Melville House Books

At an investor’s presentation Tuesday to discuss “digital issues,” Barnes & Noble executives announced that as “the company’s long-term health depends on the continued steady performance of its bricks-and-mortar stores” they foresaw having to, well, close some stores — or, as Jim Milliot puts it in a Publishers Weekly report, they’ll need to commit “further consolidation in the bookstore field.”

In fact, the execs expressed confidence that not only would B&N itself be “consolidating,” but so would other chains. Said B&N COO Mitch Klipper, “There are 1,500 superstores now, there won’t be 1,500 five years from now.”

B&N, which has 700 superstores itself (and yes, we’re wondering too who has those other 800 superstores Klipper is referring to), and is rapidly divesting itself of its college stores and B. Dalton Bookstores (as per this earlier MobyLives story) and its other “small format stores,” “estimates it has a 17% share of the bookselling market, a percentage that should increase as consolidation among competitors takes hold,” reports Milliot.

Meanwhile, another PW story by Milliot reports that while B&N may see its brick and mortars stores as key, its brand-new Nook E-Book Reader “has become the fastest selling single item at Barnes & Noble since the retailer introduced the e-reader October 20, company CEO Steve Riggio said.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.