HarperCollins to acquire The Friday Project
By James Hall writing in The Daily Telegraph

HarperCollins, the book publishing giant owned by News Corporation, is poised to buy out of administration a small publishing house co-run by Scott Pack, the controversial former head buyer at Waterstone's.

The Friday Project, a fledgling publishing house that develops books from websites and blogs, called in administrators at the end of last month after it had insufficient funds to continue trading.

It is believed that HarperCollins intends to buy publishing rights to The Friday Project's book titles. It also plans to use the company's expertise in new media publishing to bolster its existing new media operations.
The Friday Project was founded in 2005 with the goal of converting popular websites and blogs into books.

The company attracted attention due to the involvement of Pack, who was equally feted and loathed by publishers when he was head buyer at Waterstone's. Pack, who was The Friday Project's commercial director, angered many publishers while at Waterstone's by suggesting that the Richard & Judy Book Club was as important to sales as the Man Booker Prize. He was widely seen as the man who dictated the nation's reading habits.
The Friday Project published 44 titles in 2007 and was planning to publish 60 this year. Published titles include Blood, Sweat and Tea, the diary of a London ambulance driver, and An A-Z of Harry Potter. Last year it had four of its titles featured on Richard & Judy within a three-week period.

According to documents filed at Companies House at the end of February, a delay in raising new funds last year led to a disruption in publishing books in the run-up to Christmas, which in turn led to lower than expected sales.