In 2005, Random House Inc. imprint Presidio Press published onetime CIA agent Gary Schroen’s First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan to some fanfare and minimal controversy. For four years, and for three different editions, that’s how things remained. Then the mass market edition unblurred a photo of covert CIA agent John Peppe, who was involved in one of the agency’s Afghanistan missions, that was originally blurred in the hardcover, ebook and trade paper editions. That one change by the publisher set off an odyssey of lawsuits, accusations of invasion of […]
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Controversy About Coal Lesson Packet Causes Scholastic To Cut Back Corporate-Sponsored Projects
After receiving a barrage of criticism back in May for sponsoring a fourth-grade lesson packet on coal-based energy that was paid for by the American Coal Foundation, Scholastic announced Sunday evening that it will cut back its InSchool marketing division’s corporate-sponsored projects and create a new review board to vet its materials. “We have to improve our standards, and make sure there’s not a scintilla of anything that could be suggested to be biased,” Scholastic president and ceo Richard Robinson told the NYT. “The vast majority of our programs are not controversial, but once in a while there was a […]
AP Questions Iraq Veteran and Author’s Account of His Injuries
The AP has an extensive piece on decorated Iraq war veteran Luis Carlos Montalvan, whose story is told in the book Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him, published in May by Hyperion. The story challenges Montalvan’s account of how he received the injuries in 2003 that produced post-traumatic stress disorder (which is helped by his psychiatric service dog Tuesday) and some physical disability. The AP “first heard of Montalvan’s case in late 2009 while researching a story on people who misrepresent their service to obtain PTSD disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs,” […]
Corporate News: Macmillan Fined on Africa Contracts Fraud; Nebraska Book Company Bankruptcy Approved
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office fined Macmillan $18.3 million over illegal payments made by its education division to secure contracts in East and West Africa between 2002 and 2009. Macmillan said a report had identified “concerns over receipts from certain contracts” by its Education unit in Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. The company settled with the World Bank last year over a similar situation in Southern Sudan. “We will not tolerate any form of potentially unlawful behavior,” Macmillan ceo Annette Thomas said in a statement. “Fortunately, it has been established that these issues were confined to a limited part of our […]
Briefs: University of California Shutters Poetry Program; OFT Signs Off on Bertrams/Dawson Merger; and More
The University of California Press has decided to suspend the publication of its poetry book series New California Poetry after it publishes 3 titles in 2012. Director Alison Mudditt told the LA Times that the decision came about because of budget cuts – it expects to see 10 percent in funding reductions from the university – as well as the “shifting marketplace” for books and publishing. LAT The Office of Fair Trading has been in the headlines of late because of mounting opposition to Amazon’s acquisition of The Book Depository (so much so that UK trade organizations are taking the […]
International News: PA and IPG Want to Block Amazon/Book Depository Merger; Competition Commission on the Pearson/REDGroup Case; and More
As expected, the UK Publishers Association and Independent Publishers Guild are asking the government to block Amazon’s purchase of The Book Depository, calling for a wider public investigation into the competition between the online and bricks and mortar bookselling market. What’s less expected is that their request is a joint one, which PA ceo Richard Mollet said in a statement “reflects the strength of feeling among publishing companies that the OFT should block this merger.” Bookseller Meanwhile, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will conduct an ‘informal review’ of Pearson’s proposed acquisition of REDGRoup Retail’s online business. The closing […]