Lead Apple defense attorney Orin Snyder underscored Apple’s contention that the whole case is “bizarre” in his opening arguments on Monday saying, “What the government wants to do is reverse engineer a conspiracy from a market effect.” Snyder was quick to express “concern” over presiding Judge Denise Cote’s previous expression of her “tentative view” that Apple would be proven guilty in a pre-trial conference. “All we want is a fair trial,” Snyder said. “Every defendant should be presumed to have done nothing wrong.” Judge Cote insisted in reply, “This is not a vote on whether I like Apple, it’s whether or […]
From the Courthouse: DOJ Argues “Simply No Dispute” That Apple Coordinated Price-Fixing Scheme
After well over a year of depositions, documents, argument-trading, and settlements with five publishers, the Department of Justice’s trial against Apple on ebook price fixing finally got underway Monday morning at the Federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan (the majority of journalists, yours truly included, witnessed the proceedings in an overflow room where the sound was frustratingly intermittent, and only fixed before the end of the morning recess.) After some lingering pre-trial motions concerning the redaction status of certain documents, DOJ lawyer Lawrence Buterman presented the government’s case against Apple in opening arguments. Most of what he covered was in line with […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Wiley has hired John Kritzmacher as evp, chief financial officer, starting July 1. Current cfo and chief operations officer Ellis Cousens, who previously announced his retirement at the end of fiscal 2014, will “retain responsibility for certain global operations and oversee the company’s $80 million restructuring program.” Kritzmacher, 52, recently served as svp, business operations and organization planning at WebMD and was previously cfo of Lucent Technologies and Global Crossing. On Friday at BEA, the Publishing Hackathon awarded first prize to Evoke — which maps how characters in fiction are emotionally similar to each other as a way of discovering […]
People, Etc.
Sarah Harrison Smith has been named children’s editor at the New York Times Book Review. She was most recently on the paper’s metropolitan desk. Scholastic unveiled the new cover designed by Kazu Kubuishi for HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, which will be published on August 27 (along with the other redesigned books in the series) at BEA Thursday morning. At the Audiobook Publishers Association’s Audie Awards ceremony last night at the New-York Historical Society, Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair (read by Colin Firth, Audible) was named named Audiobook of the Year and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (multi-voiced […]
BEA Panels: Gladwell, Executives, and More
Malcolm Gladwell was interviewed by Brad Stone at BEA’s IDPF Digital Book conference on Wednesday, billed as a conversation about the future of digital publishing but more a discussion of his forthcoming book DAVID AND GOLIATH: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants–and a selection of at least some misfit ideas. Gladwell’s main thought on digital publishing is that people should be able to buy a book’s content and receive it in every format, from print to digital to audio. Not only did he have little guidance, but he showed little regard for the digerati in the audience: “People […]
People, and Natan Award’s First Winner
Sourcebooks ceo Dominique Raccah was honored at the opening of BEA on Wednesday with their Industry Ambassador Award. Former IPG distribution executive Mark Suchomel has joined Perseus Books Group’s distribution client services group and will run a new division based in Chicago, Legato Publishing Group. It will operate as “an affiliate” of PGW, “leveraging some of PGW’s scale and best practices in serving independent publishers.” The Random House Publishing Group announced a number of promotions in its publicity department. Maria Braeckel has been promoted to assistant director of publicity, while Greg Kubie moves up to publicity manager. In addition, Michelle Jasmine has been promoted […]