Barnes and Noble has reported that for the final two quarters of 2017 they will lose $25 million on the Nook division. The combined quarterly loss is a far cry from 2016 when they were losing close to $23 million per quarter, so it looks like their cost cutting measures are starting to pay dividend.
One of the big priorities with Barnes and Noble has been to cut costs with their ailing Nook division and try to make it profitable again. The bookseller closed down their Nook App Store and Nook Video store and either fired or repositioned all of the key staff to other departments. They also shuttered their digital bookstore in the UK and turned off their Windows 8 app in Europe. The also managed to save millions of dollars by closing down their research and development division in Santa Clara and have outsourced everything to a company in India.
I think B&N is finally starting to turn the tide of their Nook loses. It remains to be seen if they will ever be relevant again when it comes to e-readers, tablets and e-books. Most of their loyal customers over the years have fled and embraced the Amazon ecosystem and it will be challenging to win them back.
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.
