing material was a big event. - The New York Times
“According to this study, 92% of (disadvantaged) students had greater access to books because of Little Free Library boxes, 49% read more frequently (an average of 1.1 additional days per week), and 88% of children have built their own at-home book collections.” - Publishers Weekly
“We should see Spotify rapidly expand its market presence not just in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, but shortly in Sweden and across Europe” - and, it’s predicted, using AI to expand in India as well. - The New Publishing Standard
“There is—and has long been—a physical appeal to being blanketed by books. … The ladder is a symbol of the scale of the collection, which can be awe-inspiring—both just to look at aesthetically and to consider how much knowledge is held in those books.” - Slate
No surprise: Oprah is still on top. Then there are the other three. Sorry, Natalie Portman: Your fans think you’re hot, but they don’t buy the books you pick. - The Cut
Debates about the value and function of literary criticism today are, it seems to me, both constant and evergreen—always seeming new, urgent, specific to some particular contemporary crisis, but also far more continuous and universal than you’d think. - The Point
I have made a beautiful book, but to complete my book biz journey, I will go on the road again, a box of books in the trunk of my car, and drive from bookstore to bookstore, seeing old friends and making new ones. - LitHub
“House File 274 would repeal a section of the Iowa Code that addresses obscenity exemptions for public libraries and educational institutions, while Senate File 347 aims to control the selection and purchase of books and materials with alleged sexual content and proposes steep fines for sharing such work with minors.” - Publishers Weekly
"Police in Kashmir have raided dozens of bookstores and seized more than 650 books as part of crackdowns on dissent in the Indian-administered region. Most of the titles were written by Abul A’la Maududi, a prominent 20th-century Islamic scholar who founded Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic organisation banned in Kashmir." - The Guardian
