Sinking ship pays $1 million to stay afloat!!!

[ellen_datlow]

I just read in Publishers Weekly that new Borders CEO Ron Marshall will get $1 million base salary plus signing bonus for the first of his three year contract. Then, for the next two years he only gets $750,000. Gee, I'm definitely on the wrong end of publishing.

Comments

[deadshrimpblues.livejournal.com]

I nearly cried with joy when I got a fifteen dollar check for my first short story. Yeah.

I wonder if he swims around in it like Scrooge McDuck.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I hate to tell you what I made in my first editorial assistant job when I was in book publishing (pre-OMNI days).

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Haha, don't worry, Borders won't be around for three more months, forget three years!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Marshall is considered "the last chance for Borders to get itself on firmer financial footing before it faces the prospect of going out of business."
Oh and by the say, outgoing CEO George Jones got a severance package equal to 18 months of HIS base salary plus bonuses (????for leaving the company in the trash?) and an additional $510,000.


I do not get it.

Other than this is very wrong.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

The rich watch one another's backs.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

No kiddin'

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

It's called an "executive retention bonus", where the money is guaranteed whether or not the company goes under. The big creditors are going to be lucky to get 25 cents on the dollar during the liquidation, the employees are going to be lucky to get their last paychecks, and small book and magazine publishers are going to get worked over with a six-foot sandstone strap-on lubed with habanero juice, but the incompetents that directly caused the situation will always get every last penny promised them.

[dqg-neal.livejournal.com]

Yes... makes me wonder if they are planting seed money to start a new entity to take over from the ashes.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Not in the slightest. They know that the diseased carcass is already too far gone, and they're planning on taking what they can before it all collapses and they have no choice but to sell everything to liquidators. It'll be Tower Records and Crown Books all over again.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

I was so damn sure that Borders would go under right after the new year, but your assessment is probably correct. The fact that my local store has huge "Help Wanted" signs in the front window, in order to have enough hands on deck to replace the ones smart enough to leave now, is confirmation.

A quick question: if Borders goes under, what will happen to the thousands of bottom-of-the-class English majors suddenly left unemployed and unemployable? Well, other than whining about how "somebody should subsidize a new book chain so all these jobs aren't lost"?

[jeffpalmatier.livejournal.com]

You mean your own income isn't close to that? :-D

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

ROTFL never was. Never will be.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Is there any reason why we can't just send money to you to make up the difference?

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Awww.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

And how else are we supposed to thank you? If not for your work at OMNI, I wouldn't be the person I am today. (And put down that straightrazor, please.)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

You beat me to the punch....line. And that's a good thing? ;-)

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Well, that depends upon whether you were going to use the straightrazor on yourself or on me. I'd recommend the latter.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Well yeahhhh. Of course!

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Sorry: you've had your chance. Several times, in fact. You'll just have to upgrade to the shotgun.

no-one...

[themadblonde]

who has enjoyed your books would agree to that.

Re: no-one...

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Thanks, sweetie :-)

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, especially since the captain of the Titanic didn't get a bonus like that for driving his ship to the bottom. (I'm reminded of the former CEO of Home Depot, who received close to a quarter-billion dollars after getting fired for crippling Home Depot. I really wish I could make that kind of money for being that incompetent.)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Hey this is America! We can all dream ;-)

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Hell, I couldn't even kill off Science Fiction Eye on my own. I guess I'm an underachiever, even for an incompetent.

[kylecassidy.livejournal.com]

one way to stop a ship from sinking is LIGHTEN THE LOAD!

nice of mr. marshall to offer his pockets! maybe this'll get that hole above the waterline.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

Maybe they just need to drill a few more holes in the bottom, to let out all that water.

[pm-again.livejournal.com]

I bought POE at Borders.

But, in this age of Amazon, I continue to wonder how or why any bookstore thinks they're going to sell most of their books, etc. at fool retail price.

Please note that I didn't suggest that they publish YBFH :)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I don't think Borders publishes books do they? B&N has been doing so for a long time.
Amazon has started (or will be) charging sales tax, at least in NYS.

[pm-again.livejournal.com]

Borders, like B&N, has a paperback line of classics. Essentially, public domain works that they offer at a relatively low price.

But nothing mean intended on my part. I know cats always land on their feet!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I didn't know.

(and I didn't take it that way ;-) )

[asyouknow-bob.livejournal.com]

Amazon has started (or will be) charging sales tax, at least in NYS.

Yes, Amazon has been charging NYS sales tax for several months now.

[(Anonymous)]

I believe WaMu hired a new guy and paid him a shitload shortly before they went under, too... I went into the local Borders a few days after Xmas and it looked as if they were already in the morgue. There used to be a case displaying new releases in the SF section. It was totally gone. The Star Wars/Forgotten Realms/FranchiseFic section appeared to have taken over a full aisle, while original fiction had shrunk to a couple of opposing shelves (much of their previous territory now covered in an explosion of manga). The other departments didn't look much healthier. At the other end of town, Barnes & Noble looked superficially healthier. - MarcL

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

In the PW article, it was acknowledged by the outgoing CEO that "Borders may have gone too far in cutting inventory..."

What a joke these morons are.

[kylecassidy.livejournal.com]

good grief. i'd better use this gift card fast.

cutting inventory to the bone

[parrismcb.livejournal.com]

made my visits to the local Borders frustrating and eventually meaningless. Couldn't get new books written by New Mexican writers. Couldn't get any music or dvds if they weren't on the top 20.The Borders and Best Buys have cut back on music inventory so much, I just order on-line without even bothering to see if the new Van Morrison is on the racks locally. The 2 Borders in Santa Fe fill up the aisles with remainders and trinkets, paper products and towers of teen vampire books, little room for mid-list, let alone back list titles.

The CEO getting a bigger share of a shrinking pie is one more example of what's been wrong with American business culture for a long time.

[aimeempayne.livejournal.com]

Borders started going downhill in 2000 when they restructured their store management out of existence. They hired high school students at minimum wage, and focused on stocking massive quantities of best sellers instead of a wider range of titles. They stopped promoting from within, instead preferring to hire general managers from stores like Sears Hardware.

I'm not bitter or anything.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

That'll do it every time.

[(Anonymous)]

Is it just an illusion that B&N is in better shape, or are they just better at hiding their wounds? - MarcL

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Well B&N just laid off a bunch of people at their corporate offices in NYC...

B&N Cuts 4% at Corporate HQ
by Jim Milliot
For what it says is the first time in its history, Barnes & Noble has implemented a large scale downsizing in its corporate headquarters in New York. The retailer eliminated about 100 positions at its headquarters, approximately 4% of its New York workforce. Spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating said the cuts were across all areas of the company and stemmed from reduction in new store openings and the consolidation of support areas of B&N’s online and retail businesses. B&N plans to open only 15 new outlets in 2009 compared to 35 in 2008