Double-digit gains in the adult fiction and young adult categories led to a 4.4% increase in unit sales of print books in the week ended July 23, 2022, over the comparable week in 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, five books by Colleen Hoover, and two new releases drove sales up 23.1% in adult fiction. Crawdads remained #1 on the category list, selling more than 123,000 copies. Led by It Ends with Us, Hoover’s top five titles sold about 295,000 copies combined. The new titles that cracked the top 10 in the category were Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva, which sold more than 40,000 copies, and Shattered by James Patterson and James O. Born, which sold more than 25,000 copies. YA fiction sales rose 15.6%. Jenny Han titles continued to do well, with five Han books selling about 83,000 copies combined. The top new release was Never Never by Serena Valentino, which sold about 9,000 copies. Adult nonfiction sales fell by a relatively mild 3.4% compared to the week ended July 24, 2021.

Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS) (“Kohl’s” or the “Company”) today issued the following statement: The Kohl's Board of Directors (the Board) has determined, following a review with its independent financial advisors and upon the recommendation of its Finance Committee, that the valuations indicated in the current expressions of interest which it has received do not adequately reflect the Company’s value in light of its future growth and cash flow generation. The Board is committed to maximizing the long-term value of the Company and will review and pursue opportunities that it believes would credibly lead to value consistent with its performance and future opportunities. The Board has designated its Finance Committee to lead the ongoing review of any expressions of interest. The Finance Committee, which was formed pursuant to the 2021 settlement agreement with Macellum Advisors GP, LLC and other shareholders, is comprised exclusively of independent directors. The Company and the Board have also engaged financial advisors, including Goldman Sachs and PJT Partners, and have asked Goldman Sachs to engage with interested parties.

It says a lot about the state of the newspaper industry that it’s considered good news when a publisher breaks even, in light of the constant drumbeat of advertising losses, with print dollars exchanged for digital pennies. Newspaper watchers were pleasantly surprised when the Daily Mail and General Trust, the British publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, announced total revenues were up 1%. The real good news tucked inside the Mail announcement: Digital advertising revenues were up 22% or £19 million, more than offset the decline in print, down 11% or £15 million. That last development bucks the general trend in the newspaper industry on both sides of the Atlantic over the last few years. Growth in digital ad revenues has generally failed to offset print declines – at least until recently. Click Read More below for more of the story.