NEW YORK, N.Y. – Three of the top five publishers in the U.S. will not be attending BookExpo, the industry's national convention.
Organizers already had pushed back the event from May to July in the hopes of easing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins Publishers both announced Tuesday that they had dropped out, citing the coronavirus, and Penguin Random House announced last week that it would not go.
BookExpo usually attracts tens of thousands, from authors and editors to librarians and agents. It is to be held this year at New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center, which the state of New York is currently converting into a medical facility in anticipation of a surge of patients requiring