Cambridge University Press chief operating officer since 2010 Peter Phillips moves up to chief executive of the publisher, taking over from Stephen Bourne as he gives up the top position as planned though continues to work with the Press. Phillips had previously been on the board of UK communications and media regulator Board of Ofcom, and served as coo for BBC News and director of business development for the BBC in the past. For Neil Young‘s high-profile interview at BEA on Wednesday, June 6, it has been announced that author and musician Patti Smith will be the one asking the questions. (Seating at the lunchtime […]
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Details From the DOJ’s Lawsuit
In their lawsuit against Apple and five agency publishers, the Department of Justice claims “the evidence showing conspiracy is substantial.” In the broadest terms, Justice charges that the defendants “shared their business information, plans, and strategies in order to formulate ways to raise retail e-book prices.” It appears that Justice is actually charging two separate conspiracies. The earlier one they say began “no later than September 2008” and involves a number of meetings regarding a possible “joint venture” to sell ebooks together as well as “telephone conversations and other communications in which they jointly acknowledged to each other the threat […]
Publishers Acknowledge Legislative and Educational Challenges
As this morning’s annual meeting of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) in New York underscored, in today’s complicated and changing times the organization has more legislative and policy issues on its hands than it has in some time. Association president Tom Allen emphasized how much has changed since he joined the organization in 2009. As many of the morning’s speakers underscored, “we have a lot to talk to our publics about.” Allen noted he is “struck by the fact that when you pick up a book…it’s very hard for members of the public to see the contribution made by […]
Corporate: F+W Bolsters eCommerce and Crafts; Publishers Win Injunctions Against Piracy Site
Expanding on a joint venture created in the middle of last year, F+W Media has acquired The Martha Pullen Company, an ecommerce provider, event producer, and content company in the sewing and craft category, from Hoffman Media. Ceo David Nussbaum says in the release, “This is an important strategic acquisition for F+W, as we move more directly into the hard goods product fulfillment arena by offering these goods through our ecommerce stores. Now with the addition of a wealth of sewing information, instruction, and materials we can more fully serve the craft enthusiast community…. The acquisition represents our largest ecommerce […]
Prime Suspects
Bloomberg has attracted attention for a story from Tuesday regarding Amazon Prime membership. Citing “three people familiar with the matter,” Bloomberg says that as of October 2011 Amazon had “3 million to 5 million people subscribed to Prime.” In contrast, analysts who follow Amazon have pegged prime membership at anywhere from 5 million to 13 million people or more. The enduring takeaway here is a reminder that no one knows anything useful about Amazon’s undisclosed numbers–particularly analysts. When they publish estimates about proprietary statistics–prime membership; ereader and Kindle Fires sold; sales of ebooks–they are guessing, often with wild inaccuracy. (As […]
DBW: Talking Around the Edges of Libraries and eBooks
The dialogue between publishers and libraries over the potential for ebook lending continued at DBW on Wednesday. In the panel Discovery and Libraries in an Age of Few Bookstores, librarians and their allies talked up the library as a place for publishers to make direct connections to readers, and the value of readers’ advisory, the librarian as a human discovery engine. Random House director of account marketing Ruth Liebmann said Random House, the only big six house that provides library ebook lending without limitations, is now telling the audio reps they send to libraries to talk about other formats as […]