This holiday season, go into your local Target and you’ll see CNET reviews alongside digital cameras, tablets and other electronics. Target and CNET’s partnership is designed to help undecided shoppers make purchasing decisions, but it could also help prevent showrooming. Read more »
HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster’s parent companies both reported earnings Wednesday. While News Corp shared little about HarperCollins’ performance, CBS noted that digital made up 21 percent of Simon & Schuster’s revenues for the quarter. Read more at paidContent »
DC Comics is making all of its periodical comic books, like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, available digitally through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple. With those companies all launching new tablets, DC clearly sees them as an important platform for reading comics. Read more at paidContent »
Last night, as the results of the 2012 election rolled in, millions of Americans were glued to their TVs, computers and smartphones. But those who had relied on Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight throughout the campaign had to turn to TV networks and Twitter at the end. Read more at paidContent »
Reuters cites two unidentified sources who says that the European Commission has accepted Apple and four publishers’ proposed ebook pricing settlement. As we previously reported, the EU settlement includes Apple, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette and Macmillan parent company Holtzbrinck. Macmillan and Apple are not settling in the U.S. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon is testing a $7.99/month Prime membership to help it compete against Hulu+ and Netflix’s monthly streaming video plans. The option is only available to some users for now, and if you go to the Prime signup page, you may not see the offer. Read more »
Nike’s VP, digital sport Stefan Olander said Monday at GigaOM RoadMap that Nike’s wearable technology thrives on the fact that people want credit for their athletic activity. Forty percent of the runs completed through Nike’s GPS running app are shared on either Facebook or Path. Read more »
Design studio MINIMAL, which raised nearly $1 million for its iPod Nano watch project on Kickstarter, is now working on an app that will pay fans to promote and sell its products. Read more »
On November 20, Amazon will publish one of the biggest titles on its inaugural NY list: The 4-Hour Chef by bestselling author Tim Ferriss. Mediocre sales of Penny Marshall’s memoir are hanging over Ferriss’s launch. Read more at paidContent »
I took two big trips in October — one fun one to Europe, and one Hurricane Sandy-induced road trip. Here are the digital tools I found most useful on the road — and the ones that were more of a hindrance. Read more »
Chris Anderson is leaving Wired, where he has been editor-in-chief since 2001, to become CEO at 3D Robotics, the personal drone manufacturing company he cofounded in 2009. Read more at paidContent »
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced poor third-quarter earnings Friday morning, which did not come as a surprise following the layoffs and magazine closures the company announced Thursday afternoon. Publishing and broadcasting revenues fell significantly, with a bright spot in the merchandising segment. Read more at paidContent »
Facing declining advertising pages and the need to emphasize digital as audiences turn away from print, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced it will stop selling “Everyday Food” as a standalone monthly magazine and will sell off “Whole Living.” It is also laying off 70 employees. Read more at paidContent »
The Atlantic’s new web channel, The Sexes, focuses on gender issues. The company stresses that it is for both men and women and is not just “another ladyblog.” Read more at paidContent »
A Columbia/Indiana University study on reactions to the New York Times paywall suggests that newspapers enacting paywalls should emphasize financial need, not profit, when explaining them to readers. Still, many readers won’t pay. Read more at paidContent »
E-reader company Kobo is expanding to South Africa and hopes to make up 50 percent of the country’s small ebook market within a year, competing against Amazon’s Kindle. Read more at paidContent »
Disney is acquiring George Lucas’s Lucasfilm, including the “Star Wars” franchise and associated technology, for $4.05 billion. “Star Wars Episode 7″ is slated to be released in 2015, with more films to follow every two to three years afterwards. Read more at paidContent »
Paywall startup Tinypass, which is based in New York City and works with small digital publishers, is expanding metering options to its users. Read more at paidContent »
In an attempt to gain a larger slice of the ebook market, struggling Sony is launching a virtual book club. 25 “VIP members” will be chosen to receive a free Sony Reader and ebooks in exchange for promoting the book club online. Read more at paidContent »
UK-based startup ValoBox, which lets publishers sell ebooks by chunks, is launching with a list of publishing partners including O’Reilly in the US and Guardian Books in the UK. Read more at paidContent »
This weekly feature (back after a brief hiatus) looks at the books that are selling better in digital format than in print. This week’s picks: Two books from self-published author Michelle Leighton, who’s just signed a deal with traditional publisher Penguin. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon reported high sales and lower than expected profits in its third-quarter earnings report Thursday afternoon. Shares were down in after-hours trading. Losses were due in part to the company’s investment in struggling daily deals site LivingSocial. Read more at paidContent »
In response to a report that publishers Penguin and Random House are merging, Penguin parent company Pearson said that the two companies are indeed discussing a merger but “there is no certainty that the discussions will lead to a transaction.” Read more at paidContent »
Pocket, which allows users to save content from the web to view later, has added a Mac app to its lineup of iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and web apps. Read more »
New statistics from Bowker show that the self-publishing industry in the United States is growing rapidly, with four companies dominating the space. Amazon’s CreateSpace accounts for the most self-published print books, while Smashwords accounts for the most ebooks. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon is opening the Japanese Kindle Store, with over 50,000 Japanese-language titles, on Thursday. The company is also taking preorders for the Kindle Paperwhite, Fire and Fire HD in Japan, and they will begin shipping in November and December. Read more at paidContent »
Community writing site Wattpad is publishing its first serial. Cowritten by Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman, “The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home” will be posted on Wattpad’s site through January. Unlike Kindle Serials, it is free. Read more at paidContent »
At Apple’s iPad Mini launch event in San Francisco on Tuesday, the company also announced updates to its e-reading platform, iBooks. In addition, Apple is reportedly expanding the iBookstore to 18 more countries, including many in Latin America. Read more »
A new Pew report on young Americans’ reading habits and library usage finds most of them reading ebooks on cell phones or computers — but the data is nearly a year old. Read more at paidContent »
In the investor call following Yahoo’s third quarter earnings report, new CEO Marissa Mayer laid out her vision for the company going forward. “The best days lie ahead,” she said. “We intend to do great things and we intend to win.” Read more at paidContent »
In its first full quarter with former Google exec Marissa Mayer as CEO, Yahoo reported Q3 revenues of $1.08 billion with net income of $0.23 per share. Earnings were in line with analyst expectations, and shares rose in after-hours trading. Read more at paidContent »
Technology blog ReadWriteWeb, which was acquired by Say Media last December, has hired “Fake Steve Jobs” author Dan Lyons as editor-in-chief. The site is also getting a tablet-friendly redesign and a new name, ReadWrite. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon has apparently discontinued the Kindle Touch, which started at $99, in favor of the new Kindle Paperwhite, which starts at $119 and is still experiencing 4- to 6-week shipping delays. The company also discontinued the 9.7″ Kindle DX this month. Read more at paidContent »
Among the digital trends at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year: Startups selling ebooks, self-publishing developments, and an emphasis on mobile phones as the ebook revolution goes global. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon is expanding the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which allows Kindle-owning Prime members to borrow one ebook for free each month, to the United Kingdom, Germany and France. The move comes at a time when Amazon is heavily promoting its self-publishing program in Europe. Read more at paidContent »
Rovio, whose “Angry Birds” app has been downloaded over 1 billion times, announced its first book app, a $0.99 iPad cookbook called “Bad Piggies’ Best Egg Recipes,” at the Frankfurt Book Fair Thursday. “We’re looking for millions of downloads,” CMO Peter Vesterbacka said. Read more at paidContent »
Ebook pricing and device trends that hold in North American countries don’t necessarily work for less developed market. Executives from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, France’s FNAC and India’s Indiaplaza discussed similarities and differences between digital reading cultures Wednesday afternoon at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Read more at paidContent »
Startup BookShout lets users import their Kindle and Nook books into its iOS, Android and web-based social reading platform. But the function doesn’t work very well yet, and it seems as if it’s only a matter of time before Barnes & Noble or Amazon shuts it down. Read more at paidContent »
E-reading company Kobo has acquired French digital software company Aquafadas in an effort to develop more digital illustrated content like comic books and magazines. Separately, the company announced new partnerships with New Zealand booksellers. Read more at paidContent »
At the Frankfurt Book Fair on Tuesday, Berlin-based Txtr announced a tiny e-reader that will cost under €10 when subsidized by mobile carriers. With the Beagle, the company aims to convert the 80 percent of global mobile phone users who don’t already read ebooks. Read more at paidContent »
