In response to recent complaints about privacy issues by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Google Books Engineering Director Dan Clancy explains why their policy hasn’t gone into details about how privacy will be enforced: “We have a strong privacy policy in place now for Google Books and for all Google products. But our settlement agreement hasn’t yet been approved by the court, and the services authorized by the agreement haven’t been built or even designed yet.” As a result, while Clancy promises that “whatever we ultimately build will protect readers’ privacy rights,” and points to a FAQ page for further questions, […]
Amazon Apologizes for Deleting Copies of '1984'
In more Amazon news, CEO Jeff Bezos issued a statement yesterday afternoon on the company’s customer forum, apologizing for deleting Kindle editions of unauthorized editions of George Orwell’s 1984 and other illegally sold copies without prior warning. “Our ‘solution’ to the problem was stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles,” wrote Bezos. “It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.”Bezos statement
People
Vanessa Mobley and Lorraine Glennon are joining Broadway reporting to recently-hired publisher Diane Salvatore, starting August 3. Mobley had most recently been at the Penguin Press. Glennon was books editor and senior articles editor at Ladies Home Journal. Webb Younce is leaving Holt and moving to Frankfurt where he will acquire English-language books at Suhrkamp Verlag. At Langenscheidt, Christine Ramos has been promoted to marketing director, and Gina Garza has been promoted to publicity director. Christian Frederking has joined Thames & Hudson as Sales and Marketing Director, an appointment that will take effect after this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair.
Amazon Media Sales Stop Growing
As Amazon’s sales keep growing, the company is taking a hit on the income side. For their second quarter, sales rose 14 percent, to $4.65 billion, but operating income feel 27 percent at $159 million and net income fell 10 percent to $142 million. Among the hits to earnings were $51 million in their legal settlement with Toys R Us, and $30 million blamed on foreign exchange (but they had a $53 million non-cash gain from the sale of European dvd rental assets). While those sales grew overall, in the segment we all care about–media–the decelaration was dramatic. North American […]
Lagardere's Publishing Continues to Grow, With a "Slowdown" In June
Lagardere released a brief summary of sales (but not profits) for the first half of their fiscal year. The publishing division recorded revenues of 546 million euros for the quarter, up 10.4 percent compared to a year ago, with sales for the first half of the year at 1.009 billion euros. “The success of the Stephenie Meyer saga was unabated,” they report, though there was a “slowdown in growth in the month of June due to robust sales in June 2008 when two novels by James Patterson were published.” Similarly, comps for the second half of the year will have […]
Scholastic "Approximately Level" with Last Year Except for Foreign Exchange
Scholastic reported sales from continuing operations in their fourth quarter of $496 million with the decline of 5.4 percent attributed primarily to foreign exchange. Earnings from continuing operations of $32.2 million were up 7 cents a share (at 88 cents) while net income improved considerably, at $27.7 million, compared to a loss of $10.7 million a year ago. In their children’s book publishing and distribution division, sales fell $13.3 million to $249.3 million, on “lower revenue from clearance sales in School Book Fairs, as well as lower Harry Potter sales in trade compared to a year ago.” Segment operating income […]