“The single hardest thing to do in business is to make a deal, whether you’re buying or selling.” Former SouthComm, Inc. COO Blair Johnson knew the magnitude of the task before him when, in November 2017, the company’s equity backer Solidus ousted CEO Chris Ferrell and indicated its desire to exit the publishing business within eight months. “At that time, Solidus had decided they wanted to liquidate their position and get out of SouthComm,” Johnson tells Folio:. “[Managing partner] Vic Gatto and the board made a decision that we needed to do it, and do it quickly, and that Chris was probably not the right person to do it. He likes to buy and build, and it’s a different strategy when you have to liquidate.” And so Solidus handed the company reins to Johnson—who took over as CEO—and CFO Bob Mahoney, and the pair immediately began the process of selling off a company that comprised alt-weeklies serving five different cities, a robust b2b media business, and hundreds of employees, among other assets. In a b2b-media space characterized by frequent mergers and acquisitions, the circumstances may have felt a bit like déjà vu all over again for Johnson, who had arrived at SouthComm from Cygnus Business Media in 2015 after four years helping transition that company from bankruptcy to breakup. “We essentially had eight different entities that we had to find a new home for,” Johnson continues. “Clearly, the biggest of these was the b2b assets from legacy Cygnus.” The relative... Continue reading at 'Folio Magazine'
[ Folio Magazine | 2018-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray has pre-empted a collection of short stories and debut novel from Irish writer... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author and critic Nicolette Jones says shes never seen a picture-book app doing something a book cant do betterLots of developers and publishers are exploring the potential of interactive picture book-apps for children, but can they ever hope to deliver a reading experience comparable to books?... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Man Booker Prize-winning author Hilary Mantel has defended her story about plotting to kill the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writers Zadie Smith, Lionel Shriver and Rose Tremain join Tessa Hadley and Francesca Rhydderch on... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Glasgow School of Art replaces 22% of its most popular books that were lost in a fire at its Mackintosh building in June. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2014-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon will launch its Fire Phone through the O2 network provider in the UK at the end of this... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little, Brown’s crime imprint, Mulholland Books, is reissuing 25 books by Jim Thompson, 37 years after the author's death. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With blunt, expletive-drenched writing, the voice of 'Thug Kitchen' stands out in the world of healthy living and cooking websites. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week, we reviewed the HTC One for Windows, investigated Amazon's controversial ebook-pricing model, played around with Hyperlapse, learned about LG's G Watch R and more! Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last seven days. Oh, and... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2014-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Comics can wed different parts of a story together and really show things in ways prose can’t,” said Riva Hocherman, an editor at Metropolitan Books (an imprint of Holt), about "Verax," a forthcoming work of graphic nonfiction that tackles the history of the National Security Agency’s electronic... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing Perspectives will again publish full-color, tabloid-format print editions during the Frankfurt Book Fair. Got a story to tell? Let us know. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon has responded to an open letter by Authors United, signed by 900-plus authors in support of Hachette, with their own open letter, Readers United. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Compared to Google and Facebook, Wikipedia is remarkably tight-lipped when it comes to requests for user data.Although Wikipedia is one of the largest websites in the world, it receives relatively few requests from government agencies for user information, especially compared to companies like... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-08-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories" by Dr. Seuss will hit bookstores September 9th. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three stories by Salinger printed in 1940s magazines have now been collected into print, ebook, and audio format. Devault-Graves Agency co-founder Tom Graves says it's the first time a Salinger work has legally appeared in electronic format. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After producing a long line of ebook readers and tablets (not to mention a set-top box), Amazon has its sights set on the smartphone market. But finding success here won't be easy, even for an established tech giant like Amazon. With the Fire phone,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2014-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From small-town New Mexico to a military base in Kuala Lumpur, publisher promises 'razor-sharp dialogue and headlong pacing'A collection of previously unpublished short stories by the late Elmore Leonard will be released next year, his publisher has said. Continue reading... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's long-running standoff with Hachette has been making headlines for months. Here's the whole story in PW coverage. What began as a "scuffle" now has us using the language of war to describe it. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Novelist David Mitchell is to tell a 6,000-word story on Twitter, beginning today (14th July).... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Disney Publishing Worldwide is launching Disney Story Central, an online portal of interactive titles for kids aged 3-7. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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