Borders Leaves Publishers Unimpressed, Pushes for Better Terms

As reported in PW Daily yesterday, Borders was facing a skeptical publisher audience Wednesday when it presented its reorganization plan and by most accounts publishers came away unimpressed. One publisher said the restructuring plan is “filled with very optimistic assumptions. Very.” The meetings with the creditors committee went longer than expected, but seemed to change few publishers’ minds that Borders faces a stiff challenge to successfully emerge from bankruptcy.

With a court hearing this morning, Borders is pushing on all fronts to get publishers to ship them titles on more flexible terms. Currently, any publishers shipping Borders are doing so on a cash basis and few, in any, seem prepared to offer them regular terms let alone better terms than vendors who don’t already owe them money. Borders had made a similiar request before it filed for Chapter 11 and were turned down by publishers. The request also prompted Barnes & Noble to say they would expect to receive the same terms as Borders.