Monopoly watchdog group the Open Markets Institute has filed a brief, signed jointly by PEN America and the Authors Guild, encouraging the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division “to block the merger between the two sole competitors in the long-run magazine and book printing markets,” Quad and LSC Communications. In October, Quad (formerly Quad Graphics) announced a deal to acquire LSC, and in February secured the credit to finance the $1.4 billion deal. The deal requires regulatory approval and is currently under review. Open Market’s March 6 letter argues that Quad and LSC represent the only two options for the printing […]
Legal
People, Etc.
Jan Baumer has joined Folio Literary Management as an agent. She was formerly acquisitions editor at Harper One. Tara Schlesinger has joined Gallery as senior digital marketing manager. She was previously a digital marketing and publicity specialist at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Awards A 13-title Booker International longlist was announced, with the actual nominations to be released on April 9. The London Book Fair International Excellence Awards were presented across 18 categories. The Academy of Arts and Letters is presenting awards in literature to 17 writers this year. Among them: Lydia Millet gets an award of merit; Robert Alter, Marilyn Chin, Chris […]
Amazon Blinks, A Little
Under political pressure, Amazon is now giving third-party merchants on its US site the same break they provided to European merchants way back in 2013: The company has dropped price parity or most favored nations conditions that blocked sellers from offering their goods at lower prices on other websites. Amazon confirmed the change, without making any statement about it. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal had written to the Assistant Attorney General for the Anti-Trust Division about this very issue last December. On Monday, Blumenthal commented, “Amazon’s wise and welcome decision comes only after aggressive advocacy and attention that compelled Amazon to […]
Roger Stone’s Attorneys Have An Odd Way of Apologizing
Attorneys for Roger Stone filed a number of documents Monday night, as required by Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who may decide later this week whether Stone’s inflammatory new introduction to his book from Skyhorse violates her gag order. They are having a tough time explaining why that introduction was not mentioned in earlier filings with the court or during the February 21 hearing that led to the new gag order. The attorneys continue to insist it just didn’t occur to them (“even if it had crossed counsel’s mind to raise the new introduction (and it did not)…,” even as they […]
People, Etc.
At Avalon Travel, Nikki Ioakimedes is promoted to acquisitions manager for Moon Travel Guides; Kristi Mitsuda becomes editor; Lisi Baldwin moves up to digital production manager; and Ravina Schneider is promoted to production designer. Susan Fissell has joined the Simon & Schuster special markets team as national accounts sales manager. She was previously director of special markets at Hachette Book Group. Former payroll clerk at New Jersey wholesaler Bookazine John M. Cribbin was arrested in February and charged with stealing $34,000 of vacation pay due to other employees over a two-year period, allegedly deposited to his own account with forged […]
Roger Stone Isn’t Jailed Yet, But Judge Wants to Know A Lot More About His Book Release
Judge Amy Berman Jackson saw right through the arguments from Roger Stone’s attorneys that his inflammatory new introduction to The Myth of Russian Collusion: The Inside Story of How Donald Trump REALLY Won from Skyhorse — published February 19 — should be proclaimed as not in violation of her broad gag order on the defendant. While his attorneys had said in a recent filing it “did not occur to counsel” that their February 8 filing or February 21 pleading should have mentioned the essay — which by their own affidavit he delivered way back on January 14. Rather, as Judge […]