At the ABA’s annual general meeting CEO Oren Teicher noted the already announced gain in membership – with 105 new members, it’s the biggest increase in some time – but didn’t mince words about how independents “are living through a period of unprecedented change and staggering challenges” and that running a bookstore “can no longer be business-as-usual.” The challenge facing indies in the wake of Apple selling almost 20 million iPads in the past year is that “each of those iPads is also a full-color, live demonstration of the tug-of-war between books and competing media for a consumer’s attention.” The […]
BEA11
BN Presents “Simple, Pure” $139 Reader; Says Nook Color Is No. 2 Tablet
If I’m being honest, as I usually try to do, the working book trade press corp showed up at Barnes & Noble’s Union Square store this morning with a bit of resentment. Why was the company pulling us away from the Javits floor on the opening morning of BEA to introduce an already leaked eInk touchscreen device? Particularly when those nice Canadians from Kobo unveiled their $129 touchscreen reader modestly at Javits Center yesterday. Also odd at first, and then just plain annoying (and a little pathetic), was a claque of roughly sixty people wearing black t-shirts emblazoned with “nook,” apparently […]
Buzz Reviews: Blue Nights, by Joan Didion
Review by Rachel Syme When The Year of Magical Thinking appeared in 2005, it established Joan Didion as the high priestess of anointed grief counselors — her meticulous and minimalist memoir of losing her husband to heart failure hit a cultural and emotional chord that continues to reverberate. In Blue Nights, Didion’s new memoir, she turns to motherhood with a similar clinical detachment — again a shock, but in this case, one that feels much more uncomfortable. Didion’s gimlet eye is always welcome; the conclusions that she draws from it, maybe less so. Two months before Magical Thinking‘s publication, Didion’s 39-year-old adopted daughter, Quintana […]
New Bowker/BISG eBook Survey Highlights Disparity Between eBook Consumption in Trade and Higher Ed
This morning BISG presented two studies prepared by Bowker’s PubTrack on ereading habits with markedly different objectives and conclusions. “The most important thing want want you to walk away from is to consider who your consumer is,” said Bowker’s Kelly Gallagher. “We’re looking at two completely different sides of the spectrum.” The newest iteration of its survey on Consumer Attitudes Toward eBook Reading pinpointed (once more) the core ebook buyer: a 44-year-old female with a median household income of $77K who reads and buys romance novels above all else to read on a dedicated device. 18 percent of respondents buy […]
Current Developments in the Spanish-Language Digital Market
At the “Why eBooks in Spanish in the US and How to Make them Available to Readers” panel this morning, CEO Arantza Larrauri announced that Libranda, Spain’s major ebook distribution platform, will be launching in Latin America next week, starting with Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia, with plans to expand to other countries by the end of the year. To begin with they will partner with local affiliates of the big houses that back Libranda – Planeta, Santillana and Random House Mondadori – but they are in negotiations to partner with local houses in each country as well. At launch they […]
Bookspan Owner Najafi Buys French DirectGroup Book Clubs, and More
Phoenix-based investment firm Najafi Companies, which bought the ailing North American Direct Group assets (including book club giant Bookspan, along with Columbia House) from Bertelsmann in 2008, has gone back for a second helping. Najafi is also buying DirectGroup France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec. Called “a billion-dollar, top-line” business, terms were not disclosed for the deal, expected to close by the end of May. Najafi will continue to operate the Paris-based unit separately, under current management, and intends to “invest significant capital into growing DirectGroup over the next several years, including strengthening its book club model, travel and financial services, […]