Following similar moves from Holtzbrinck, Bonnier Germany, dtv, Hoffman & Campe, Luebbe and others, Random House Germany has joined the trend and announced it will drop hard DRM in favor of digital watermarking (or “soft DRM”) as of October 1. In the announcement, ceo Frank Sambeth explained: “Abandoning harsh DRM facilitates readers and distributors dealing with e-book files, increases customer satisfaction and reduces complexity. At the same time traders and platforms can be supplied, which offer no hard DRM. With the conversion to soft DRM we join also an ever-widening industry consensus.” Germany is the first major ebook market to drop DRM on […]
eNews
Monday Briefs
The big weekend read was the NYT piece with allegations about Amazon‘s “purposeful Darwinism” towards its employees. Jeff Bezos sent an email to all employees — and thus the world — saying, “Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.” Bezos agreed that “anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company.” But “Hopefully, you’re having fun working with a bunch of brilliant teammates, helping invent the future, and laughing along […]
People, Etc.
Jennifer Ung has joined Simon Pulse as associate editor. Previously she was an assistant editor at Scholastic. Kristen Reach has joined the Kenyon Review as associate editor. Previously she was an editor at Melville House. Bankruptcy Filing Filmed Entertainment Inc. — the parent of DVD direct-seller Columbia House — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, citing $2 million in assets and $62 million in liabilities. The unit was part of Bertelsmann’s once-mighty Direct Group, then part of Direct Brands — purchased, along with the Bertelsmann’s North American book club group Bookspan, by Najafi Companies, which transferred the units to the mysterious […]
International: PRH Australia Sells Bookworld to Booktopia; Harper Brasil, With Ediouro; Harlequin UK Layoffs From Harper Consolidation
Penguin Random House Australia has sold Bookworld, the online bookseller that operates two sites based on the former Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson assets, to their larger rival Booktopia. The sale is expected to increase Booktopia’s sales from $54 million (AU) in 2014 to an estimated $90 million by the end of 2015. Amazon is thought to sell $250 million to $300 million of books to Australia annually. Terms were not disclosed but PRH Australia had “paid less than $5 million for the assets of Borders and A&R after the collapse of their parent, REDgroup Retail,” rebranding as Bookworld the following year. […]
People, Etc.
At Simon & Schuster, Sarah Reidy has been promoted to associate director of publicity. Princeton University Press announced a number of promotions. Eric Henney has been promoted to associate editor, physical and earth sciences, while Ryan Mulligan moves up to assistant editor. Shaquona Crews has been appointed director of contracts, while Kim Williams has been promoted to UK international rights director. Finally, Steven Peter has been promoted to project & systems manager. Andrew Nurnberg Associates will open a new office in Warsaw on September 1. It will be headed by Marcin Biegaj, currently senior agent and sales director at Graal. […]
eBooks: Kobo in Mexico, Amazon In NY Schools
Kobo is joining with Mexican publisher and retailer Libreria Porrúa (with almost 70 bookstores) and bookstore chain Gandhi (with close to 30 stores) to power a new ereading service for Mexican readers called Orbile. They plan to launch an ebookstore in September with a catalog that will include over 70,000 titles. Both Porrúa and Gandhi will sell Kobo devices in their stores. Separately, the New York City Board of Education has a pending three-year contract with Amazon for ratification that will pay the etailer at least $30 million for ebooks selected by individual schools. Amazon will also build a “unified ebook storefront” for the […]