Archives for December 2022
People 12/20
The Gift of Information
Give yourself or tell a friend or colleague about the chance to do some deep publishing research over the quiet days ahead: We are offering a substantial discount on new PublishersMarketplace.com memberships. Use the time limited “promo code” PMFORME in the indicated field when registering and enjoy the first month of service for just $15. Feel free to share this offer with anyone you think might be interested. (Please note, you must enter code in the “Promo Code: ___” box when registering to work.)
2022: The Year in Legal News
Legal news this year was dominated by the Penguin Random House antitrust trial, with the bulk of our reporting on the case running from July through October. The biggest publishing story of the year, which tracked the government’s (successful) attempt to block PRH from merging with Simon & Schuster, began with the entire industry learning the term monopsony and ended with the resignation of PRH ceo Markus Dohle. In between, we heard testimony from experts, PRH executives, and industry insiders about how in-house competition works and witnessed the coining of a new term–Anticipated Top Best Sellers. Judge Florence Pan presided, […]
EU Finalizes Amazon Antitrust Settlements
As previewed earlier in the month, the European Union announced the final “commitments” made by Amazon to avoid further enforcement action, including fines. As indicated earlier, within the EU Amazon will make the Buy Box more competitive, allow third-party merchants to participate in Prime while using outside logistics providers, and block Amazon from using internal data to compete with third-party merchants. Specifically, the EU states: Regarding data use, Amazon will not “use non-public data relating to, or derived from, the independent sellers’ activities on its marketplace, for its retail business. This applies to both Amazon’s automated tools and employees that […]
People 12/19
Brandon Proia will join Basic Books as executive editor on January 5. Proia was most recently an executive editor at the University of North Carolina Press.