Friday, March 26, 2010

Local Man Rounds Up, Receives Accolades

Ms. Ombreviations is unavailable this morning, meine Damen und Herren, so I will be conducting today's round-up. Achtung, fertig, los!

Speaking of (rather than in) German, it seems Random House (owned by the German media company Bertelsmann) is still the odd (wo)man out when it comes to the Apple iPad and its digital book store. While it remains to be seen who needs whom more once the iPad begins shipping on April 3rd, it's interesting to note that Random House's cautiousness (labeled "reluctance" by some) with regard to Apple's device means they are the only major publisher who can still sell e-books through the book wholesaler Ingram. It's assumed that, barring a new deal between Ingram and the remaining big six, those publishers' e-books will not be available through Ingram after April 1st.

If all this has you worried about the future of publishing, fear not, gentle readers! Two cast members of Jersey Shore now have a book deal, virtually ensuring the health and longevity of the industry. No, really, I'm sure their book will be truly breathtaking. In related news, I am totally out of Excedrin and Maalox.

Seriously, though, the future of publishing is uncertain at best, so folks at the Wharton School of Business are holding a conference on that very topic next month. Will my myriad predictions be borne out? Only time will tell!

Finally, auf wiedersehen, Harold W. McGraw, Jr. The former head of McGraw-Hill died Wednesday at the age of 92. I urge you, readers: if you're planning on buying a textbook in the near future, please, consider McGraw-Hill. I know Harold would appreciate it.

That's all for this week, and with any luck, Laura will be back in seven days to bring you a far more entertaining (and less relevant) round-up. Have a great weekend!

4 comments:

  1. That's a very nice article on Harold McGraw. The AmEx takeover seemed framed in a very traditional good for the family vs good for the shareholder light. McGraw hill sits behind Pearson, HMH, Cengage, and Wiley respectively in market share. Would they have had the resources and the forward strategy to better position themselves in the modern market? Or would they have been nickel and dimed and bled into a husk of the business of integrity that Harold declared them to be?

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  2. I just wanted to share this link for a 110 year old rejection letter. It totally made my day: http://chavelaque.blogspot.com/2010/03/110-year-old-rejection-letter.html

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  3. If the publishers really wanted to save themselves (or the people wanted the book industry to be saved) they should stop publishing trash, (and people should stop buying it).

    If people really want to know what goes on in the minds of people from "The Jersey Shore" go to Jersey.

    /rant

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