Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt Talks 'The Odyssey', Potential IPO

Summary

Podcast Summary: Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt Talks 'The Odyssey', Potential IPO
Bloomberg Talks, July 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble, in a candid conversation with Bloomberg hosts about the dramatic turnaround of Barnes & Noble—from being written off by investors to opening 60 new stores a year and speculations of a potential IPO. The discussion covers the state of physical bookstores, evolving reader habits (including the resurgence of younger generations in book buying), and the strategic decisions that revitalized America's largest bookstore chain.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The “Death” and Reinvention of Physical Bookstores

• Perceived Decline: Hosts recall a time when Barnes & Noble’s fate seemed sealed, with the rise of e-readers and online retail (00:29–01:36).
• CEO’s Perspective: Daunt emphasizes that physical books—and by extension physical bookstores—were never truly abandoned by readers. The issue was uninspired, cookie-cutter stores and irrelevant product mixes.

  “Stores…became uniformly less interesting...they were full of an awful lot of things that shouldn't have been in there...It became a sort of a mix of strange other retailers.”
  — James Daunt (02:25)

• Strategy for Revival: Daunt details eliminating irrelevant products (“warm water, Duracell batteries”) and re-focusing stores on books and complementary items like vinyl and games. The emphasis is now on creating places that are enjoyable, social, and tailored to each community (02:22–03:18).

Local Autonomy & Store Experience

• Decentralizing Control: A pivotal move was giving individual stores more autonomy, encouraging them to reflect their communities and empowering staff to “have fun” (03:31).

  “We liberated them from central control…Treat it like it's your name that's above the door. Have fun with your teams, build up really good bookstores…No rules, common sense, have fun.”
  — James Daunt (03:31)

Gen Z, “BookTok,” and Genre Trends

• Social Media & Reading: Despite stereotypes, platforms like TikTok (“BookTok”) have inspired Gen Z to enthusiastically embrace reading, driving interest in genres like “romantasy” (romantic fantasy) (03:57–04:25).

  “Our best selling book is by an author called Homer...they latched onto the classics before they went into romantasy. They're reading really good books or they're reading fun books or they're reading fantasy and romantasy…but they're reading and they're having fun around books.”
  — James Daunt (04:25)

“Big Book” Moments & Business Cycles

• Tentpole Events: Major book releases, movie tie-ins, and viral genres are recurring fixtures—not rare events—and they consistently draw in new and returning customers (05:01).

  “For 40 years, pretty much month in month out, there is a big book that explodes…People love talking about books, communing around books and...discovering new [ones].”
  — James Daunt (05:19)

Store Growth & Retail Landscape

• Expansion: Since taking over, Daunt has overseen the opening of 60 new stores each year—a stark contrast to Barnes & Noble’s previous pattern of closing locations. He notes that with the disappearance of competitors (Borders, B. Dalton), many communities are underserved (05:38–06:27).

  “We’re opening lots of stores…there are lots and lots of communities in America…I mean, really thousands of communities without bookstores.”
  — James Daunt (06:03)

• Rise of Independents: It’s not just Barnes & Noble; independent bookstores are also thriving and expanding, creating a vibrant bookstore resurgence in the US (06:30).

The Enduring Allure of Bookstores

• Universal Appeal: Bookstores remain singular among retail environments as genuinely pleasurable places to visit—appealing across all ages and demographics (06:39–07:20).

  “The smallest baby in a bush chair really likes being in a bookstore...They appeal to everybody...bookstores are really great places for everybody to enjoy.”
  — James Daunt (07:02)

Reading Habits & Statistics

• Cyclical Concerns: Daunt dismisses the notion that people are reading less as a perennial anxiety without real evidence. Reading habits shift with life stages but the core role of the physical book persists (07:47).

  “This sort of trope that people aren’t reading has been going on forever…The reality is that people read more, that there is an aspiration around reading...the physical book is what endures.”
  — James Daunt (07:47)

IPO Speculation & Leadership Future

• Going Public: When pressed about IPO rumors, Daunt plays down his involvement, stating he focuses on running the business while “bankers get up to” other things (08:26–08:52).
• Commitment to Bookselling: Daunt affirms he intends to remain at the helm regardless of the company’s ownership structure—humorously noting that in the US, “people think I'm quite young here” (09:05).

  “I hope I will carry on running bookstores…Warren Buffett will probably be thinking, I'm only just barely beginning my career.”
  — James Daunt (09:05)

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Notable Quotes

• On Bookstore Reinvention:
  “If you do [uniformity], they become uniformly less interesting.”
  — James Daunt (02:25)

• On Store Autonomy:
  “Treat it like it’s your name that’s above the door…No rules, common sense, have fun.”
  — James Daunt (03:31)

• On Gen Z Reading:
  “They're reading really good books or they're reading fun books or they're reading fantasy and romantasy…”
  — James Daunt (04:25)

• On the Resilience of Book Releases:
  “There is a big book that explodes…People love talking about books, communing around books.”
  — James Daunt (05:19)

• On Rumors of Reading’s Demise:
  “This sort of trope that people aren’t reading has been going on forever…The physical book is what endures.”
  — James Daunt (07:47)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:29 — Introduction, Barnes & Noble’s turnaround
• 01:36 — Why the physical bookstore “died” and how that changed
• 02:22 — Eliminating irrelevant products, re-focusing on books
• 03:31 — Empowering stores locally, strategy for “fun”
• 03:57 — Gen Z, BookTok, romantasy trend
• 05:01 — “Big book” moments and business cycles
• 05:38 — Store expansion in the US, market opportunity
• 06:39 — Bookstores as “final frontiers” of desirable retail
• 07:47 — Reading statistics and enduring reading habits
• 08:26 — IPO questions, focusing on running the business

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Tone & Final Thoughts

The episode is lively and optimistic, with Daunt’s signature candor and dry wit anchoring a discussion about the sometimes-surprising return of physical bookstores. He dispels myths about the death of print, makes a case for the community-centric, enjoyable nature of bookstores, and situates Barnes & Noble’s revival within a wider resurgence of interest in books and reading—across ages and genres. Speculation about a possible IPO lingers, but the focus remains on making bookstores relevant, exciting, and central to American life again.

Transcript

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[Bloomberg Host]

Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News all right, well you remember a while back, investors wrote off Barnes and Noble. This is when Elliott took the company private back in 2019 and then appointed a new CEO, James Dunn. But Don strategy is now working. Plans to open 60 stores in the US this year and a lot of talk out there about a potential IPO some time soon. Joins us now here in studio to the CEO of Barnes and Noble, James Don, Great to have you.

[James Daunt]

Pleas.

[Bloomberg Host]

Obviously you've had a long career in bookselling with your own line of bookstores named after you. Then you took over a business over there in the UK and now Barnes and Noble got folded into that books, physical books. I thought they were dead.

[James Daunt]

No, they're not dead at all.

[Bloomberg Host]

What happened along the way to this death march? Because it seemed for a while we were either reading everything on E Readers or not reading at all. And then it seemed like not only were people gravitating back to paper, but they were gravitating back to the actual physical bookstores. And I just buying paper books, you know, off Amazon or somewhere else, but actually going into the bookstores and looking for that experience. What happened?

[James Daunt]

I think people hadn't stopped reading physical books. The narrative had got slightly muddled. But the real problem was they weren't buying them in physical bookstores. And that was, I think, because the stores actually, frankly had lost their way a bit. They lost their confidence and they weren't fun enough, they weren't enjoyable places enough to be in. So sales started dropping and then they started closing stores and obviously Borders went bankrupt and the whole thing got a bit, bit dicey.

[Bloomberg Host]

But I remember when the chains really became popular, Borders Books a million Barnes and Noble. I mean, there were spaces to hang out like you. I mean you went, yeah, you went there to buy your books or your magazines or whatever, but you hung out there and I assume that drove sales. What was the strategy shift that happened at Barnes and Noble where people stop treating a Barnes and Noble store as a place to hang out?

[James Daunt]

Well, I wasn't here, so I know

[Bloomberg Host]

I Know, I'm not blame, I'm just

[James Daunt]

curious, but when I turned up here in 20, the stores were very uniform, they were identical and actually if you, if you do that, they become uniformly less interesting. And then they were full of an awful lot of things that shouldn't have been in there. Things that didn't make sense in a bookstore which they were selling. Plenty of warm water, Duracell batteries, you know, it became a sort of a mix of strange other retailers. Quite a lot of CVS in it. Yeah, and that's out of there now. And we're first and foremost books, but then we sell quite a lot of round books. But things that make sense in a bookstore, vinyl record, newsstand, you know, and a certain amount of toys and games and things and that makes sense. And also we just liberated the stores to have fun. And if you allow the stores to have fun, all the kids come in, as you say, schools are bang. They become great meeting places and then all ages are in and then your sales start going up and everything starts getting rosier again.

[Bloomberg Co-host]

What is the strategy for creating fun? Is it about, you know, adding more couches, adding, you know, a Starbucks in there that people can come to? How do you, how do you manufacture an environment where people can really enjoy themselves?

[James Daunt]

Above all, you let the store team decide what to do in their store. Because every community is different, every place is different and we liberated them from central control. We said, you know, it's, you know, treat it like it's your name that's above the door. Have fun with your teams, build up really good bookstores and we're not going to tell you how to do that beyond the principles attached to it. No rules, common sense, have fun.

[Bloomberg Co-host]

You know, speaking of fun, it's, it's interesting to see, you know, tick tock, Gen Z readers. There's all this talk of, oh, Gen Z doesn't read as much, but then you look at something like Booktok and actually there's a lot of young people talking about all different kinds of genres. One that's gotten a lot of attention is romantasy Romantic, you know, fantasy books. Is that driving sales? How is that genre specifically, you know, generating foot traffic and sales at Barnes and Noble?

[James Daunt]

That genre is fantastic. And we have Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yaros and a lot of other really, really big authors. Cues out the door for the opening of the launch of the Book at Midnight kind of thing. Real fun attached to it. But right now our best selling book is by an author called Homer and that's what that generation is also reading. And they, they latched onto the classics before they went into romanticity. They were reading Jane Austen, they were reading George Eliot. You know, it's. They're reading really good books or they're reading fun books or they're reading fantasy and romantic. See, it's. But they're reading and they're having fun around books.

[Bloomberg Host]

But does your business model, does it depend kind of having these tentpole moments, whether it's, you know, a big movie like Odyssey or a romantic see, you know, novel capturing everyone's attention?

[James Daunt]

Yeah, but we have that going on all the time. And as you, I thought rather unfairly said, I've been doing this for a long time.

[Bloomberg Host]

Yeah.

[James Daunt]

You know, 40 plus years. And for 40 years, pretty much month in month out, there is a big book that explodes because people love talking about books, communing around books and they love discovering new. And that's been true all my career and it remains ever as now and across the country as well.

[Bloomberg Host]

I mean, you've been running Waterstone, Barnes and Noble, of course, got put under your umbrella in 2019. I think a lot of people saw it, investors, potential investors, saw that as a turnaround story. When I look at the number of stores, 700 Barnes and Noble roughly here in the US and 300 something stores overseas in the UK is there a growth story there? Are you growing the number of stores? And if so, how do you justify that?

[James Daunt]

Well, we're opening lots of stores. We opened 60 last year, 60 the year before that, and we're opening 60 again this year or roughly a little bit more than 60. And I would assume we will carry on doing that partly because so many stores have closed. Of course, Barnes and Noble closed lots. There's no Walton Books, there's no Borders, there's no B. Dalton. There are lots and lots of communities in America. I mean, really thousands of communities without

[Bloomberg Host]

bookstores are those areas that you're primarily

[James Daunt]

focused on where we're going. And independents are doing so as well. We're opening lots of stores. Indies are opening even more stores. So it's a really exciting time for bookselling.

[Bloomberg Co-host]

I wonder how much of that is just based on the fact that books, a bookstore is one of those almost final frontiers of a brick and mortar place that you actually want to be in versus other types of goods. You don't necessarily want to go and like, oh, smell like batteries. Like you said, you know, there's something cozy about a bookstore. Is that why so many?

[James Daunt]

Definitely that. But it's also that it appeals to all ages. You know, the smallest baby in a bush chair really likes being in a bookstore. To the oldest citizen and everybody in between. They appeal to everybody. And then across most demographics as well, you know, bookstores are really great places for everybody to enjoy.

[Bloomberg Host]

Are people reading more? Because, I mean, I understand there's always going to be this core group of people that are reading, but I mean, when you look at statistics, at least here in the U.S. i mean, you know, there's all kind of stats about how, you know, the majority of people in this country haven't picked up, opened a book once all year long. So I am curious as to where you find growth. Is it just sort of tapping into that existing customer and getting them, him or her to come back into the store more and more, or is there a way to expand the customer base to new people?

[James Daunt]

I think that the one. This sort of trope that people aren't reading has been going on forever. My parents, you know, when I was about 10, decided I was destined for a life of ignorance and penury because I spent half an hour a day watching tv. Black and white tv. I'm that old. And they said, you know, this is the end. You're never going to read. There's no future. Yeah, that's always been going on in the press. Like, the reality is that people read more, that there is an aspiration around reading this. We all want our kids to read and it's fun for teenagers. And then you probably go through a cycle of life when you're working really hard, when people read less and then they come back to reading. But the physical book is what endures.

[Bloomberg Host]

Yeah, but I asked you that too. And I don't know, I mean, what is your relationship with the folks at Eliot? Because there's been a lot of talk about an ipo and if you do that, I mean, you're going to have to. Or you are there other a person there's going to have to communicate to investors what that growth story is. I mean, are you, are you prepared to go public anytime soon?

[James Daunt]

I'm glad to say that, you know, that's way above my pay grade. And we concentrate on the day to day of just running the business. Yeah. What the bankers get up to.

[Bloomberg Host]

Yeah. I mean, look, bankers. Yeah, we all, we all, we all hate the bankers. But I mean, come on. But at some point. But you're going to have to, you know, there could be a little, you know, sometimes, but I mean, you're going to have to deal with them if you if you are a public company. In theory. Unless you're going to leave. Are you?

[James Daunt]

In theory. I mean, I hope I will carry on running bookstores on tune. I've been doing it for a long time and I. Yeah. And one of the great things about being in the United States compared to the United Kingdom is people think I'm quite young here. Warren Buffett will probably be thinking, I'm only just barely beginning on my career.

[Bloomberg Host]

Yeah. And just trust me and that British action, it carries you very far in this country. We're suckers for it. So thank you very much, James.

[James Daunt]

Pleasure.

[Bloomberg Co-host]

Thanks to Barnes and Noble CEO James Daunt. Thank you. Good to see you here in person. Thank you.

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