Zagat Survey, publishers of user-generated restaurant and hotel reviews, is no longer seeking to sell itself, according to a statement released yesterday. The company that began as a two-page list of restaurant recommendations by founders Tim and Nina Zagat and their friends was estimated to be valued at $200 million in January, when the company [...]
Book publishers sold 3.13 billion units last year, up from 3.1 in 2006, although mass market, smaller size paperbacks (often thrillers and romances) are falling out of favor. Their sales dropped to 541.8 million copies, from 575.1 in 2006. The industry is gathering in Los Angeles today for the second day of BookExpo America, during a “…time [...]
German media conglomerate Bertelsmann has appointed Markus Dohle, formerly head of the company printing division, to ceo of its Random House division. Dohle will replace Peter W. Olsen, who will step down as ceo May 31st. The New York Times (May 20, 2008)
HarperCollins announced plans on Monday to make their seasonal catalog listings available online only. Jane Friedman, president of HarperCollins, said “It’s such a waste of paper and so inefficient.” She said the switch would likely begin by summer ‘09 and take place slowly. About 100,000 catalogs are sent out for each publishing season: summer, winter, [...]
The promotion of Chris Lambiase, vp and publishing director of Bicycling, to vice president and group publisher of the publishers’ running and cycling titles has led some staffers to fret that the group may be sold off. Lambiase ran Backpacker magazine back in 2006, when it was sold to Active Interest Media. Although [...]
O, The Oprah Magazine is releasing “O, The Oprah Magazine Cookbook” with Hyperion on April 29. Although Oprah openly admits that she’s not much a cook and has always publicly struggled with her weight, the cookbook boasts mouth-watering recipes from top chefs like Bobby Flay, Daniel Boulud, and Ina Garten. Even Oprah’s close personal friends [...]
Three prominent academic publishers allege in a lawsuit that Georgia State University, in Atlanta, is violating the “fair use” provision of copyright law by disseminating whole chapters of copyrighted material to students in electronic course packs. These course packs are becoming increasingly common — accounting perhaps for half of all syllabus reading at American colleges [...]
HarperCollins plans to upend traditional book publishing practices by launching a new unit that will supply retailers with product on a firm-sale basis, and greatly reduce or eliminitate authors’ advances. There has been no word from retailers yet on the idea, but several years ago, Steve Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble, said that he would [...]
In the inaugural issue, IPDA president Jerry Lynch describes the e-newsletter as, “…a communications vehicle for all partners in the magazine and book distribution channels, from publisher through retailer, as we work together to address our challenges and leverage our strengths.” In the same introductory column, Lynch also announces plans for a mid-March, IPDA-sponsored meeting among to foster more [...]
Web readers won’t be able to download the text to their laptops or electronic readers, like Amazon’s Kindle, and the print function also will be disabled. So, they will have to do their unlimited browsing there, on the website, in the same way that bookstore browsers can knock off a few chapters in those big easy [...]