Barnes & Noble is previewing their new “Nobody Knows Books Like We Do” holiday video ads, to be featured on cable TV and movie screens. The general ads are available on their YouTube channel, but they have yet to post what sound like the most interesting spots: A collection of 15-second videos “that celebrate the…
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WH Smith Was The Potential Barnes & Noble Buyer
The WSJ names the “book retailer” that made offers to buy Barnes & Noble last spring that fell apart on June 19, as described in Demos Parneros’s defamation and breach of contract lawsuit against the retailer, and the company’s answer to those charges and countersuit. “People familiar with the situation say it was WH Smith…
Patterson Tries An Enhanced Novel Launched On Facebook Messenger
James Patterson’s latest experiment releases today on a new platform, Facebook Messenger. THE CHEF, set in New Orleans, is an enhanced digital novel about a police detective — who runs the Killer Chef food truck at night with his ex-wife — who is under investigation for a murder he is accused of committing in the…
Corporate: Pearson Gains On Steady Quarter, Scribd Pairs with NYT
Pearson provided a trading update on the first nine months of 2018. Total revenues were flat, with a 3 percent decline in US higher education courseware offsetting growth in the rest of the company. The company attributed some of the revenue decline to delays caused by the implementation of new enterprise software in the US,…
Briefs: Obama Picks, BuzzFeed Book Club, New Kindle, And More
Picks Barack Obama published a few pre-election reading recommendations. They include How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt and The Broken Ladder by Keith Payne, in addition to magazine pieces by Matthew Desmond and Yoni Appelbaum. BuzzFeed has finally launched the monthly book club, they have been talking about for a while. Family Trust by Kathy Wang is the inaugural…
EU to Allow Members to Drop E-Book Tax Rates
After two full years of debate (and years more of hand wringing), European Union member states now have the option to lower VAT tax rates on ebooks to the same rate charged for printed books — which in some countries are tax free. The measure unanimously agreed on by the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs…