B&N coverage at WSJ by Trachtenberg
May. 20th, 2010 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutThe last time I mentioned Trachtenberg, it was to comment on how sucky the secondary coverage was of his basically accurate but not tremendously informative article on the amazon/penguin war (which as near as I can tell continues).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704448304575196172206855634.html
This article is mostly about B&N, their new CEO (hey, Steve is out! Wow! but they've got a Silicon Valley guy. This is not going to go well.), a possible proxy war in the future between Leonard and some guy named Burkle, and the possible future business model for B&N.
R. and I have been speculating for a while that chain bookstores will probably turn themselves into book/toy/gift shops -- since kids books (at least for the littles) aren't going to land on a kindle or iPad anytime soon (don't want the toddlers chewing on the expensive device), parents will go there, and they can buy other kid crap while they are there. Also, gifty things, which B&N already does, and can expand on arbitrarily. Look out Hallmark shops, basically, altho the comment about consumer electronics suggests they might have some damage planned for some of the big box guys as well.
It's a decent article. It's a little wacky to quote a guy from Penguin saying the iPad is taking digital books to a new level, given what else is going on, but that's a very minor quibble.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704448304575196172206855634.html
This article is mostly about B&N, their new CEO (hey, Steve is out! Wow! but they've got a Silicon Valley guy. This is not going to go well.), a possible proxy war in the future between Leonard and some guy named Burkle, and the possible future business model for B&N.
R. and I have been speculating for a while that chain bookstores will probably turn themselves into book/toy/gift shops -- since kids books (at least for the littles) aren't going to land on a kindle or iPad anytime soon (don't want the toddlers chewing on the expensive device), parents will go there, and they can buy other kid crap while they are there. Also, gifty things, which B&N already does, and can expand on arbitrarily. Look out Hallmark shops, basically, altho the comment about consumer electronics suggests they might have some damage planned for some of the big box guys as well.
It's a decent article. It's a little wacky to quote a guy from Penguin saying the iPad is taking digital books to a new level, given what else is going on, but that's a very minor quibble.