After Delaying Payments, Borders Will Meet With Publishers

The book chain Borders entered 2011 on an unsteady note, telling major publishers last week that it would delay payments owed to them, and stoking fears that it would not be able to recover from declining sales.

On Monday, Borders executives said they would discuss the company’s plans with publishers at hastily arranged meetings in New York later this week. Mike Edwards, the chief executive of Borders, will attend the meetings, said Mary Davis, a spokeswoman for Borders.

“We value our relationships with them, which is why we’re engaging in discussions with them,” Ms. Davis said. “We’re committed to working with our vendors as part of our overall effort to refinance.”

They will enter the talks without two high-ranking Borders executives who resigned on Monday: Thomas D. Carney, the company’s general counsel, and Scott Laverty, the chief information officer.

Ms. Davis added that the company was not in a liquidity crisis and that its stores were well inventoried. Borders executives are in discussions regarding potential refinancing, she said.

As e-books have risen in popularity, brick-and-mortar bookstores have appeared increasingly vulnerable, and many publishing executives believe the number of stores will decrease in the coming years. For months, publishers have been especially worried about the health of Borders, which has suffered from losses in revenue for years and reported dismal third-quarter earnings in December.

If the bookseller goes out of business, publishers could lose tens of millions of dollars, miles of shelf space and the selling power of more than 675 retail stores.

Industry analysts said a bankruptcy filing from Borders seemed more likely than ever.

Some book chains have broadened their merchandise to go even further beyond books than before, devoting significant space to toys and games for children and a selection of electronic readers like the Nook and the Kobo.

Borders lagged behind Barnes & Noble in establishing its digital book business and has been threatened by competition from Amazon.com and big-box discount stores. Peter Wahlstrom, a retail analyst for Morningstar Equity Research, said Borders had been badly hurt by a decline in print bookselling.

“Book sales have been either flat or down in the last several years,” he said. “It’s a difficult environment over all. And looking at Borders versus Barnes & Noble, Barnes & Noble has done a good job, relatively speaking.”

Barnes & Noble, sounding cheery, said on Monday that it achieved “record-setting” sales this holiday season, an increase of 9.7 percent in the nine-week period ended Jan. 1. The boom was partly created by demand for the chain’s dedicated e-readers, the Nook and Nook Color. The company will release more detailed holiday sales information on Thursday.

Borders has not yet released holiday sales data.

A spokesman for Ingram Book Company, a major book wholesaler, said on Monday the company was still shipping books to Borders, despite the bookseller’s troubles, but at least one other supplier has said that it has halted shipments to Borders.

“Most every publisher and distributor wants Borders to survive and thrive, and we are no exception,” said Skip Prichard, the president and chief executive of Ingram Content Group.

Borders, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., has 19,500 employees.