We've known the numbers were coming, and Barnes & Noble released its third quarter earnings today. A few items of interest: Third quarter consolidated revenues were $2.2 billion, a decrease of 8.8% as compared to the prior year. Third quarter consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $55 million, as compared to $150 million a year ago. Third quarter consolidated net losses were $6.1 million, as compared to net earnings of $52 million a year ago. Those are some pretty impressive numbers. Losses of $6.1 million compared to net earnings of $52 million a year earlier. B&N did attribute much of...

Lots of rumors were flying last night about a split of Barnes & Noble. It's now been confirmed through an SEC filing that Len Riggio, current CEO of B&N, wants to buy the retail stores and BN.com. Nook Media and the college bookstores will remain a separate entity under current corporate leadership; Riggio doesn't want 'em. I can't imagine that this will end well. Many of the college bookstores are also retail stores (like the one at my son's college, Virginia Commonwealth University). Will there be separate retail terms for each entity? If so, that would be horribly inefficient. And how will...

Barnes & Noble yesterday announced that it just released a new Nook for Windows 8 app, which "enables customers to sign in and shop using their Microsoft account, dramatically simplifying the reading and shopping experience," according to a release. Jamie Iannone, president of digital products at Nook Media LLC, says that "Nook is already the highest rated reading and digital bookstore app on Windows 8," although somewhat confusingly, in the same release, he also says this: "As part of our strategic partnership with Microsoft, we are thrilled that Nook is the first digital bookstore to support Microsoft account for sign in Windows...

Joanna's Morning Links post today included a link to a Mike Shatzkin article about the future of Barnes & Noble. I found this statement particularly telling: "It is a virtual certainty that if a book has three different prices: print in the store, print online, and ebook, the printed book in the store will cost the most. This is not a formula to assure bookstore survival." If Amazon.com has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that books should be inexpensive. I know that authors and publishers wish Amazon had not taught us the lesson, but it's been well and truly taught. Publishers,...

Digital Book World posted an excellent article today about the Barnes & Noble elephant in the room at DBW 2013. The big takeaway from this article was this statistic: "According to the most recent Codex survey, online selling accounts for 61 percent of book sales, but only 7 percent of discovery." That's huge. I'm one of those 61 percent. Sure, I buy all my books online, but I find new books and authors by browsing my local Barnes & Noble. And what happens if that local Barnes & Noble goes away? It's not looking good for them as a business right now. Well,...

By Michael Weinstein The returns are in on sales for Amazon and Barnes & Noble from the holiday sales period. Remember that "surge" I mentioned in my last blog post? Like the song says, “It ain’t necessarily so.” On the one hand, Amazon had its biggest holiday season ever, with the Kindle Fire being it’s number one product—specifically the "#1 best-selling, most gifted and most wished for product." Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble sales were down almost across the board—in stores, on-line and sales of Nook. Revenues were down 12.6 percent from the previous year. The good news is that sales of digital content were up...

By Juli Monroe Last week I wrote an article for one of our sister sites, GadgeTell, on ways Barnes & Noble could remain relevant with the Nook line. While I stand by everything I wrote in that article, I missed an important point. One of the reasons I stay with Amazon and my Kindle Touch is because of the “Send To Kindle” feature. Send to Kindle allows you to treat personal documents the same as Amazon content, including syncing between multiple devices. It’s easy to use. After downloading and installing the app, simply right-click on a document, and Send to Kindle will be...

My recent exploration of the failing of Barnes & Noble attracted many comments, some of which surprised me. To me, it was a simple issue of, 'If you won't sell to people, how can they buy?' But I had some food for thought from some of our readers, and I think the problem merits some further exploration. Here are my top off-the-beaten-track Barnes & Noble Failure Conspiracy Theories. Do some (or all) of them account for Barnes & Noble's dismal sales? 1. Barnes & Noble is targeting takeover partners, not customers. This one came to me via my Beloved, who reads ... but makes...

My esteemed editor, Dan, posed a question today, after processing B&N's recent holiday sales stats: Why IS Barnes & Noble failing so badly? After reading their Christmas-season sales numbers, nobody can deny that their sales are not what they could be? Why? With all due respect to Dan, who I think is a fabulous guy, I think the answer is a lot more straightforward than he might think. It's not about sales metrics, or marketing techniques, or any complicated analysis I think he was seeking. The answer is simple: It's because the world has more non-Americans than Americans, and Barnes &...

To most readers, it probably seems unthinkable that Barnes & Noble and its Nook Media division might not be around at this time next year. But after B&N announced its embarrassingly low holiday season sales figures yesterday (scroll down to read the press release), that's essentially what every media outlet covering the news seemed to be suggesting. After thumbing through a few of the stories and considering the facts myself, I've got to say that my own personal faith in the company's future isn't exactly booming—quite the opposite, in fact. If you're not current on the story yourself, here's the nut graf...

  By Brian Howard | for Book Business Ah, two can play this game! There's a lot of noise in the news feed today about Barnes & Noble's earnings report (share price down, but down significantly less compared to last year; retail sales flat; Nook sales up). But what's "interesting" (read: annoying, for journalists anyway) is that B&N is playing the same game Amazon plays with Kindle sales: Nook sales "doubled" over Black Friday weekend. But how many units does that represent? B&N's not telling. * * *      ...

Everybody’s coming out with tablet gift buyers’ guides this time of year (including us in not too long). I thought it might be a good idea to come out with more of a thinking guide, something to suggest ideas for you to consider while you read those guides—a “buyers’ guide guide” if you will. These are the primary considerations I think a tablet buyer should be keeping in mind. 1) Walled garden or the open road? Many of the most popular tablets this year are locked up in someone’s walled garden. The iPad and iPad Mini are no-brainers...