Blackhawks business updates: Cutting out ticket brokers has stabilized resale prices

The Minnesota Daily, a campus publication dating back 120 years, has apparently given up its print edition for good. The newspaper cut off print in 2020—supposedly on a temporary basis. “To the University community, It is with a heavy heart that we are announcing that the print edition of the Minnesota Daily has been canceled for the summer,” wrote then editor Cleo Krejci in an editorial. But now it is apparent that the daily has never been restored, and that it won’t be in the future.

Pursuant to the terms that will apply to borrowing under the CARES Act, the Postal Service will provide the Department of the Treasury with certain information regarding our costs, revenues, and overall financial position. This includes providing Treasury, under strict terms of confidentiality, with those contracts that generate the most revenue for the Postal Service. Providing this information is merely an acknowledgment of the fact that Treasury has been designated by Congress as the lender for the Postal Service, and it therefore has a legitimate interest under certain circumstances in understanding those factors that affect our current and projected financial position. Other conditions, such as the requirement that borrowed funds only be used for operating expenses, and not for capital expenses, were expressly mandated by Congress in the language of the CARES Act. Contrary to insinuations made in the Washington Post article, nothing in these terms confers upon Treasury any role whatsoever in Postal Service pricing, management, or strategy.

In the last full shopping week before Christmas, unit sales of print books fell 3.5%, compared to the similar week in 2019, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Sales were down in the four biggest segments, with juvenile nonfiction units falling the most, dropping 9.2%, compared to the week ended Dec. 21, 2019. The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz was #1 on the category list, selling over 35,000 copies. Last year at this time, the title sold more than 37,000 copies and was in third place, topped by Raina Telgemeier’s Guts (about 43,000 copies sold) and The Try Not to Laugh Challenge by Crazy Corey, which sold about 39,000 copies. The juvenile fiction category had a 4.4% decline in the week, with Cat Kid Comic Club by Dav Pilkey at #1, selling over 88,000 copies.