In a not much anticipated move, Harlequin announced on October 6 that it was acquiring the three BET lines, Arabesque, Sepia and New Spirit from Viacom. Truthfully, ever since Viacom split into two companies and announced that any division that wasn’t a stellar profit maker was expendale and that they were considering selling of Simon & Schuster, I’ve been wondering what would happen with BET Books. I hadn’t anticipated this move, but I’m sure not crying about it either.
When you think about it though, it’s a little bit funny. A while back reports abounded that Harlequin’s sales were falling abysmally. It was even suggested that this romance publishing dinosaur was inching toward extinction. A couple of short years later, Harlequin fibnds itself on the cutting edge of women’s fiction, publishing everything from romance to prarnormal to chick lit to erotica. How’d that happen? By chucking what didn’t work and adding a few things that did.
It takes guts and determination to reinvent a company rather than trying to find new and creative ways to force down the consumer’s throat things they don’t want. Although the future is right now uncertain, I’m optimistic about what comes next.
What are your thoughts on this turn of events?
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