U.S. Postal Service Launches Service Performance Dashboard

Penguin Random House’s bid to buy Simon & Schuster was always going to change the future of the world’s largest trade book publisher, but the remake is not happening along the lines former PRH CEO (and current CEO emeritus) Markus Dohle had originally planned. The ruling by Judge Florence Pan that stopped the acquisition set off a string of events that included Dohle’s resignation, the promotion of PRH US COO Nihar Malaviya to interim global CEO, and PRH US CEO Madeline McIntosh’s decision, announced last week, to step down once she has helped Malaviya complete the creation of a new organizational structure for PRH. Though the restructuring is still a work in progress, its goal is to reinvigorate internal competition for new titles among PRH’s many imprints while also providing multiple touch points for agents to pitch their books to different PRH editors.

Bauer Media UK is to add two new magazines to its successful Puzzles portfolio. The company, which already publishes a number of Take a Break puzzles magazines, today launches Bella Puzzles Train Your Brain – a brand extension to Bella, one of the nation’s most popular women’s weekly titles. The monthly title, priced at £2.50, offers 84 pages of challenging puzzles to help train the brain as well as features on mindfulness, well-being and health that will feel familiar to Bella readers. A second standalone title, Bigger Better Puzzles, hits newsstands on Thursday (14 January) and marks Bauer Media UK’s first dedicated large-print mixed puzzle magazine.

Second Quarter Highlights: • Total loans grew $6.1 billion (8%) from the prior year to $78.0 billion. • Credit card loans grew $4.6 billion (8%) to $61.8 billion and Discover card sales volume increased 5% from the prior year. • Total net charge-off rate excluding PCI loans increased 52 basis points from the prior year to 2.79% and the total delinquency rate over 30 days past due excluding PCI loans increased 33 basis points from the prior year to 1.93%. • Consumer deposits grew $3.6 billion (11%) from the prior year to $37.7 billion. Click Read More below for additional details.