Revenue

In the first half of this decade, sales were skyrocketing for LeapFrog SchoolHouse—a division of LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. and publisher of interactive, research-based assessment and curriculum content for the PreK-8 education market. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company saw a boom in net sales from $8.8 million in 2001 to $55.2 million in 2004. In 2005, however, the company faced some hard (and controversial) times, and its sales began to drop. Last winter, LeapFrog SchoolHouse made a number of changes to get the company back on a growth track, including restructuring the organization, hiring a new president and focusing on its strongest segment within the

Celebrity book deals appear to be more popular and sought after than ever by publishers. At the end of July, a bidding war broke out between publishers over Keith Richards’ autobiography, with Little, Brown and Company gaining the rights. Around the same time, it was announced that Martha Stewart had signed a 10-book deal with her longtime publisher, Clarkson Potter. The Viking Press was awarded the rights to the biography of the late comedian Chris Farley, which will be written by his brother, Tom Farley, Jr. Within days of Karl Rove resigning from his position as presidential advisor, reports surfaced of his plans

New York-based Beautfort Books, founded in 1980, has finalized a deal with the Goldman family to publish “If I Did It,” the O.J. Simpson title that HarperCollins previously rejected. In late 2006, HarperCollins canceled plans to publish the title and destroyed 400,000 copies of it, after a public outcry against the planned publishing. “The team at Beaufort Books will be working closely with the Goldman family to bring this book to the attention of the American public,” says Eric Kampmann, president of Beaufort Books. “We will be working diligently, to not only publish this book well, but to honor the memory of the

Book Business magazine has announced the 2007 class of inductees into the Publishing Executive Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed on leading publishing executives in book, magazine, catalog and advertising production. Michael Weinstein, vice president, editing, design and production and manufacturing, Oxford University Press, is this year’s inductee in book production. A 31-year veteran of the book publishing industry, he will be joined by the following inductees to the 2007 Publishing Executive Hall of Fame: • Louis Milani, senior director, publishing operations and business affairs, Consumers Union, and a 53-year veteran of the magazine publishing industry • Marie Myers, senior vice president

Hooked on Phonics was created in 1987 as an instructional program to assist school-age children who were struggling with reading skills. Sold primarily through infomercials, the name grew increasingly recognizable as more and more television viewers stumbled upon the advertisements and their memorable “Hooked on Phonics worked for me!” tagline. Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the company introduced a handful of additional products, including “Hooked on Math,” but still remained true to its original direct-to-consumer sales model. In 2005, Hooked on Phonics, now known as HOP LLC, was acquired by Baltimore-based Educate Inc. (which also owns Sylvan Learning Center) and was

Martin Rowe labels his view of the book business “cynically optimistic.” The director of publishing for Lantern Books, a relatively small, independent publisher of spiritual, social, environmental and animal advocacy titles, Rowe draws upon a diverse career that has led to his well-rounded view of the business of book publishing. And this view, he says, is changing as rapidly as the industry itself. Prior to co-founding New York-based Lantern Books with the company’s CEO and president, Gene Gollogly, Rowe held positions in distribution, research and promotions, as an author, and in a handful of other roles that even included a job in a bookstore.

“We are leading the pack by building a digital warehouse, which is the digital equivalent of our print warehouse,” commented Jane Friedman, president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, in the May issue of Book Business. This is the ultimate sign-off on the industry’s embrace of the future, and its take-back of content control from trailblazers such as Google, Amazon and Yahoo. For some years now, various technology vendors have enabled publishers to deliver electronically formatted versions of their titles for special purposes. These have included applications such as conversions to XML formats (e.g., Publishing Dimensions), proprietary e-book reader formats (Mobipocket), sight-impaired applications (National

The June release of British writer Ian McEwan’s “On Chesil Beach” was accompanied by screenings of a 28-minute film profiling the author at dozens of bookstores in the United States. According to producer Powell’s Books, the film aimed to go beyond the traditional author reading to inspire “spirited discussion about great new books and their impact on readers’ lives.” This was, perhaps, an innovative and effective tool for promoting McEwan. But if proponents of the emerging tool of webcasting are proven right, the logistical challenges accompanying such an operation (and those inherent in luring a finite set of audience members to bookstores to watch

Green is the new black … or is it the new pink? Either way, green is in. With more and more of corporate America joining the green movement, environmental sustainability continues to gain momentum in society. But the decision to do one’s part to help the environment starts with the individual, which is exactly who one publisher is betting on with its launch of “The Green Book” this month. “The Green Book,” penned by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen, is a collection of more than 400 tips people can incorporate into their everyday lives to make a positive impact on the environment. Most

If 2007 goes down as “The Year of RR Donnelley,” it will do so as a result of a 65-day span at the turn of the year during which the conglomerate announced it would acquire three industry stalwarts: Perry Judd’s, Von Hoffman and Banta Corp. But the past year has been about more than consolidation and leveraged buyouts. North American printers continue to grapple with the mounting menace that is offshore manufacturing, fluctuating paper prices amid a series of mill shutdowns, and the ever-evolving technological demands of their customers. And yet, despite these challenges, there are also a number of opportunities facing the market.