BTW News Briefs

FSG Launches Classics Series

On August 31, Farrar, Straus and Giroux announced the launch of FSG Classics, a new line of paperback reissues. Encompassing both fiction and nonfiction, FSG Classics will include works that are still widely read, as well as those that have "somehow been forgotten." Each new book will include a new introduction by a contemporary writer.

The first classics on the list are Donald Barthelme's novel The Dead Father (1975) and Edmund Wilson's landmark work of literary criticism, Axel's Castle (1931), both to be published on September 15. Forthcoming books in this series include The Asiatics by Frederic Prokosch, Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar, and The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson.

Coupons "A New Weapon"

To coincide with National Coupon Month (September), the Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) Coupon Council released 2003 coupon distribution and usage data that indicated manufacturers offered more than $250 billion in coupons in 2003, resulting in $3 billion in consumer savings, as reported by Progressive Grocer.

Increasingly, PMA found, retailers are using coupon promotions to help attract, retain, and reward loyal shoppers, with 46 percent of retailers offering some form of bonus coupon program in 2003, Progressive Grocer noted.

Lorraine Gallaher, co-chair of the PMA Coupon Council, told Progressive Grocer, "Retailers view coupons as a new weapon in their competitive arsenal." For more information, go to the Coupon Council's year-round site, http://www.couponmonth.com.