Barnes & Noble Focuses on E-Books
Meet Barnes & Noble Inc., software company.
As reading moves ever faster from hardcovers and paperbacks to electronic gadgets, the retailer is attempting to reinvent itself as a seller of book downloads, reading devices and apps.
The shift was never clearer than last January, when a small group of experienced book buyers at the company was called in and dismissed. Barnes & Noble’s buyers were once book-selling royalty, minititans whose taste played a pivotal role in deciding which books danced up the charts.
For the bookseller there was little choice. It needed to invest in the future.
