Barnes and Noble has officially put its publishing arm up for sale today because of intense competition from Amazon and the company’s decision to focus entirely on its e-readers and ebooks. Sterling was originally acquired by B&N in 2003 and it cost $115 million at the time for all of their assets. Mainly the publishing company was well known for its puzzles, games, cooking, crafts, and kids books.
The main reason why Sterling was originally purchased was because of its library of books and its wide array of content. Barnes and Noble focused mainly on digitizing their portfolio of around 6,000 books and 500 books in the Barnes & Noble Classics and its Library of Essential Reader series.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “‘A number of publishers may be interested in purchasing Sterling,’ said Lorraine Shanley, president of Market Partners International, a New York consulting firm. ‘Sterling has a lot of specialty titles that appeal to non-bookstore retailers. In a world where the traditional book market is eroding, there are thousands of other places where you can place these books. The question is what price the business will fetch. The market is very different today.'”
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
