Reed Elsevier is close to securing a “forward-start agreement” to extend about $2bn of loan debt by three years. The Financial Times reports that the deal, which is expected to close in the next few weeks, will see Reed pay up to 225 basis points more than the London interbank rate to lending banks including Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Reed has about $5bn of debt to refinance before 2012 and “must repay $2bn of ChoicePoint acquisition financing in March 2010 and $2.2bn a year later.” Reed’s $3bn committed back-up bank lines expire in May 2010. Meanwhile, the […]
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Amazon plans another exclusive Kindle download, partnering with America’s Test Kitchen to offer The Cook’s Illustrated How-to-Cook Library: An illustrated step-by-step guide to Foolproof Cooking for free starting February 24. Thriller writer Andy McNab’s audiobook company GoSpoken struck a deal with Research in Motion to supply e-books to the Blackberry and other smartphones.Times (London)
The Librarian's Role in the Digital Age
Motoko Rich continues her series on “The Future of Reading” by looking at P.S. 225 librarian Stephanie Rosalia, part of “a growing cadre of 21st-century multimedia specialists who help guide students through the digital ocean of information that confronts them on a daily basis.” These new librarians believe that literacy includes books, but also exceeds them via Powerpoint presentations and social networking sites. “The days of just reshelving a book are over,” Ms. Rosalia said. “Now it is the information age, and that technology has brought out a whole new generation of practices.” Yet school librarians are often the first […]
Briefly: Gruen Delayed; Source Sues; Phaidon Buys Cahiers du Cinema
* Originally scheduled for publication in May, a spokesperson at Spiegel & Grau tells Quill & Quire that Sara Gruen’s much-anticipated novel APE HOUSE won’t be ready until late 2009 or early 2010. * As threatened, Source Interlink filed suit in a Manhattan US District Court against American Media, Bauer Publishing, Curtis Circulation, Distribution Services, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Hudson News, Kable Distribution Services, the News Group, Time Inc and Time/Warner Retail Sales & Marketing, asking for what Reuters calls “emergency court intervention to stop the defendants from monopolizing the wholesale magazine distribution market.” They allege the “goal is to […]
New Child Safety Regulations Postponed for a Year
On Friday the Consumer Product Safety Commission approved a one-year stay of enforcement of the newly added certification and testing requirements for manufacturer and importers of products for children. They note: “The stay of enforcement provides some temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children’s garment manufacturers and toy makers who had been subject to the testing and certification required under the CPSIA. These businesses will not need to issue certificates based on testing of their products until additional decisions are issued by the Commission.” Among the new regulations to which the stay does not apply are the ban on small […]
Layoffs Hit Big University Presses
Cambridge University Press is laying off almost 160 people in the UK. Chief executive Stephen Bourne says: “We know that this is an incredibly difficult time for those staff that are affected and we will be doing all we can to support them through these changes.” He added, “This has been a very hard decision to make. There are parts of the business doing very well and a lot of them are overseas but two parts are not and one is simply not viable in the long term.” Hardest hit is their Cambridge Printing Services unit, where 133 jobs are […]