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February 13, 2006


Tokyopop Stays With Perseus/CDS

The New York Times provides a solid business article on Tokyopop's process in selecting Perseus as their book distributor -- last year Perseus purchased the distributor Client Distribution Services, with whom Tokyopop has had a relationship since 2002 -- and what that says about the changing face of book distribution. Unfortunately, the article fails to get at exactly why Perseus/CDS was selected, beyond Mike Kiley asserting the distributor is flexible enough to handle any sudden changes the publisher might make and Stuart Levy mentioning a new infrastructure.

The NYT article also lets drop the approximate number of clients Tokyopop picked up in its Sunday newspaper launch: 30, a solid number perhaps better than it sounds depending on the percentage of big-paper clients.

The wooing process described before the announced deal, with several publishers with distribution arms making the trip to Los Angeles, may have been the source of consistent recent rumors (because if I'm hearing stuff from multiple sources, it's not obscure; I rarely get this kind of rumor) that Tokyopop is in play, and I'm not really savvy enough with the book business to know if this deal could fit a "getting one's house in order" scenario or something similar. My unsophisticated hillbilly powers of blog-fueled a-guesstimatin' say this agreement seems counterintuitive were a bigger deal imminent.

Anyway, here's Tokyopop's take on the deal, in a Word document:

Tokyopop_Perseus_PR.doc
 
posted 12:06 am PST | Permalink
 

 
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