Wolters Kluwer in Divestiture Talks

According to (Dutch) BNR newsradio Wolters Kluwer has entered into exclusive talks with investment fund Bridgepoint for the sale of its Education unit. This would seem to confirm that the front runner Pearson is not in the running to acquire this business. Speculators commented that the price PE were willing to pay was simply too much for Pearson. Bridgepoint have invested in media in the past but nothing this large; there other investments span industries.

The IHT is also reporting that the unit will be sold for as much as €775million. First out of the gate with a sale agreement, this sales price sets a high mark that may lead to high sales values for Thomson Learning and Harcourt.

Reuters

Bertelsmann Speculation (Deuce)

No sooner was the press conference over that announced the launch of an equity fund than speculation resumed over an purchase of Thomson Learning by Bertelsmann. No news from the company naturally. Reuters. Stay tuned.

Fund
Speculation

Barnes and Noble Report Full Year

Barnes and Noble announced their full year results this morning and in the previous press release providing full year guidance the company indicated they would be at the lower end of the EPS range of $2.20-2.30. They are coming in at $2.18 and the market will not be too happy with that performance.

Here is the press release
Here is a financial chart reflecting their performance
Here is my prior post on this subject
Here is a webcast

Borders Reports Their Strategic Plan

Is there room for another book retail website? Borders believes there is and has announced that they will reopen the web bookstore. Strategically, this is the best move; however, operationally this is going to pose tremendous challenges for Borders and I am not sure they can pull it off. The lesson in the B&N approach to the web is that it can be an effective customer retention and customer service tool and they have achieved a successful integration with the stores. The flip side of that is if B&N had screwed up on the web then it could/may have screwed up the store business which is the risk Borders will face. Let's face it, there is little that the company will be able to achieve that is new and revolutionary in placing a bookstore on the web, so their real task has to be in building customer retention and extending the community of Borders customers beyond the stores. In other words, if they are going at this to compete with Amazon to build a real 'destination' book retail site they will loose out and in the process loose a lot of money in the process.

Management at Borders is also an issue and has been over the past ten years or so. New management is installed and the announcement of the web site is a representation of the new regimes strategic plan for the next several years. There have been several regimes installed in recent years with grand plans (category management anyone?) but while the ideas had merit the execution left something to be desired. Building a new web presence is not something that they can do on the cheap which means they are going to have to have the right people in place to get the job done. If it were me, I would take the entire web initiative out of Ann Arbor and set it up from scratch in India. There is just too much baggage in the home office.

Enough editorializing.

Elements of the announced strategic plan are as follows from the press release:

Revitalizing the domestic Borders superstore business to achieve, by 2009:

• Consolidated EBIT margins of 5% to 6% compared to 1.8% in 2006, driven by sustained same-store sales growth in the low- to mid-single digits at domestic superstores.
• Improved inventory turns of 2 times compared to 1.6 times in 2006.
• Refocusing investments toward transforming domestic superstores while significantly reducing investment in segments that have not provided a satisfactory return, including the International segment and Waldenbooks

Specialty Retail segment.

• The company will explore strategic alternatives for the majority of its International segment, including its U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand superstores and Books etc. business, and will look toward its successful franchise model for future international expansion in new markets.
• Highly aggressive efforts, which began in the fourth quarter of 2006, to right-size the Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment will continue in 2007 with the goal of reducing the number of Waldenbooks stores from 564 at the close of 2006 to approximately 300 by the end of 2008.
• Reinventing the company by leveraging innovation, technology and strategic alliances to differentiate Borders in the marketplace, including the debut of a new proprietary e-commerce site in early 2008

It is a fairly long press release - although one should expect that given it is supposed to spell out the company's strategy - and they go on to explain how they will revitalize the Borders stores and merchandising, continue to invest in Seattle's Best Coffee and Paperchase. (Is there a future as a combo WH Smiths and B&N me thinks...). The company will also continue to invest in the Borders rewards program (which in the case of B&N, they blame on decreased operating margins for the upcoming six-nine months) which has 17 million members. The company will halt capital improvements to their stores until they are able to prove out their new 'store concept' which they expect to be completed in the second half of this year. Lastly, the company will expand its publishing program. About the only thing they are doing that doesn't appear to mimic B&N is invest internationally. (Suggestions that they were changing their corporate colors from red to green and beige are untrue and mean).

In discussing the web site the company says the following:

As part of the development of Borders.com, the company is consolidating its Web properties into a single infrastructure. This will facilitate a seamless cross-channel experience that will integrate the in-store and on line experiences. The addition of new "Digital Centers" in Borders stores will enable customers to learn about, interact with, and purchase new digital products-- such as audio books, e-books, MP3 players -- and services such as down loading and personal publishing that complement the Borders brand. The company is in the process of exploring several potential arrangements for key partnerships with respect to its digital offerings. The digital services can be made available both in-store and online as a result of the Web initiative.

Lastly in signing off the CEO George Jones is quoted as follows:

"We need to reinvent our business to exploit the rapid changes taking place in how consumers access information and entertainment," Jones said."Our ultimate goal is to make Borders a vital community gathering place where people come together to see, touch, interact, and learn -- online and in- store."

Gosh, that about sums it up. Good luck with that.

Borders Full Year Results

Any new manager wants to clean house and start from scratch which may be the tactic the CEO George Jones is adopting with the "disappointing" Borders full year results. The worse the starting point the better the future comparison - assuming the strategy works.

From the press release this morning:

The company recorded a consolidated loss in the fourth quarter of $1.25 per share, which compares to consolidated earnings per share of $1.78 for the same period in 2005. For the full year, on a GAAP basis, Borders Group posted a consolidated loss of $2.44 per share compared to consolidated diluted earnings per share of $1.42 for the prior year. Excluding non-operating charges, primarily comprised of asset write-offs, the company recorded consolidated diluted earnings per share of $1.61 for the fourth quarter, which compares to operating consolidated earnings per share of $1.87 one year ago. For the full year, on an operating basis, Borders Group posted consolidated earnings per share of $0.39 compared to $1.57 consolidated earnings per share in 2005.

Most of the EPS loss is attributed to asset impairment related to the UK operations (although they don't discuss exactly what the reasoning is here) but even without the write-downs which were probably necessary the full year operating results versus a mediocre last year are pretty dire.

Full year results were announced as follows:

• For the full year 2006, consolidated sales increased by 0.8% to $4.06 billion.
• The company recorded a net loss of $151.3 million in 2006 compared to net income of $101.0 million in 2005 on a GAAP basis.
• Excluding non-operating charges, net income decreased by 78.3% from $112.0 million in 2005 to $24.3 million in 2006.
• Borders stores comparable store sales in the segment decreased by 2.8% in the fourth quarter and declined by 2.2% for the full year.
• International segment comparable superstore sales increased by 0.3% for the fourth quarter and decreased by 0.4% for the year in local currency
• Walden comparable store sales in the segment decreased by 6.2% in the fourth quarter and declined by 7.5% for the full year.
  

Press release

Scholastic Earnings

A big day for earnings reports today and first up is Scholastic which is reporting 3rd Quarter results today. They have narrowed their loss versus the same period last year but they are cutting their full year outlook. Watch the stock price later in the day. The company's year ends in May and the last Harry Potter book is due in July. (Reuters)

Here is the full press release and an excerpt:

Results in the third quarter were generally positive. Strong sales in the core clubs and improved efficiencies sustained an impressive profit turnaround in School Book Clubs and drove higher margins in the Children's Book Publishing and Distribution segment. Robust technology sales also improved results and margins in Educational Publishing. In addition, the Company's cost reduction efforts remained on plan," commented Richard Robinson, Chairman, CEO and President. "While customer acquisition through the Internet remained strong in Continuities, higher bad debt and promotion amortization hurt the quarter's results and have caused us to reduce our outlook for the fourth quarter and full year.

Results for the quarter:

• Company now expects full year earnings in the range of $1.40 to $1.60 per diluted share on revenues of $2.1 to $2.2 billion
• Free cash flow for the fiscal year is now expected to be between $50 and $70 million
• Childrens segment revenues in the third quarter of fiscal 2007 were $280.1 million, up 3% from $270.9 million in the prior year period
• Educational segment revenue increased slightly to $74.6 million from $73.5 million in the prior year period, and operating results improved to a loss of $3.0 million from a loss of $3.5 million in the year-ago period.
• International segment revenue rose 5% (or 1% in local currencies) to $101.5 million from $96.9 million in the prior year period and operating profit improved to $3.5 million from $2.3 million a year ago, primarily as a result of higher export profits.
• Media, Licensing and Advertising revenue in the segment declined 12% to $40.8 million from $46.4 million in the prior year period.
• Corporate Overhead declined 20% to $15.7 million from $19.7 million in the prior year period.

Blurb.com

As readers should know, I have had great experience with Blurb.com's digitial publishing 'program.' The fees are so cheap that I encourage anyone interested to give the application a try. Today they are covered in USA Today. And here is an excerpt:

Blurb now has fans among architects, real estate agents, photographers, cookbook authors, museum archivists and others who have used it to print bookstore-quality editions. It takes orders for thousands of books daily, up from hundreds just a few months ago.A basic hardcover Blurb book is adorned with a full-color, glossy dust cover that looks like it belongs in a bookstore, not on a standard $29.95 homemade project. "We live and die on … quality," says Gittins. "That's what's really gotten people's attention."

Most Blurb customers (Gittins calls them Blurbarians) order books of 100 to 120 pages, and the cost is $37.95. A similar book from Shutterfly or the Kodak EasyShare Gallery would cost upwards of $100. Gittins says Blurb makes money
on every book, and can afford the lower prices thanks to automation.Blurb's Booksmart software is a free, fully functional layout program. Designing your book — if you are so inspired — can take many hours. But once it's finished and uploaded to Blurb, there's very little human interaction. "We're the cleanest business (that) printing has ever seen," Gittins says. "There are no proofs, just finished books."

Proquest Suspended

In a press release this afternoon, Proquest advised investors that trading in their shares had been suspended by the NYSE due to their failure to submit various regulatory filings.

The NYSE is suspending trading because the Company now anticipates it will not file its Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal year2005 (2005 10-K) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by April2, 2007 and is therefore not in compliance with NYSE Rule 802.01E. The NYSE stated that an application to the SEC to delist the Company's shares from the NYSE is pending the completion of applicable procedures.

The company is obscure about when it will be in compliance indicating it will be sometime in the second quarter.

Proquest Guidance

Bertelsmann Teaming with Private Equity

The FT (via MSN) is reporting that Bertelsmann, the owner of Random House and RTL, is teaming up with private equity groups to create a €1billion fund for investments in "opportunities of significant scale" in media related businesses. Bertelsmann will initially contribute €500m. From the article,

Bertelsmann said the initiative would allow it to take minority stakes in businesses and decide after three to five years, when its partners are seeking an exit, whether to take full control. The initiative comes just 10 months after the Mohn family, which controls the group, engineered the buyout of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, its only external shareholder. The deal increased Bertelsmann's debt by €4.5bn to €6.8bn and lowered expectations that one of Europe's most conservative media groups would be able to take on any large deals in the short term.

Analysts also state that the low cost of capital and the readily available funds that PE has access to poses a significant advantage for the banks versus operators. (This may be the case with Wolters Klewer Education). In this case they suggest that the fund would easily finance acquisitions up to five times the funds value. Clearly this is a shrewd move by Bertelsmann. Rather than watch PE pick-up some potentially prize assets out of sheer financial muscle they are choosing to join in with the bankers and see how it plays out.

Wolters Kluwer Education

Reuters are reporting that Pearson may not be one of the final two parties negotiating to buy the WK educational assets. Apparently, the price greater than 700mm euros has eliminated them from consideration. All conjecture of course until the deal is announced which is expected by the end of the week.

Sunny in New York

We had some snow this weekend but it has cleared up and despite a cold breeze it was a beautiful day yesterday. This is the location where a scene from On The Waterfront with Marlon Brando was filmed - just over by the green fence.

More about Jane Austen

Bill Grimes in the NYT took a look at annotated versions of some classic books including books by Austen and Nobokov. Reflecting back to your school days, when placing your novels in context was important to your participation in class will give you a good idea of how annotated books can add to your enjoyment and deeper understanding of the material. As Grimes says in refering to an annotated version of Pride and Prejudice,

Any reader who sticks with the program and absorbs the wealth of material that Mr. Shapard offers will, insofar as such a thing as possible, read “Pride and Prejudice” as it was read and understood at the time of its publication, with all the period details in place and correctly interpreted. But the novel, in most respects, remains the same. The reader who does not know a farthing from a guinea, it’s safe to say, will nonetheless grasp the great drama of attraction and repulsion that plays out between Darcy and Elizabeth. The cut and thrust of their conversation is timeless. Generations of young women who do not know the first thing about an entailed estate or a quadrille will recognize in Austen’s heroine a kindred spirit, a contemporary, a valued ally in the eternal war between the sexes.

These books fill an important need for some readers who really want to understand the world that the writer lived and the one that the characters inhabit. From the article,

That’s why there’s a niche market for annotated editions and period guides. A while back Daniel Pool responded to a crying need with “What Jane Austen Ate and What Charles Dickens Knew,” a whirlwind tour of day-to-day life in 19th-century England, with plentiful examples from Trollope, Thackeray, Eliot and Hardy. It tilts heavily toward the Victorians, whose world, with its railroads and factory towns and gaslighted streets Austen would not have recognized.

The next step would be to take this material to a more interactive level so that a reader could do their own research and navigate up and down and side to side in terms of contemporary history, politics, recreation, language, etc. Although admittedly that is going to be too much for the casual reader.

Unread But Popular Books

I am one of those people that gut it out and must finish a book once I have started it. Ulysses is the only book I have not completed but it is also the only book I have listened to on tape. (My most titanic battle to complete a book was waged with Dom Delillo over Underworld). This list identifies some titles unread that are surprizing particularly Harry Potter, but if you realize that many adults purchased the Potter books for themselves then this may not be too strange. Of interest too is the Bill Clinton book. I recall when it came out that there were grumbles about the lack of editing which would have reduced the length of the book and also resulted in more detail and reflection on the controversies. That is, it could have been more entertaining. Here is the list of unfinished fiction:

1 Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
2 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
3 Ulysses, James Joyce
4 Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres
5 Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
6 The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
7 The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
8 War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
9 The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
10 Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Clearly length of book has nothing to do with completion. In reading the comments, I was reminded that I also had the same experience having finished The Hobbit and attempting to read The Lord of The Rings. Regardless of my experience, one of those pointless best of lists places TLTR at number 2 in a most popular list. Here is the full list of fiction titles:

1. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (20%)
2. Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (17%)
3. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte (14%)
4. Harry Potter books, JK Rowling (12%)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (9.5%)
6. The Bible (9%)
7. Wuthering Heights , Emily Bronte (8.5%)
8. Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell (6%)
8. His Dark Materials , Philip Pullman (6%)
10. Great Expectations , Charles Dickens (5.5%)

This is clearly as list conducted in Greater Britain since I am sure if this were done in the US that The Bible would be number one.

In a split second of inspiration (now I have a headache), I took a look at the top ten authors and titles at librarything and here is the list by number of copies:

1. J.K. Rowling (86,828)
2. Stephen King (67,781)
3. Terry Pratchett (67,253)
4. Neil Gaiman (55,061)
5. J.R.R. Tolkien (51,560)
6. C. S. Lewis (48,761)
7. William Shakespeare (35,905)
8. Isaac Asimov (29,170)
9. Jane Austen (28,822)
10. Douglas Adams (27,633),

And here is the list of the top 15 books held by librarything participants:

1. Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone (13,366)
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (13,064)
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (12,259)
4. Harry Potter and the goblet of fire (11,792)
5. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban (11,678)
6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (11,612)
7. The Da Vinci code (10,572)
8. The Hobbit (9,248)
9. 1984 (9,182)
10. The catcher in the rye (8,954)
11. Pride and prejudice (8,398)
12. To kill a mockingbird (7,715)
13. The great Gatsby (7,494)
14. The lord of the rings (6,660)
15. Jane Eyre (6,292),

St. Patrick's, Andrew, George, David, (and Ringo) Day

So when the news came out, I couldn't wait to tell Mrs PND who, while the family came over in 1820 or so, is still apparently Irish. Well perhaps not. Little did we know that those Spanish sailors marooned on the shores of Ireland in 1588 - thanks mainly to the weather - were actually about to be reacquainted with their long lost relatives. When I told her the Great in Great Britain is more a geographic reference (perhaps it should be 'Greater' Britain) and that we are all related I thought she was going to tear up. Not so fast, she has started to insist I am Irish... Still this bit of DNA revisionism is a story almost as strange as the one earlier in the year about co-joining France and England under the Queen.

To my mind what has been ignored through out the subsequent depressed drunken discussions about our heritage is why on earth our ancestors migrated from Northern Spain. What were they thinking? Why once they suffered through the first dank, dark and damp winter/spring/autumn didn't they high tail it back? We deserve ancestors so dumb. So anyway, in celebration of Sts Patrick, Andrew, George and David day, Mrs. PND dutifully got the corned beef, potatoes and leeks and made dinner. She did not however take my advice and deep fry the meat, boil the crap out of the potatoes and vegies, serve it lukewarm and knock it back with a few tumblers of Laphroaig. All for the best.

Nevertheless, this concatenation of nationalities has its benefits because it will give the English (who remember as a nation rarely win anything of note) that many more chances at glory. And as if to underline the potential rampant opportunities in store, the "Irish" Cricket Team beat Pakistan yesterday in perhaps one of the more noticeable victories ever in a World Cup. Go "Ireland" "Scotland" "Wales" and England!

Speculation about Pearson

Reuters is reporting increased speculation (again) about a potential PE bid for Pearson plc. This is surely getting a little old for these people. Speculation has been evident for months and since the middle of last year the company's market cap has increased by well over £1.1billion. Today the share price has been up as much as 8p but it has fallen back slightly.

Deals: Wolters Kluwer

Wednesday was the day that offers were due to be submitted for the Wolters Kluwer educational assets. According to Reuters, the interested parties include Pearson Education and Wendel Investissement (French Educational company) and a number of private equity firms. Reuters went on to suggest that the company could fetch close to a $Billion.

It is hard to see which way this one will go. My guess is on one of the operators rather than PE. The unit is small relative to the other companies on the market and has some fairly specialized publishing programs which could limit effective cost restructuring and limit the potential for closer integration with a second follow-on acquisition. The integration with an existing publisher, such as Pearson, could be similar to a list acquisition meaning they could effectively eliminate all expenses other than those directly attributable to content development.

Graf Spree and Gone with The Wind

I was in Orlando earlier this week for the Spring meeting of ASIDIC which was my first attendance at this event. It was a small meeting but it there were some high quality presentations and I will attempt to attend subsequent meetings. Among the speakers was Joe Wikert who wrote a post about the meeting. Dinner on the Monday evening was at the Orange County Regional History Center in downtown Orlando where most people wouldn't ordinarily go. The exhibits we actually quite interesting and they had an extensive civil war exhibit but the item that caught my eye was in the smaller exhibit celebrating Gone with The Wind. In this newspaper front page a significant amount of space is given over to the premier of the movie but in the lower left is a story about the Graf Spree, a German battle cruiser that had been chased around the Atlantic by the British and had holed up in Uruguay. The juxtaposition of these two events - the movie and the war - is very interesting. It shows that at the same time the war was a very real thing in Europe that perhaps it wasn't quite so important at the time in the US. The British were frustrated in their victory in this skurmish of course since the Graf Spree was scuttled. On the other hand Viv Leigh did get best actress. (Sorry for the bad photo).

Informa Post Big Gain

Informa plc the event and publishing company which is the result of the Taylor and Francis and Informa merger several years ago posted a 50% gain in 2006 profit. The company also announced that Chairman Richard Hooper would retire and his position taken by current CEO Peter Rigby. Informa produces over 10,000 events, 40,000 book titles and 2,000 subscription products.

The company purchased a large events business in 2005 and 2006 was the first year revenues both included the full year impact of all recent acquisitions and did not include any material partial year acquisition revenue. In 2006 full year revenue was up over 40%. The company also said they are off to a fast start for 2007 but have ruled out any immediate additional acqusitions.

Here are their bullet point headlines:

• Revenue up 42% to over £1 billion
• Adjusted operating profit3 49% higher at £219 million
• Total dividend increases 40%
• Strong trading across all three divisions (Academic & Scientific, Professional and Commercial) and all three business streams (Publishing, Performance Improvement (PI) and Events)
• Return on IIR acquisition exceeds cost of capital
• Adjusted operating margin rises above 21%
• Cash conversion more than 100% of adjusted operating profit
• Confident of 2007 outlook

Here is the link to the Management discussion of the results and outlook for 2007.

Textbooks Are Too Expensive?

Make textbooks affordable is a web site set up by 19 student groups located at colleges and universities across the country. The insurgency against the 'high' cost of higher ed materials seems to be developing into a more coordinated approach to challenging publishing company's pricing policies. This site also hosts a report published by the MASS PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) titled Exposing the Textbook Industry: How Publishers’ Pricing Tactics Drive Up the Cost of College Textbooks which was published in February 2007. Among the findings/recommendations are the following:

• Textbooks should be produced and priced to be as inexpensive as possible without sacrificing educational value.
• New textbook editions should be produced only when educationally necessary; each book should be kept on the market as long as possible, with preference given to paper or online supplements over a whole new edition.
• Faculty should have the option to purchase textbooks unbundled; whenever a textbook is sold with additional materials, it also should be available without the extra materials.
• Publishers should provide faculty with more information on each book’s price, intended length of time on the market and substantive content differences from previous editions. Faculty want, and have the right to know, how their textbooks choices will affect their students. They should have easy access to information about all of the publisher’s products, low cost formats, options for bundling, and corresponding price information, voluntarily provided at the start of any sales transaction and on desk copies provided by the publisher.
• All textbooks should be available in a genuine low cost edition that contains comparable content in a low cost format. Information about these options should be easily available.
• Faculty should give preference to least cost options when choosing their books.
• There should be many avenues for students to access used books including rental programs, online bookswaps and bookstore buy-back.

While the report is critical of publishers it does not appear to criticise faculty or administrations for not being active enough regarding their knowledge and understanding of textbook pricing even when knowledge and information is made available by the publishers. There is notice given that suggests faculty care about this issue; however, the report doesn't hold them accountable for a lack of action on this issue. For example, the report reaffirmed that 71% said that new editions of textbooks in their field are justified only ‘sometimes’ or ‘rarely’ yet there doesn't appear to be a discussion as to why the new editions are ordered and what motivates faculty to support this publisher activity.

There are more reports on this site and I suspect that this report and others will be circulated and placed on similar web sites to the maketextbooksaffordable site. Perhaps more worrying is that some state legislators are jumping on the band wagon and are proposing legislation to limit the ability of publishers to act in their commercial interest. In Minnesota for example, legislators are discussing legislation to regulate publishers and make faculty more accountable, "This is the hidden cost to higher education," said Democratic Rep. Frank Moe, the Minnesota's bill sponsor, who also teaches at Bemidji State University. "Reasonable profit makes sense. But the margins they are making on these textbooks is just absurd." (Lansing State Journal) Governments have looked at this issue before but there are currently more than 12 legislatures that are taking up this issue.

The legislation suggested in Alabama is typical:

The legislation would regulate the use of textbooks in state schools with the goal of keeping the cost of students’ required reading down.It would require that college classes use the same version of a textbook for at least two years “unless there are substantial differences] between the old and new edition," he said.It would also prohibit state college instructors and book-buyers from getting any kind of compensation for their choices, meaning it would become illegal for them to accept incentives and promotional gifts from book publishers. (Tuscaloosa)

On top of these state lead efforts, there is also a federal advisory board that is in the process of collecting information and feedback in a series of meetings around the county. From the Gainesville Sun:

The idea is to prod professors to take advantage of articles, lecture notes, study guides and other materials available for free on the Internet.That suggestion, and several others, were aired during a 3 1/2-hour meeting in Santa Clarita, Calif., where the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance heard from college administrators, textbook publishers and other higher education leaders and advocates.The meeting - the second of three field hearings the panel will hold around the country before it delivers a congressionally requested report in May - didn't produce any consensus. And neither did it answer a question that seemed to be a subtext of the proceedings: Who is to blame for textbooks that cost more than $100?

This recent effort to manage textbook prices goes back to a report from GOA two years ago that, despite its flaws, is now regarded as the bible for all those addressing this issue. Unfortunately, the publishing industry was not well represented in that report and continue to be on the defensive on this issue. This will be monitored closely by all of us in the business.

Knovel New Appointments

On the back of announcing that Dave Shaffer from Thomson was joining the company, Knovel has announced some executive changes. It is not clear if these are related or not.

Robert E. Smith comes to Knovel asthe Vice President of Information Technology, John Dooley has joined Knovelas the Vice President of Sales and Delores Meglio has been promoted to VicePresident of Content Management.

Here is the press release.