Willamette Week| News| Politics

Trying to put the breaks on a season of mega-mergers, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden has asked federal regulators to shelve Barnes & Noble's proposed buyout of the Ingram Book Group, at least until the deal's anti-trust implications are scrutinized.

In a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Robert Pitofsky, Wyden warned that buying Ingram, the nation's largest book wholesaler, could give B&N an unfair advantage over independent bookstores, which rely on Ingram for their titles.

News of the proposed $600 million acquisition sent a chill down the spines of independent-bookstore owners across the country last month ("Title Fight," WW, Nov. 11, 1998).

To start with, there's no love lost between independents and B&N. In fact, the American Booksellers Association, which represents independents, had already filed a lawsuit against B&N and Borders Group Inc. for allegedly colluding with publishers. If the Ingram deal goes through, the small bookstores' primary source of new titles will be controlled by a major competitor.

What's more, independents are afraid the deal will give B&N inside access to information about their book sales, a problem Wyden addressed in a prepared statement. "I fear that placing such sensitive information in the hands of a competitor, not to mention the largest in the nation," Wyden said, "would be tantamount to giving Barnes & Noble the keys to a monopoly."

Those are strong words for an industry more often associated with bescpectacled bibliophiles than with industry titans. But the book-selling business is as political as any other.

Campaign-finance databases compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show that Wyden has received several contributions from independent booksellers in recent years. Local vendors such as Michael Powell of Powell's Books ($2,000) and Mary Fellows of Annie Bloom's Books ($389) have chipped into his bulging campaign coffers, as have out-of-staters such as Massachusetts rare-book dealer Hosea Baskin ($2,000) and Bill Adler Books in New York City ($900).

But those donations are mere footnotes when compared to B&N's checks. The book behemoth gave $20,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1995 and made a $1,000 contribution to Wyden in 1996.

In any case, it may take more than cash to harden Wyden's soft spot for independents. His father, the late writer and journalist Peter Wyden, who died of a stroke in June, operated a small New York publishing house in the 1970s. A Wyden aide says family friends mentioned their dismay at the B&N deal to the senator at a memorial service last month.

In response, the Portland Democrat has asked the FTC to conduct a comprehensive review of the proposed deal and to pay special attention to its impact on independent bookstores.

Wyden told Bookselling This Week, an industry journal, that he stepped into the picture after hearing from a lot of small independent bookstores in the state. A Wyden aide confirmed that chief among them was Powell's Books (which, though certainly independent, can hardly be described as small).

Last week the Portland Area Used Booksellers' Association joined the fight, asking the entire Oregon delegation to review the proposed deal. Used-book sellers are less dependent than their new-book counterparts on wholesalers such as Ingram. Still, Debbi Cross, co-owner of Wrigley-Cross Books in Northeast Portland, says, "We're all starting to feel threatened" by industry consolidation.

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Willamette Week | originally published December 22, 1998