J Willner Auctions will hold a major liquidation auction on December 4 of approximately 700,000 Spanish and bilingual books from Lectorum Publications,
the largest and oldest distributor of Spanish-language books in the United States. The New Jersey-based company is closing its doors after more than 60 years in business, mainly due to drastic changes in federal funding for Spanish-language book purchases for schools, which severely affected the company's sales in 2024.
As Lectorum President and CEO Alex Correa told Publishers Weekly, 'Our sales were down 30% for the year, which is difficult for an industry that already works with tight margins,”'due to changes in Title I allocations, which historically allowed schools to purchase Spanish-language reading materials for bilingual and ESL programs.
