Freelance writing network Contently makes its platform free
Contently, a New York City-based startup that connects vetted freelance writers with publishers and brands, is going free. Read more at paidContent »
New York Times to launch Chinese-language news site
The New York Times is launching a Chinese-language news site, cn.nytimes.com. Aimed at “educated, affluent, global citizens,” the site will publish about 30 articles a day in categories like world affairs, business and culture. Read more at paidContent »
California libraries close to ebooks deal with self-pub site Smashwords
photo: Flickr / Ian Barbour
Califa, California’s largest library network, is about to strike an ebook deal with self-publishing site Smashwords. The partnership would bring about 10,000 self-published ebooks into California’s libraries. Read more at paidContent »
The morning lowdown June 27, 2012
Some of the stories people are talking about this morning… Read more at paidContent »
Updated: Report: Digital newsstand Zinio is up for sale
The 12-year-old digital magazine newsstand Zinio is putting itself up for sale, according to a Fortune.com report. Read more at paidContent »
The Folger Shakespeare paperbacks you read in high school are now available as ebooks
photo: Folger Shakespeare Library
If you read Shakespeare in high school or college, it was likely one of those Folger Shakespeare paperbacks with explanatory notes and definitions on the facing pages. Now Simon & Schuster is releasing those editions as ebooks for the first time. Read more at paidContent »
New York Times kicks off “NYT Everywhere,” first stop: Flipboard
photo: Getty Images / Mario Tama
The New York Times is launching a new initiative, “NYT Everywhere,” designed to bring its content to third-party platforms. Its first partnership under the new program is with social magazine Flipboard. The paywall is coming along too. Read more at paidContent »
The morning lowdown for June 25, 2012
Some of the stories people are talking about this morning… Read more at paidContent »
DOJ e-book price fixing trial set for June 3, 2013
The Department of Justice’s trial against Apple, Penguin and Macmillan, who are accused of colluding to fix prices on e-books, will take place in a little under a year, on June 3, 2013, presiding U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ruled Friday. Read more at paidContent »
Yeah, e-books are great — but libraries are in a tough spot
photo: Flickr / melanzane1013
New reports from the American Libraries Association and Pew Internet and American Life Project reveal that despite the increasing number of e-books available to library patrons, libraries themselves face big challenges in weathering the transition. Read more at paidContent »
With Google backing out, ABA promises indie bookstores new e-book solution by fall
photo: Shutterstock / Gts
Google is ending the affiliate program that allows independent bookstores to sell e-books through their websites, but the American Booksellers Association says it will have a new solution in place “well in advance” of the end of the Google program in January 2013. Read more at paidContent »
Morning lowdown: Politico subscriptions, Flipboard for Android, NYT CEO
Some of the stories people are talking about this morning… Read more at paidContent »
Dow Jones’ SmartMoney magazine goes online-only
Plagued by declining ad pages and dollars, SmartMoney, the Wall Street Journal’s twenty-year-old personal finance magazine, is ceasing print production and going online-only. Twenty-five print staffers are losing their jobs while the digital editorial team expands to 15.. Read more at paidContent »
Pinterest adds support for Slideshare, Etsy, Kickstarter, Soundcloud
photo: Pinterest
Image-sharing site Pinterest will now automatically attribute content pinned from 500px, Kickstarter, SlideShare and SoundCloud. Read more »
Penguin brings e-books back to NYC libraries in 1-year pilot program (no Kindle yet)
photo: Flickr / melanzane1013
Penguin, which removed ebooks from libraries and ended its relationship with distributor OverDrive in February, is tiptoeing back into the digital lending waters again. In a 1-year pilot program with OverDrive competitor 3M, Penguin will make ebooks available to the New York and Brooklyn Public Libraries. Read more at paidContent »
Jonah Lehrer apologizes for copying his own work
photo: Jonah Lehrer
Bestselling author Jonah Lehrer — who yesterday was discovered recycling his own content in pieces for the New Yorker and Wired — has apologized via the New York Times. Read more at paidContent »
IBM’s Watson for “important” decisions where you need an advisor
photo: Pinar Ozger
IBM’s Watson will team up with Memorial Sloan Kettering this fall and plans to launch in a handful of cancer care centers this year, but Dan Cerutti, IBM’s VP of Watson Commercialization, said today at GigaOM Structurethat Watson could be used in other fields too. Besides […] Read more »
Media Source launches a subscription book review site, BookVerdict.com
Media Source, the company behind review publications like Library Journal, School Library Journal and Horn Book, has launched a subscription-based site, BookVerdict.com, that aggregates over 300,000 reviews from its publications. Read more at paidContent »
Morning lowdown: New York Post, Jonah Lehrer, ESPN
Some of the stories people are talking about this morning… Read more at paidContent »
Jonah Lehrer, self-borrowing and the problem with “big ideas”
Newly appointed New Yorker staff writer Jonah Lehrer — author of the bestselling books “Imagine,” “How We Decide” and “Proust Was a Neuroscientist” and a former editor at Wired — has been discovered recycling his own material for different publications. It isn’t that surprising. Read more at paidContent »
B&N earnings: Nook Simple Touch drags revenues down, though digital content sales are up
photo: Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble reported Q4 revenues of $1.4 billion, on losses of $1.08 per share. Following Microsoft’s $300 million investment during the quarter, B&N is now breaking out the Nook segment separately in its earnings, and results in that segment are mixed. Read more at paidContent »
State Department postpones Kindle press conference
On Friday the State Department announced that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would hold a press conference to announce the Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative this Wednesday, June 20. Now the event has been postponed until an unspecified “later date.” In the […] Read more at paidContent »
Seth Godin’s Kickstarter campaign for new book beats $40k goal in 3.5 hours
This morning at 5:05 AM ET, Seth Godin launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $40,000 for his upcoming book “The Icarus Deception.” The goal was to raise the money in a month, but the campaign beat it in three and a half hours. Read more at paidContent »
The morning lowdown: Microsoft tablet, Readability lessons, Fairfax paywalls
Some of the stories people are talking about this morning… Read more at paidContent »
Hillary Clinton, Jeff Bezos to announce Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative next Wednesday
Amazon and the U.S. State Department have a deal: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will announce the global launch of the Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative on Wednesday, June 20 at a press conference in Washington, D.C. Read more at paidContent »
ABA to DOJ on e-book settlement: Punish collusion, not indie bookstores
photo: flickr
In his letter to the Department of Justice on the proposed e-book settlement, American Booksellers Association president Oren Teicher calls Amazon a “classic free-rider” and argues that settling publishers shouldn’t have to drop agency pricing as a requirement of the settlement. Read more at paidContent »
HarperCollins launches Epic Reads digital community for teens
HarperCollins has launched Epic Reads, a digital community designed to connect readers with HarperTeen authors and books. But this is not a retail site. Read more at paidContent »
E-book Bestsellers: A “new adult” romance for the college set
photo: Tamarra Webber
This weekly feature tells the backstory of how one e-book became a bestseller, and highlights bestselling titles that are selling more copies in digital than in print. This week: A “new adult” romance for the college crowd. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon Publishing makes some e-books available to other retailers
Amazon is selling at least two Amazon Publishing titles in other digital bookstores. Until now, it has sold its e-books exclusively through the Kindle Store. Read more at paidContent »
Google Play preloads on Kobo Vox; Books on Google Play launches in Germany
photo: Kobo
The Kobo Vox tablet now comes preloaded with the Google Play app. Current Kobo Vox owners will see the app the next time their device updates. Separately, Books on Google Play is launching in Germany. Read more at paidContent »
The morning lowdown: Facebook ads, mobile videogames, Time Inc. subscriptions
Some of the stories people are talking about this morning… Read more at paidContent »
State Department speaks out on Amazon Kindle deal
On Monday, I reported that the U.S. State Department was considering a $16.5 million deal with Amazon Kindle. Yesterday I was able to interview State spokesman Philippe Reines about the program. But I still have a few questions. Read more at paidContent »
Readability ends publisher payment program
Readability, a web and mobile app that lets users save content to read later, is ending the publisher payment program it launched in February 2011. Surprisingly, many readers paid — but most publishers didn’t collect the funds. Read more at paidContent »
Random House promotes digital president Madeline McIntosh to COO
Random House has promoted Madeline McIntosh, president of sales, digital and operations, to the position of chief operating officer, effective immediately. Read more at paidContent »
Morning lowdown: WWDC 2012, the rules of viral, $150 answers
Some of the stories people are talking about this morning… Read more at paidContent »
What will the global e-book market look like by 2016?
photo: Flickr / Mr. iMaax
New data from PwC’s media report projects that e-books will make up 50 percent of the U.S. trade book market by 2016. What will happen in the rest of the world during that time? PwC gave paidContent an exclusive look at the new report’s e-book data. Read more at paidContent »
Why is the U.S. State Department paying Amazon $16.5 million for Kindles?
The U.S State Department has signed a no-bid, $16.5 million contract with Amazon to provide Kindles — 2,500 of them to start — for its overseas programs. Why has the government decided the Kindle is the best e-reader — and what’s Amazon providing for that money? Read more at paidContent »
Five digital lessons from BookExpo America 2012
This week, the book industry gathered at the ugly, cavernous Javits Center in Manhattan for the largest book trade event in the United States. (“I feel like I’m in Costco,” actress-author Molly Ringwald told the AP.) Here are five digital lessons from the week. Read more at paidContent »
Morning lowdown: Bradbury backlist; Facebook App Center; Netflix for porn
Some of the stories people are talking about this morning… Read more at paidContent »
B&N: DOJ e-book suit endangers consumers, bookstores and copyrighted expression
photo: Barnes & Noble
In a brief filed with the Department of Justice this morning, Barnes & Noble says the proposed e-book pricing settlement “represents an unprecedented effort” to become “a regulator of a nascent technology that it little understands.” In fact, B&N argues, e-book and hardcover prices have fallen. Read more at paidContent »
