As the Nook turns, B&N spins out...

[fjtorres]

...the college bookstores *alone*...

Via:
http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/0...comment-801403

Barnes & Noble announced today that they were splitting the 700 plus college stores operated by B&N into its own wholly owned company called B&N Education.

For the past 3 years Barnes & Noble's college store division has been bundled into its digital division, Nook Media. As Nook Media's fortunes waned, its been clear that B&N was going to have to split off the still financially healthy college stores from the toxic digital unit.

The retailer had previous announced plans to split Nook Media off into a wholly owned company, but now the digital unit is going to remain part of B&N.

Clearly that plan was derailed by the quarter after quarter of declining digital revenues, resulting in a company which no one would want to invest in, so B&N is instead going to split off the relatively healthy college stores.

More at the source.

For the actual PR release:

http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...E#.VO9p7mrD_MK

August is still a ways off so they might still flip flop a couple more times by then.

[Calenorn]

The college book business is changing. My son had to buy a four-inch high stack of loose-leaf pages as a 'textbook.' Inside the package was a password to access the class website where the homework was assigned and turned in. He used the website daily. He never used the paper pages.

All this cost over $200!

So any business betting on the college text market will have to be very nimble, because things are going to shift rapidly.

On the other hand, having visited several universities prior to my son's starting college, I still believe that those college bookstores are absolute cash cows. They sell a ton of souvenirs and fan garb on game day, and also do a booming convenience store business to a captive audience with money to spend. Anyone who can't turn a profit at a college bookstore has got to be a complete idiot!

So, B&N is spinning this part of its business off because it IS valuable, and will find a ready buyer. If B&N wants to raise a pile of cash, quickly, then selling off the university bookstores is the best way to do it.

What they will do with that cash is beyond me, however.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

The college book business is changing. My son had to buy a four-inch high stack of loose-leaf pages as a 'textbook.' Inside the package was a password to access the class website where the homework was assigned and turned in. He used the website daily. He never used the paper pages.

All this cost over $200!

So any business betting on the college text market will have to be very nimble, because things are going to shift rapidly.

On the other hand, having visited several universities prior to my son's starting college, I still believe that those college bookstores are absolute cash cows. They sell a ton of souvenirs and fan garb on game day, and also do a booming convenience store business to a captive audience with money to spend. Anyone who can't turn a profit at a college bookstore has got to be a complete idiot!

So, B&N is spinning this part of its business off because it IS valuable, and will find a ready buyer. If B&N wants to raise a pile of cash, quickly, then selling off the university bookstores is the best way to do it.

What they will do with that cash is beyond me, however.

Why will college bookstores have to be(come) nimble? As I read your reply, the issue is mainly that the prof is forcing students to buy the pile of paper, either because s/he won't allow students to log on to the assignment website without doing so, or because s/he won't develop his/her own website to turn in assignments on (or offer an alternative means of doing so)... iow, it's a racket.

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

Why will college bookstores have to be(come) nimble? As I read your reply, the issue is mainly that the prof is forcing students to buy the pile of paper, either because s/he won't allow students to log on to the assignment website without doing so, or because s/he won't develop his/her own website to turn in assignments on (or offer an alternative means of doing so)... iow, it's a racket.

Yes, it's a racket. But it's a very different racket than just a few years ago. And I expect that it will change form frequently in the future. Will it still be a racket? Maybe. But it's sure to change, thus the need to be nimble.

B&N doesn't strike me as a nimble organization.

It has always been a racket. When I was in graduate school in the early 1980s professors would more often than not either make you buy the text book they wrote and had published, or they would send you to the local Kinkos (copy store) to purchase a stack of xeroxed pages they had written and typed up. Either way, the professors were supplementing their small salaries by making you purchase their books. Now that all students are expected to own a computer and/or tablet, they could just create PDF text books and make you buy them directly from them skipping any middle parties. In undergraduate school it was a bit different. Typically we had to buy the books written by the department chair are lead professor for the subject matter. At least those were usually real printed/published books and not xerox copies.

[murg]

Since most of the universities in the US as government owned, I wonder if the ethics and/or anti-corruption laws may be applied to stop the professors from forcing their students to buy the professor's books.

[eschwartz]

I had an economics class which required a code for some website or another where all the work was done, you had the option to buy a code for $65 or a printed book for $70 -- once on the website there were also PDFs of each chapter.

Also, my English class used a free Wikibook.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by murg

Since most of the universities in the US as government owned, I wonder if the ethics and/or anti-corruption laws may be applied to stop the professors from forcing their students to buy the professor's books.

If I'm reading this right, I'd need to see some numbers. I believe that most universities and colleges in the US are non-profit, but private, institutions -- even allowing for state and county colleges (and the occasional city-owned university, like CUNY). Aside from military academies, I don't know of any federally owned college/university.



However, even back in the 70s the college book market was a racket. Texts were hardcover, and some were available on the "used" market, but every course I took had lab manuals or additional curricula texts that had been prepared by teaching staff and were much more expensive than the text books.

My college sold off it's university-owned bookstore in the 90s. I think they're now farmed out to B&N.

[cromag]

BTW, my alma-mater, Rutgers U., is state-owned (it's the State University of New Jersey) but the charter strictly limits government influence. I think we'd have more ethics problems if the state was more involved. The state wants more direct control and periodically goes to court to try to get it. (Most recently when they tried to "reorganize" the university, which would have spun off one of the constituent colleges. That attempt failed spectacularly.)

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...lls_repor.html

[tomsem]

Note this includes the digital textbook business, 'Yuzu'. (formerly known as Nook Study)

I'm curious about what happened with Pearson Education's 5% stake in Nook Media. Did they get bought out like Microsoft was/is, or will their interest get transferred to B&N College Booksellers LLC (which is logically where it belongs)?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Note this includes the digital textbook business, 'Yuzu'. (formerly known as Nook Study)

I'm curious about what happened with Pearson Education's 5% stake in Nook Media. Did they get bought out like Microsoft was/is, or will their interest get transferred to B&N College Booksellers LLC (which is logically where it belongs)?

1- Yuzu is not Nook study. Totally different product.
2- B&N bought out Pearson's stake last Dec:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...ook-stake.html

[conan50]

Very lucrative business. They make small changes to the textbooks every year so students can't buy used books, but must by the new versions. It is a sin, the rising tuition costs and expensive textbook business. Even B&N can't lose money at it. I feel bad for these kids coming out of college with student loans equivalent to a big mortgage payment hanging over their heads.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by murg

Since most of the universities in the US as government owned, I wonder if the ethics and/or anti-corruption laws may be applied to stop the professors from forcing their students to buy the professor's books.

I doubt it.

Anyway, don't they keep copies on reserve in the library? If so, students aren't being forced.

I was a history major, and this next point may not apply as much to hard sciences. However -- even if none of a professor's books were assigned, I still wanted to look at them to better see where he or she was coming from. Reading some of the professor's published works is a good idea that should increase the chances of a getting an A, regardless of whether they are assigned.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

1- Yuzu is not Nook study. Totally different product.
2- B&N bought out Pearson's stake last Dec:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...ook-stake.html

It is a different product. But if you go to B&N's page for Nook Study, they point you at Yuzu as the 'successor'.

Thanks for the link. It makes sense that they'd want to buy out the stakes before spinning off the college business.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It is a different product. But if you go to B&N's page for Nook Study, they point you at Yuzu as the 'successor'.

Thanks for the link. It makes sense that they'd want to buy out the stakes before spinning off the college business.

It isn't much of a successor.
It hasn't even officially launched and it may never actually be launched. Unlike NookStudy which had a lot to recommend it, Yuzu doesn't quite.... work...
Here:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/0...book-app-yuzu/

At this point it looks like Yuzu is an entirely new platform, and it would appear that Yuzu does not share the same accounts as the Nook Store or NookStudy. In fact, one of the FAQs I found says that Yuzu is not compatible with NookStudy textbooks.

http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/0...rate-students/

Where NookStudy is a general purpose ebook reader with educational features, (it can open Nook ebooks) Yuzu is primarily about displaying textbook pages. And not too good at it.