📚 Barnes & Noble is back

Plus: Less tiks on TikTok | Wednesday, March 01, 2023

Open in app View in browser     Axios Closer By Hope King and Nathan Bomey · Mar 01, 2023 Wednesday ✅. Today's newsletter is 681 words, a 2½-minute read. 🔔 The dashboard: The S&P 500 closed down 0.5%. Biggest gainer? First Solar (+15.7%), after giving full-year guidance above expectations. Biggest decliner? Lowe's (-5.6%), the home improvement retailer, missed expectations on Q4 revenue and gave lackluster sales guidance for 2023.     1 big thing: Barnes & Noble is back Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios   The trick to being a big-box bookseller is to not be a big-box bookseller. So says Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt, who's been credited with engineering a turnaround for the bookstore chain. Why it matters: When Daunt took over in 2019 after B&N's sale to Elliott Management, the company was at risk of meeting the same fate as its erstwhile rival, Borders, which liquidated in 2011. The company was "not quite there but pretty darn close," Daunt tells Nathan in an interview. State of play: Today, B&N is profitable, Daunt says. With about 600 locations, it plans to open 30 net new stores in its new fiscal year, marking the first time in recent memory that the company has gotten bigger, not smaller. The intrigue: "It's ironic for somebody who runs chains, but I don't think chain bookselling works," Daunt says. "All I've done is bring the principles of independent bookselling to a chain and exploded the very notion of what a chain retailer really is." Zoom in: The company took steps before and during the pandemic to remake its business. It empowered leaders in local stores to make more decisions, including the books they carry and the way their stores are laid out. It stopped accepting payments from publishers in exchange for displaying and promoting certain books — a major driver of returned unsold books. What to watch for: How Daunt addresses the company's cafe business and newsstand sales. Both "are still suffering," he says. The bottom line: "Shops succeed when people running them understand their customers," GlobalData retail analyst Neil Saunders tells Axios in an email. Go deeper.     2. Charted: Under pressure Editor's note: Axios first ran this chart in an article from October. Data: Gaffney, et al., Prevalence and Correlates of Patient Rationing of Insulin in the United States: A National Survey; Chart: Axios Visuals Eli Lilly is slashing prices on its most-prescribed insulin and capping out-of-pocket costs for patients amid pressure from consumers and the Biden administration, Axios' James Briggs writes. Why it matters: More than 1 million American adults ration insulin because of its high costs, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Axios' Oriana Gonzalez writes. Driving the news: After years of price hikes, Eli Lilly said prices of Humalog, its top insulin product, and Humulin will fall 70% in the fourth quarter. The company also said it would cap out-of-pocket costs for its insulin at $35 a month at some retail pharmacies. Go deeper.     3. What's happening 🏢 Office property default draws eyes to the troubled part of the real estate market. (Bloomberg) ✈️ Delta pilots approved a contract raising pay by 34%. (NYT)     A message from Axios Your personal deals analyst     Axios Pro analyzes every critical deal and trend affecting your industry, sharpening every business decicion you'll make this year. Use code PRO100 at checkout to get $100 off your subcription.     4. TikTok expands limits for teens Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images   TikTok, one of the top downloaded apps in the world, will try to help younger people limit the amount of time they spend on it, Hope writes. In coming the weeks, the app will prompt teens under 18 to enter a passcode after 60 minutes — "requiring them to make an active decision to extend that time," TikTok head of trust and safety Cormac Keenan said in a post. For teens under 13 to watch for an additional 30 minutes, a parent or guardian will need to set or put in an existing passcode. Other new features announced today include giving parents more control over their children's account activity and access to more data about the time their children spend on the app. The big picture: TikTok, Snapchat and other social media platforms have been under scrutiny most recently for using what critics allege are inherently "defective" features that can exploit people's compulsive tendencies. Go deeper.   Share Axios and earn rewards If you like this newsletter, your friends may, too! Refer your friends and get free Axios swag when they sign up. Be a good friend and share   5. Role reversal Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan star in the 1998 film "You've Got Mail." Photo: Getty Images/Handout   Barnes & Noble has lived long enough to see itself become the hero of the bookselling world, Nathan writes. That was not the case when the company was not-so-opaquely cast as the corporate villain in 1998's "You've Got Mail" (though it was not explicitly named in the film). The big question: Now that B&N is viewed as the underdog to Amazon, I asked CEO James Daunt (see 1 big thing) whether he's seen "You've Got Mail." He saw it for the first time recently, he says with a laugh. "It was garbage," the British executive says. The intrigue: "I mean, it's fun. I did like it. In the U.K., calling something garbage is actually a term of affection," he replied. Go deeper.     A message from Axios Your personal deals analyst     Axios Pro analyzes every critical deal and trend affecting your industry, sharpening every business decicion you'll make this year. Use code PRO100 at checkout to get $100 off your subcription.   Today's newsletter was edited by Pete Gannon and copy edited by Sheryl Miller. ✏️ Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get Axios Closer in your inbox Why stop here? Let's go Pro. Join the thousands of professionals using Axios Pro to keep up with the companies, deals and trends changing their industries.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: