From: [A friend from high school]
Date: Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 8:11 PM
Subject: project management
To: Megan Hustad
Meg,
I’m putting the final touches on my nervous breakdown. How is yours coming along?
RG
An excellent post about the future of book publishing.
UPDATE: This just in from the AP. “The country’s largest trade publisher, Random House Inc., has frozen the pensions of its current employees and eliminated them for future hires, the latest cuts in an industry hit by declining sales and anticipating, at best, a difficult 2009…. [Random House spokesman Stuart] Applebaum added that, effective Jan. 1, no new employees ‘will be enrolled in the Random House, Inc. Pension Plan.’ The company will continue to offer matching funds, up to 6 percent, for 401k plans.”
From Publishers Lunch, bummer news on the public library front:
As municipalities across the country face large gaps in their budget, Philadelphia is taking “drastic new steps” to face the “economic storm” that include closing 11 of the 54 branch libraries that comprise the Free Library of Philadelphia. Three other branches will have Sunday hours eliminated. Mayor Michael Nutter said the branches were chosen “after careful review of building conditions, utilization and distance to other libraries in the Free Library system.” Cutting 220 jobs throughout the city government, approximately one third of those layoffs will come from the library staff.
This development — and the fate of public libraries across the country for several years now — is interesting because libraries have always represented a kind of private/public partnership.
The bulk of small neighborhood branch libraries that sprouted up in the early 20th century were bankrolled by Andrew Carnegie, industry wizard and rich bastard par excellence. The bill for the upcoming renovation of New York’s 42nd Street Public Library — the one with the lions out front — is being footed by Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group. His total gift should pay for more than just floor polish; he’s forking over $100 million to the NYPL system, and in exchange he gets air kisses and naming rights.
I’m hoping Will Smith gets the same itch. The Will Smith Free Library of West Philadelphia sounds about right.