Steve Riggio

Barnes & Noble announced the elimination of nearly 100 positions at its New York corporate headquarters, citing a reduction in store openings and consolidation of functional areas within its retail and online operations.

Barnes & Noble Inc. reported $1.1 billion in sales for its third quarter, a 4.4-percent decrease compared to the same quarter last year. Store sales decreased 4.4 percent to $971 million, while sales at BN.com increased two percent to $109 million.

As CEO and president of iUniverse, Susan Driscoll has helped the pay-to-be-published online publisher to become an attractive alternative to the sort of traditional publishing houses at which she once held executive-level positions, including HarperCollins, Henry Holt and Holtzbrinck Publishers. An affordable avenue for aspiring authors seeking to get published, iUniverse has become one of the largest self-publishing companies since its launch in 1999. Driscoll, who co-penned the book “Get Published” last year, not only is the top executive at the company, but also a mentor to iUniverse’s roster of authors. Where do you see book publishing heading in the next five to 10 years?

The holiday shopping season offered up a “bah, humbug!” for the largest bookseller as Barnes & Noble announced it did not meet the company’s expectations for the quarter. The retailer reported same-store sales, those generated from stores open for more than a year, were down 0.1 percent compared with the same nine-week sales period in 2005. Overall sales at its flagship Barnes & Noble stores rose 2.6 percent to $1.1 billion for the holidays. Sales at B. Dalton, the company’s shopping-mall centric stores, were down 31.3 percent to $28.4 million, when compared with last year’s holiday sales. The drop is due in large

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