Peter Bennett
Peter Bennett develops iPhone apps and advises companies on mobile strategy through his company Hablantia.com. He was a founder of a publishing business that grew rapidly and profitably, but didn't quite live to see its 10th birthday. In previous incarnations he has worked for the BBC in corporate strategy, and has written management reports on technology issues for the FT.
Random House Expands Ebook Offerings, Embraces EPUB
Random House is pursing digital with a vengeance, recognizing a growth market. From the Huffington Post: The publisher already has more than 8,000 books in the electronic format and will have a digital library of nearly 15,000. The new round of e-books is expected to be completed within months; excerpts can be viewed online through the publisher's Insight browsing…
Report: Wall Street Journal Grabbing High-End Ads from New York Times
Silicon Alley Insider and others are reporting on Bloomberg's notice that the Wall Street Journal is grabbing high-end luxury advertising revenue from the New York Times: As if the New York Times wasn't having enough trouble keeping up with an ad recession and the Internet crushing its print business. Now the newspaper is facing increasing competition for print ad…
EFF Attorney: Google Book Search Settlement Weakens Innovation
In an editorial in The Recorder, Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says Google's settlement with publishers and authors signals an implicit abandonment of Google's legal team working on behalf of innovation across Silicon Valley: .. By settling rather than taking the case all the way … Google has solved its own copyright problem — but not…
Point-Counterpoint: On Digital Book DRM
In the first part of a point-counterpoint exchange, Peter Brantley outlines reasons why DRM is bad for book publishers.
PC Magazine Goes Web Only
PC Magazine's January 2009 edition will mark the end of its print run. A reduced staff will focus on the PCMag Digital Network. From paidContent.org: The magazine, which was started in 1982, has a storied history, but its print base eroded over the years as its core brand of journalism — news you can use while shopping for computers…
Publishers Need to Get In on the Conversation
Kassia Krozser has a Cluetrain-like manifesto for publishers. From Booksquare: It's time to get your hands dirty, to dig into the real-world conversation. It's a weird thing, and sometimes awkward and uncomfortable, especially if you're accustomed to public relations-speak and the cheerleader behavior that accompanies marketing messages. When you talk directly to real people who read and buy books,…
Ebook to iPod to Hard Copy Purchase
Hugh McGuire is loving Stanza, the free ereader app for the iPhone/iPod Touch. From the Book Oven Blog: 40,000 ebook dowloads-a-day. I've got 35 of them sitting on my iPod. If you are a publisher, think long and hard about that number. The reason I have 35 books downloaded onto my Stanza is: a) it is easy, b) it…
APIs, New "Transactions" and the Google Book Search Registry
At PersonaNonData, Michael Cairns discusses the Google Book Search registry, and muses whether it might support certain types of transactions through an API: How the registry may be formed is anyone's guess, but for sake of argument I envision a pyramidal structure. The identifier segment forms the pointy top layer, bibliographic data the second layer, content the third and the…
Election Interest Signals Print's High-End Future
Following the sell-out of post-election newspapers, Ed Nawotka looks at the collectable future of print. From Beyond Hall 8: One immediate consequence of Obama's victory was the boost in sales for newspapers. So now we have confirmation that print is not dead — at least as far as collectors are concerned. This merely reinforces my belief that the long-term…