Judge Orinda Evans of the Northern District of Georgia published her 350-page ruling late Friday on the closely-watched copyright infringement case originally brought in 2008 against Georgia State University by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and SAGE Publications. (Actual costs were shared by the Copyright Clearance Center and the AAP, leading the judge to “infer that CCC and AAP organized the litigation and recruited the three plaintiffs to participate.” The ruling–finding the university did infringe in five cases (out of 75 claimed infringements)–has enough room in it to allow most interested parties to claim victory, dissatisfaction, or both, depending […]
Archives for May 2012
People: The Shack Author’s “Cross Roads” Set for November
Kimberly Snead his been hired for the new position of director, brand strategy at the Crown Publishing Group, reporting to vp, business development Ranjana Wingender. Snead was director, consumer marketing at Nickelodeon/MTV Networks. She will be “responsible for conceiving, creating, and executing brand development plans for a variety of authors” across the group. Daniel Nayeri has been named to the new position of digital editorial director at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s, overseeing the e-book publishing program for all frontlist and backlist HMH children’s books, as well as acquiring e-original content and developing multimedia projects. He was editor at HMH’s Clarion. […]
Houghton Plans Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy and Restructuring to Eliminate Over $3 Billion In Debt
After months of reports that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was preparing a second major restructuring of its debt load (and multiple warnings from rating services), the company announced Friday morning they have a “high level of support” from their lenders and bondholders for a pre-packaged bankruptcy and financial restructuring. The proposal would eliminate their $3.1 billion debt load, and save the company $250 million a year in debt service. Under the plan, current bondholders and lending banks would trade their loans for 100 percent of the equity in the reorganized company. As is generally the case in such restructuring’s, existing equity […]
People: Gilbert Moves from Sterling Children’s to Doubleday, and More
As part of the continuing demise of Sterling, veteran children’s book editor Frances Gilbert will leave her position as vp, publisher of Sterling Children’s to join Random House Children’s Books as editorial director, Doubleday, starting June 18. Gilbert will report to vp, publishing director of the Random House/Golden Books Young Readers Group, Mallory Loehr. She will acquire and publish new books in a variety of formats and categories including board books, picture books, narrative nonfiction, novels and ebooks, and will also oversee the backlist publishing program. Gilbert has been at Sterling for 12 years. Her first list for Doubleday is planned for […]
Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Gets “Exclusive” License to Lend All Seven Harry Potter eBooks
After teasing customers on its website yesterday that Harry Potter “Wizardry was on the Way,” Amazon announced Wednesday morning that all seven Harry Potter ebooks by J.K. Rowling will be available in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library as part of an “exclusive” license, starting June 19. Amazon tells PL the license runs “until at least 2014” and says the exclusivity means “this is the only licensing agreement of its kind for any retailer.”The French, Italian, German and Spanish editions will all be available for borrowing in KOLL. “We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this agreement with Pottermore. This is the […]
Tattered Cover One Step Away from Airport Stores; Politics & Prose Travels
A Denver City Council committee unanimously sent to the mayor and full council for approval the proposal to give the Tattered Cover the concession for four bookstores under their own name and one combined store paired with Hudson News at the Denver International Airport. The stores would open in early 2014. Washington, DC’s Politics & Prose bookstore has launched a literary travel tour program, working with DC-based Academic Travel Abroad (which works with the Smithsonian, National Geographic, and various alumni associations, among others). “Part tour, part roving literary symposium, each trip will be led by an expert in the field,” including store […]