Join Ruth Dickey online at this Publishers Marketplace link today at noon Eastern. The latest guest on our Discuss forum, Ruth will answer your questions about the National Book Awards in advance of its November 17th awards ceremony: how titles are submitted, the judging process, what the prizes entail, and more. You can also ask her about the many other programs the National Book Foundation sponsors.
Archives for November 2021
S&S “Committed” to Fight DOJ and “Will Carry On”
In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Simon & Schuster president and ceo Jonathan Karp echoed Penguin Random House’s statement that they will fight the Department of Justice’s lawsuit to block the merger of the two houses. “Penguin Random House is determined to fight vigorously to bring this transaction to fruition and we will be doing all we can to help in those efforts,” he wrote. Additionally, “We are committed to working together with PRH to fight this lawsuit.” (The DOJ suit names ViacomCBS as a defendant, alongside Bertelsmann and PRH.) Karp writes, “Notably, DOJ has not alleged that the […]
Huge Index of Scholarly Articles Raises Copyright Concerns
An enormous free index of scholarly literature was released on October 7, raising copyright questions, Nature reports. The General Index—which searches more than 100 million journal articles—allows researchers to automatically search a vast amount of published work, including articles protected by paywall. Previously, scholars have only been able to search within articles they subscribe to, and publishers have controlled access to such computerized searches, known as text mining. Creator Carl Malamud says that the index is not a breach of copyright because it only contains words and sentence fragments — albeit 355 billion of them — not the entire text […]
DOJ Sues to Block PRH Acquisition of S&S
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division filed suit to block the proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House for $2.175 billion. This time the primary argument is not on behalf of consumers but authors, and authors of “anticipated top-selling books” in particular. Filing in the Washington, DC District Court, the DOJ alleges violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, arguing the acquisition is “likely to substantially lessen competition” for “the acquisition of US publishing rights to books from authors.” That market for “anticipated top-selling books…would be highly concentrated,” the filing argues. “The merger would give […]
November Book Club Picks
The November Read with Jenna selection is The Family by Naomi Krupitsky.
People 11/2
At Random House Children's, Jennifer Chung-Castillo has joined as managing editor, operations. She was previously manager, metadata at DK. Regina Flath has been promoted to associate art director. Casey Moses has been promoted to senior designer.