10-13-23

Turns out that “Booktober” is back! This annual festival of books at Sotheran’s bookshop in London involves promoting books and prints. I discovered Sotherans when I read the book Once Upon A Tome (see earlier Tea Time) and have been captivated ever since. I guess that marketing books is not always easy, as many bookshops and libraries have learned, but Sotherans is certainly creative and engaging.! There are so many great books out there! Sotherans.co.uk

Speaking of bookshops, we at the Charleston 2023 Conference are excited to have James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble as our keynote speaker Thursday November 9! 

Achilles James Daunt CBE  is a British businessman. He is the founder of the Daunt Books chain, and since May 2011 has been managing director of the bookshop chain Waterstones. Since August 2019, Daunt has also been CEO of Barnes & Noble, the American bookstore chain. He is known as “the man who saved Waterstones”. Daunt was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to publishing. 

Guess y’all have heard the big news that the Charleston Hub (ATG, the Conference and other associated entities) have been acquired by Annual Reviews, following their earlier acquisition of the Charleston Advisor. Katina Strauch, who founded the Charleston Conference in 1980, will remain a consultant for the foreseeable future. Leah Hinds, Executive Director, will retain her role. This looks like good news for all involved, as a succession plan for a conference of this size after 43 years of being run by its visionary entrepreneur founder, a succession plan was needed!  Enter Annual Reviews,  a well-resourced non-profit publisher who plans to retain the entire team!  

More news! De Gruyter acquires Brill for €51.5m

German academic house De Gruyter has acquired Netherlands-based Brill for €51.5m, in a deal expected to complete in the second quarter of 2024. The transaction, via an all-cash public offer, “creates the leading academic publisher in the humanities and presents a unique opportunity to accelerate organic growth and achieve necessary scale”, the publishers said in a joint statement, enabling the transition to new business models such as Open Access and technology investments for new workflows. The move will also finance investment in a state-of-the-art content platform. The new academic house will be branded De Gruyter Brill, “signaling the importance of the strong heritage and family background of both companies”. The combined companies will have pro forma revenues of around €134m and 750 employees, publishing over 3,500 books and 800 journals per year. Once the transaction is complete, the new company will be headquartered in Berlin, although Brill’s current office in Leiden will be the second largest office of the new combination and will “continue to have material substance in terms of responsibilities”. Brill was founded in 1683 in Leiden, and publishes in the humanities, social sciences, international law and biology, with offices in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the US and Asia. It publishes more than 360 journals and 2,000 new books a year. Family-owned De Gruyter has been headquartered in Berlin since 1749, with offices in Boston and Beijing and across Europe, publishing in the humanities, social sciences, economics, technology, mathematics, architecture, design and more. It has eight publishing brands, including De Gruyter Mouton and De Gruyter Oldenbourg, as well as over 120 gold Open Access journals.