A BAD WEEK FOR PUBLISHERS

Book publishers suffered an awful week last week--and more pain is coming. On what is being called "Black Wednesday,"scores of workers were let go at Simon & Schuster; Thomas Nelson Publishers, Random House and Houghton Mifflin. Harcourt announced consolidations; and wages were frozen at Pearson--parent company of Penguin Group (USA)--and HarperCollins. "This is the most challenging economic environment that any of us has ever experienced," Penguin Group Chairman John Makinson wrote in a memo to staffers.