Retail is a difficult proposition, especially these days. With a still comparatively weak economy dragging on consumer confidence, customers are more sensitive to issues of price than ever, and with competitors online pursuing brick-and-mortar stronghold businesses, it's difficult to not only get ahead but also stay ahead. Barnes & Noble isn't immune to these issues, as the company recently set up plans to split its company into two parts: one for consumer bookstores, and one to cover its currently unprofitable Nook line.

The division is set to take place by next March, and when complete, will see the rise of Nook Media, a company that's designed to encompass not just Nook—both its e-book and e-reader lines—but also its college bookstore lineup. Nook Media will have several big-name shareholders involved in its startup, including both Pearson PLC and Microsoft (News - Alert), who have both put investment into Nook but not into Barnes & Noble proper.

This comes at a time when Barnes & Noble is really at its weakest in quite some time. Its bookstore arm is in decline as print books start to suffer in terms of sales, and with Amazon frantically pursuing dominance in every sector Barnes & Noble is in—and having the advantage of greatly reduced overhead as well as some rather exciting future plans for high-speed delivery mechanisms like its drone fleet known as Amazon Prime Air—Barnes & Noble has some major problems afoot. Barnes & Noble's fourth fiscal quarter results underscored this point; “core” comparable store sales—essentially everything sold in stores but the Nook product line—were down 1.9 percent. However, it's worth noting that Barnes & Noble's retail store line is still making a profit, and a healthy one at least for now; the company's retail stores pulled in fully $354 million before issues like interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization kicked in. The college stores, meanwhile, brought in $114.6 million ahead of those deductions noted earlier, and this would be fairly good news.

Except, of course, for the Nook. In the last two fiscal years, the Nook and digital business has lost Barnes & Noble around $700 million, nearly wiping out the profits gained from the consumer stores. Recent moves by Barnes & Noble's CEO, Michael Huseby, have curtailed much of the losses found at Nook, and recent moves to bring in Samsung, in terms of production, may help further. But even Barnes & Noble isn't projecting that the Nook will be profitable with this fiscal year, which may explain the spinoff.

For Barnes & Noble to make Nook Media essentially the college line and the Nook products to take a lesser profitable division and couples it with a division that may be profitable later. It's not exactly the best move, especially for those currently invested in Nook Media, but it's a reasonable enough proposition. If the college line can hold its profitability, and the Nook can continue towards same, eventually Nook Media becomes a fully-realized profit generator.

That's eventually, as in “not today and probably not any time soon,” but eventually can be a good tool too, particularly for the patient who gets in early. Microsoft—16.8 percent owner of Nook Media—declined comment, but could likely help out here itself by building in a Nook app on the Xbox One, an idea that goes back as far as February in terms of rolling out. Microsoft's living room ambitions might well include reading, and Nook Media may be just the tool to get it there.