Publishers Must Blog!

As publishers we are in the content creation and information business. As owners of the means of production we have always been the gatekeepers between creation of intellectual works and the consumers of this material. It should be no surprise to any of us that the expansion of new media application erodes the foundation of these gates as individuals gain direct access to an audience and leverage facilities to comment and opinionate about the very output that we in the publishing industry labor hard to select for them. At the same time, search undercuts and demythologizes the power of branded content, and provides the average Joe with information and content that is good enough for their immediate requirements.

If you can’t beat them join them: Developing a social media strategy that encompasses blogging should be a foundation of all publishing house marketing and promotion plans. I have mentioned before (in relationship to book reviews) that I am less convinced of the value of typical marketing programs supporting book promotion. My macro view above can only be mitigated by joining the new media fray and developing networks of interested parties that can nurture, support and perhaps develop content that you produce as a publishing house. As market segments evolve, I think they will become narrower and more defined and publishers that support communities (via social) must be able to participate in these communities in a meaningful way in order to be successful. This is already the case on computer book publishing.

When I started this blog, like everyone else I sought links to place on my blog. I found many but few from established publishers. Over the past year, I have seen more publishers enter the blog world but the numbers still seem small for an industry dependent on words and information. Authors and publishers should develop a blog strategy and blogging should be a natural extension of any publishing house. This idea was the genesis for the panel presentation I am hosting at BookExpo this week.

• As I thought about the theme of the panel meeting, my thought process mirrored the approach I took and the benefits I saw in establishing a blog.


• Blogging gave me an opportunity to experiment with new technology


• I became a publisher/content producer and, as traffic increases, one with responsibility to an audience


• Develop a personality beyond a ‘resume’ or existing professional reputation


• As popularity increases, the blog becomes a center of a growing network of interest


• Expands a professional network: who knew there were as many people with shared views and perspectives?

As I mentioned, there are a number of very popular publishers who are actively blogging but in my view every publisher should have numerous blog sites: some official but the company should also support individual blogs by its employees. Developing a code of conduct is relatively simple and in some cases the employees themselves can be instrumental in formulating this code. (Obviously, the company cannot police every corporate blogger; however, every employee has some fiduciary responsibility to act responsibly towards the company they work for). While affiliation with a publishing house is powerful, as an editor, marketing director, or publisher, I would recommend developing your own blog – so that you can build an online personality that is somewhat separate from the corporation. That is not to say that you can’t blog for the house, but developing your own blog enables flexibility and individualism that can and will be important to you professionally. While you support your current publisher you are also developing your own brand.

As a publisher, or one who works in a publishing organization, it seems redundant to explain the mechanics of getting started as a blogger: You really should know this stuff because it is what your audience (and some competitors) has been doing for a few years now.

• Choose from any number of hosted tools: Blogger, WordPress, Icerocket, Moveable Type and many, many others. I use Blogger but if I were to do it over, I would pick one of the other popular tools. Blogger has only recently added basic functionality that others have offered for a considerable time.


• Pick a name: Perhaps not as easy as it would seem and I would err on the side of professionalism rather than something like ‘monkeyboy’. (Unless you are a publisher at National Geographic in which case it may be appropriate). Using your name is perfectly acceptable - as many do. I would not recommend tying the blog name to the name of your publishing house (they may not allow it anyway) because the blog wouldn’t be portable.


• Plan out your first few weeks of blog posts and use your experience as material. If you are an editor your titles and authors should be the focus of your interests and don’t expect that you will ‘hit your comfort zone’ in terms of content immediately. It took me several months before I started to deliver content in a thematic way.


• Learn from what the other publisher bloggers are doing and link to as many sites as possible. The more links you establish the more you will be noticed. Establish a del.icio.us account and ‘clip’ the articles and blog posts you find interesting. Not only is this a valuable resource for your own research but you can use these links as material for your blog posts. Once a week, I capture my ‘clips’ in a blog post.


• The marketing and promotional aspects of blogging are still evolving but establishing a social network that links consumers, authors, publishing executives, agents, etc. will be a powerful tool to support the house’s publishing product. The social community can be useful in developing markets, expanding reach and gauging interests and/or trends. All important aspects of marketing and content acquisition functions.

A few months ago, I heard Joe Wikert (of Wiley) speak about publisher’s blogging activities and why they can’t afford not to. I asked him about the branding issue: Was he the brand or is it John Wiley. He pointed out that while he promotes Wiley incessantly there are no Wiley logos on his site. The site is supported by Wiley in the sense that they do not edit or ask him to manipulate any content. Wikert suggested that the company did take a considered look at employee blogging activity and decided on a ‘common-sense’ approach which meant self governance by the bloggers. Wikert said his blog is really not a Wiley product but he believes his blog is valuable to Wiley because it proves to an important community (the IT world and technical book authors) that Wiley understands the community and environment. The separation from Wiley does allow Wikert to express his own opinions which as a purely corporate blogger he might find difficult.

Establishing a personality as a blogger should be a professional requirement of all of us in the publishing community. Don’t forget to let your employer know and understand what you are doing and what you want to achieve since full disclosure may eliminate problems later on. Don’t be afraid to use your contacts and network of professional relationships to get the word out and if you are really lucky the company may link to your blog from their web home page which should drive more traffic to you. Lastly, use web analytics tools available from Feedburner or Google Analytics (and others) to track your traffic and let you understand what works and what doesn’t.

Get started.

Weekly Update: May 27

Deal News:
David Levin: UBM CEO, On Deal Money Chasing Smaller Deals: Reuters
Gilbane (Paxhia) on Thomson Learning: Gilbane
EMAP on the Block? Guardian

Publishing:
LA Times on Book Reviews: LA Times
Paid Content or Ad Supported Content That is the Question: Reuters
Google Book Search Becomes More: Blog
Let's hear it for copyright reform: IF:BOOK

Other News:
Alibris Extends Book Selling Platform to all Casual Sellers: PRNews
Public Library Tries LibraryThing.com as Network Appl: LJ
B&N Financial Conference Call Transcript: Seeking Alpha
BIBME Auto populate a Bibliography: PR
Bilking the Elderly via InfoUSA: NYTimes
Death by Powerpoint: Open
Bad data - OUP in Trouble over Place names: The Times of India
Google Fights Plagarism: Guardian


Sport:
Does Steinbrenner know about this? O'Reilly

HP's E-Reader Concept "BOOK"

This looks like a really cool looking tool. Video presentation at the bottom of the page.

HP presented its ‘e-book reader’ during 2007 HP Mobility Summit in Shanghai, China, which is a concept of next generation e-book featuring intuitive interface. You can flip pages of book content in the reader as if you turn pages of real book and by utilizing HP’s online photo website ‘Snapfish’, you can enjoy photo book function as well. It is still a prototype, so it will take time to launch as a real product to research more, develop dedicated software, and receive feedbacks from customers, a company official mentioned.

Video presentation:

Is the New York Times in Play?

Courtesy of a link from media bistro, Michael Wolf and Jon Fine of Vanity Fair discuss whether the NY Times is in play or not. I don't believe Wolf makes the case - and he is forever looking to throw out the ancient regime - and agree with Fine that at the moment the comparison with the Bancrofts and Dow Jones does not compare to the NY Times circumstances. Interestingly, Wolf suggests a 2x market current cap ($7bill) as his deal or no deal offer which suggests even he thinks the circumstances would have to be extraordinary for this to happen.

On a topical note, the Times has also indicated (via Gawker) that it needs to release itself from the shackles of a print based orientation and become far more flexible both in the manner in which it develops content and who develops the content. According to Managing Editor Bill Keller,

He also spoke about the "gradual reallocation of resources from print towards digital" and copy editors being moved to the day side, so that there could be a "greater flow of fresh quality edit material."

So, journos won't be working all day on one story - or perhaps they will but the content/story will be updated more frequently and potentially by others if the story continues to develop past bed-time. Additionally, he went on to challenge the idea that The Times needs to focus on editorial control, standards and spelling and personnally that worries me. The Times has had its difficulties with some of that in recent years; nevertheless, surely one of the main attractions of the product is the measure of control (and readability) that the editors exert over journos. And while Keller (and lets face it he is more an expert than I) admits the web is different and has different standards, why can't The Times deliver a superior product leveraging the webs benefits while still maintaining The Times' credibility? In my reading of these comments it seems that Keller all too readily 'gives up' in the face of badly edited, unspell-checked, off point crap (that may contain a nugget of useful information).

"We can't let our reverence for quality become a straitjacket in new media," he warned. "The web environment is different... We can offer guidance but we cannot insist on the same control we exercise over print."

(It is more than possible that this blog is a case in point).

Over the past several years, The Times has monkeyed with its print format and Keller announced a material change in trim size. Other newspapers in Europe have gone from broad sheet to tabloid but this change appears to more in keeping with the recent WSJ change.

Echoing Fine rather than Wolf, Keller joked that "There have also been reports of a rat sighting," at the new building which if true would seem to indicate that the rats are still quite comfortable on the big grey ship.

BookExpo America Conferences

Ted Hill (fellow traveller and friend of the blog) let me know of a seminar he is hosting at BookExpo and here are the details:

Best Practices in Digital Marketing: The Publisher’s Perspective

Most trade publishers know that they can no longer rely on traditional marketing alone to connect with readers, but they are uncertain where they should invest scarce dollars in the many new opportunities presented by the net. Separate the buzzwords from the best working practices as you negotiate the shift from print to digital marketing. Topics include product marketing, working with online merchants, the company website, author-driven marketing, and how to build value over time.
Date: Thursday, May 31, 2007
Time: 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
Place: Room 1E03

If you’re interested in the above, my frequent collaborators, Mike Shatzkin of the Idea Logical Company and Brian O’Leary of Magellan Media will also be speaking on topics on the same day that you may find valuable.

And as he mentions, Mike Shatzkin (fellow traveller and friend of the blog) also has a seminar and the details are as follows:

The End of General Trade Publishing Houses: Death or Rebirth in a Niche-by-Niche World describes how digital change is eliminating the ecosystem that sustains general trade publishing houses. But the good news is that the ecosystem we see replacing it is one general trade houses can actually migrate to, if they recognize the challenge, accept some painful realities, and start now. I know the speech will be provocative; I think it will also be entertaining and I hope it will put a lot of things most of us already know into a comprehensible framework.

Thursday, May 31, at 10 am, room 1E04

That same afternoon, May 31, at 2:30, in Room 1E11, I am moderating a session called Digital Search Intermediaries: New Roles and Channels for Publishers. This is about Digital Asset Distribution, a subject on which I am currently co-authoring a White Paper and co-hosting conferences dedicated to, in New York on June 21 and in London on July 12.

The speech I gave on DADs at BISG's Making Information Pay is now posted on our web site. You'll find it at http://www.idealog.com/speeches/mipdads.htm

The second seminar above conflicts with the session I am hosting unfortunately....

See you all there.

Is Pearson Next For Murdoch?

In a recent article about Rupert Murdoch and his bid to acquire Dow Jones, The Economist newspaper reported as an aside that while at the Davos World Economic Forum Murdoch was trying to interest as many PE groups as he could in a combined News Corp/PE bid for Pearson. Dow Jones has always been his preferred business publication and he sees the Dow Jones property as key to the development of his global business channel; however, if the Dow Jones shareholders appear intractable then he is likely to launch an attack on Pearson in order to get his hands on The Financial Times and The Economist Group.

For their part, the Pearson board and top executives have said that they are unwilling to sell or to split up the company. In spite of this consistent message, with the sale of the Thomson Learning business for almost $1.5billion more than Thomson and analysts expected one must wonder when the views of the board begin to diverge from the interests of the shareholders if valuations like this are on offer via PE money.

According to a number of sources, the hold out Bancroft family is set to meet today to discuss the News Corp offer. Murdoch has proven to be fairly patient in his effort to acquire Dow Jones but he has promised a financial network to compete with CNBC and needs content and branding to support that effort. The synergy that will exist between the US based Dow Jones and News Corp and the brand recognition and reach of The Wall Street Journal will trump the larger international presence and brand of The Financial Times. I suspect Murdoch will continue with his full court press on the Bancrofts for the short term - he is unlikely to up his offer - and he is probably willing to gamble on an auction should the Bancroft shareholders decide to seek other offers. While there is a lot of PE money going around, the Murdoch price is a fair one given the trading level prior to the bid. Some have also suggested that the share price will tumble below this original level if Murdoch is rebuffed.

With respect to Pearson there exists a possibility that they could be 'blackmailed' into parting with The Financial Times if someone started to buy up shares of the company; however, this seems unlikely since the moment any group launches any type of offer there will be several additional offers presented almost immediately. I suppose Pearson could defend itself by making a big acquisition and loading up on debt but who would they buy....Dow Jones?

New Rules on Out of Print

Fast on the heels of their epistle on the business of publishing, The New York Times tells us about how new fangled on-demand printing is complicating the publishers' definitiion of 'out of print'. Here we hear of Simon & Schuster who are changing their contracts to accomodate this radically new technology. You be the judge;

But with the advent of technologies like print-on-demand, publishers have been able to reduce the number of back copies that they keep in warehouses. Simon & Schuster, which until now has required that a book sell a minimum number of copies through print-on-demand technology to be deemed in print, has removed that lower limit in its new contract. In effect, that means that as long as a consumer can order a book through a print-on-demand vendor, that book is still deemed in print, no matter how few copies it sells.

The unfortunate thing may be that the authors that sell less than an initial 1000 units may still be tied to a publisher for a very long time dispite the changes made to author contracts. Some of these authors would be better served by self-publishing their titles - perhaps a story for another day. As far as 'established' authors that regain their rights, companies such as iUniverse.com have offered 'back in print' programs with the Authors Guild for over 8 years now.

Customer Focused Publishing And Thomas Nelson

Some of you will recall that Thomas Nelson announced last year that they were doing away with the general publishing convention of creating all kinds of imprints for all kinds of reasons. Nelson has reverted to subject classifications as an inherently simple and commpn sense approach to selling their titles. Here he offers a status report on the situation and I love the following quote:

I don’t think any of us realized how much energy and money we were spending to maintain an organizational and branding infrastructure that added zero value to our customers. It’s one of those chronic situations that develop in organizations where you stop feeling the pain and just learn to cope. Then, when it’s gone, you suddenly notice how much better you feel. In my opinion, imprints add very little value and lots of complexity.

Mike has been kind enough to join me in a panel discussion at Bookexpo and while our subject will not be on this topic he has his own presentation where he is planning to review this activity.

The two seminars are:

Thursday May 31, 1:00 - 2:00
Customer Focused Publishing: How TN moved Away from Imprints - Room 1E02

Thursday May 31, 2:30 - 3:30
Corporate Social Media Platforms: A Case for Publisher Participation - Room 1E04

See you there.

Apax Appoints Shaffer Exec Chairman and Dunn CEO of Thomson Learning

I could have titled this Groundhog day since there was a rumour going around yesterday about Dave Shaffer returning to Thomson and today it was confirmed. More interesting was the appointment of Ron Dunn as CEO to replace the incumbent Ron Schlosser. On completion of the deal last week, Schlosser's internal memo to staff wasn’t particularly inspiring – more stay the course – than anything, and I guess he knew what was coming. Dunn’s departure from Thomson Learning at the end of 2006 was always a mystery to me since he had been a tireless worker for the business and had been a major factor in the growth of the education business particularly internationally. It will not be the first time Shaffer and Dunn have teamed up and they know each other very well having worked together at Thomson, Macmillan and McGraw Hill. From the press release:

Jackie Reses, Partner at Apax Partners, said: "The Thomson Learning properties
are unique, global media franchises that hold strong positions in their respective markets and have delivered stable and predictable growth. We look forward to working in close partnership with Ron Dunn and Dave Shaffer, two proven media executives who are intimately familiar with the Thomson Learning businesses. Ron and Dave are extremely well suited to lead the newly independent Thomson Learning organization as it builds on its positions within its individual market segments, continues to expand internationally, and captures the enormous potential we believe exists in the evolution to digital content distribution in
post-secondary education."

Both executives will have their work cut out for them, since as I have commented before the Thomson Learning company while possessing significant assets has been left in the dust by Pearson. Pearson has led in growth rate, operating performance and strategic acquisitions over the past three years. Coupled with the importance in migrating content to the web which Pearson has also started to do well with and there will be challenges a plenty. Each of these executives know this business and industry well so they should not be short of ideas or action plans to make the necessary changes.

It should be said also that this will be somewhat a vindication for Ron Dunn in returning to Thomson. I understand that Shaffer was none too pleased with Harringtons decision to part ways with Dunn in 2006.

Dugan Appointed Head of Entertainment Rights North America

Deborah Dugan, who was head of Disney Publishing Worldwide (not Hyperion), has been named CEO/President of Entertainment Rights North America. From AWN :

At Entertainment Rights, Dugan will have overall responsibility for the day-to-day running of the U.S. operations (including Canada), which encompasses Entertainment Rights U.S., Classic Media and Big Idea. Dugan's main role will focus on further building and maximizing the revenue streams for the group's entire brand portfolio across TV, licensing & merchandising, DVD/video and digital & music. Dugan will also work closely with the group's executive management team based in London to formulate the strategic direction of the business as well as exploiting new business development opportunities ensuring the company maintains its leading position.

In a related story, the Disney unit Dugan ran announced today it is moving to Westchester.

Amazon To Launch DRM Free Music Store

The days of DRM protected music are definitely numbered. Amazon.com is announcing that they will launch a DRM free music store later this year which will include thousands of songs in MP3 format. As such these files will be playable on virtually any music player.

“Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. “We’re excited to have EMI joining us in this effort and look forward to offering our customers MP3s from amazing artists like Coldplay, Norah Jones and Joss Stone.”

Some pundits have started to suggest this is an Apple I-Tunes killer but what is more likely is for Apple to renegotiate their music deals (where applicable) and come out with a similar service before Amazon.com launches their site. Since Apple are very much the incumbent music download and hardware vendor they have a distinct advantage. (Not to mention the potential impact of the Apple I-Phone). It should be pointed out that sales at the Apple store have never been huge but a change in the DRM rules could be the catalyst that Apple and Steve Jobs have been looking for.

No word on pricing or specific launch dates from Amazon.com

Press Release

Thomson - Reuters Deal Done

CEO Harrington has piloted the company from reliance on newspapers and print based businesses to one dependent on electronically delivered information products. He will retire having completed a remarkable transformation in the Thomson businesses and will present Tom Glocer with the opportunity to chart the next chapter in Thomson's corporate history.

Reports:
BBC
Reuters
Global & Mail
NYTimes
The Times

Reflections on the IDPF & BISG Conferences

Reflecting on last week’s conferences it was interesting to recall that Michael Healy was a little concerned that scheduling the IDEP annual meeting the day before the BISG sponsored Making Information Pay would limit the participation at the latter. As it turned out, anyone who attended both meetings benefited from the combination of themes and the opportunities to network. At IDEP the attention (glamour) was on handheld e-readers as it was last year. In fact there was some redundancy versus last year; however, it was a European presentation of a combo device that seems to offer the best answer to my big gripe, why a dedicated device?

Later in the day we heard from content providers, content distributors and content users all of which supported the BISG meeting the following day. Perhaps the most troubling news came at days end when the Associated Press reported that no one under 50 saw print newspapers as their primary source of news and that the average user spent less that one minute per day with online newspapers (including nytimes.com). It was noted that CNN did a far better job than other news sources because their content was more open, included more video and limited dead end pages which further encouraged interaction with content.

Sitting in the bleachers it is easy to toss stones at what we heard publishers are doing in an online world. The most troubling thing seems to be that we still don't really know what we should, could or will offer our customers in the online world. One e-content presenter proudly noted 'price' as the key driver of purchase behavior by their customers. Customers driven by price are flirtatious and flighty and will always be on the look out for a better deal. This statistic seems to indicate no engagement in the content at all by the customer, which is troubling given all the opportunity for interaction that e-content and e-delivery can afford.

The early morning presentation from Hachette on the state of e-publishing and the reasons for getting stuck in was devoid of relevancy. The same presentation could have been delivered three years ago when it would have been viewed with interest. Universally missing is the vision of what published content will look like (and represent) in 5 or 10 years time. We are all guilty of using the e-book term and I have to believe we are in an evolutionary phase that will lead to some new species that we can't quite as yet see. Not 'e' nor 'book' perhaps? Aside from Google, the best e-publishing initiatives underway are promotion and marketing driven. This is not a criticsm because what Random House and Harpercollins are doing to use the internet, their data warehouses of content, widgets and other things are important steps towards closer interaction between the content producer and the customers. At the moment these are not so much content plays as marketing and promotion activities.

In retrospect, the panel discussions could have benefited from some of the work that the Future of the Book has done to show publishers their experimentation with content creation and display/interaction. This work is hugely interesting but possibly unknown to the majority of publishers. Admittedly the BISG focus was on Making Information Pay but the speakers tended to exceed the bounds of this title. Some extrapolation regarding where they thought publishing may go and some of the experiments underway would have been interesting.

In a way it was almost predictable that industry badboy O'Reilly Media made an indelible mark as the capstone on the meeting. Tim O'Reilly is hosting a Tools of Change conference on the future of publishing in San Jose next month and has stated that while most publishers are in New York all the e-publishing action is in California so that's why the conference is out there.

Granted, he may be less politic but in a basically canned presentation, Allan Noren from O'Reilly was able to forcefully emphasize the distance O'Reilly have traveled down the e-publishing road. Even a simple statistic drew instant reaction from the audience regarding the increase in international sales as a result of placing a pdf download button on the purchase page. The other presentations drew interest but not an immediate reaction like this one. O'Reilly has also led in the atomization of their content and seems to take pride in how they continue to push the envelope. The company recently added pdf downloads, read on-line, chapters and a permissions link. All represent evolutionary changes, but Noren coached the audience to digitize, make content ubiquitous and reduce the barriers to purchase.

Noren's parting comment was to approach e-content and e-retailing like a beginner because as such we have no preconceived notions of how things should be. We can innovate, adapt, change and innovate again without jealousy. This thought seems to support the notion that we must eradicate the conjunctive 'e-book' - but with what? - and create some new species of 'book'.

As I mulled over the content of the conferences last week, the thought that Ulysses (Joyce) was in many ways the first multimedia book. Sure it is printed on paper, but think about how the mind of Bloom represents an integration of audio, video, and text making Dublin come alive for the reader. What a fascinating project it would be to lend real life to the Newspaper headlines, the trolley cars and even the sounds of Dedalus peeing on the beach. Joyce approached authorship like a beginner; hopefully the next person to do so won't get banned.

BISG Conference Presentations
IDPF Presentations

Reed Looks to Profit From Thomson Learning Multiple

The multiple paid for Thomson Learning was astounding given the general view the business unit would sell for almost $2.0Billion less. Not surprising, Reed Elsevier are as gobsmacked as all of us but think that they can generate something of the same multiple for their learning unit. The comparisons are not exact between the two units however one thing is similar; that both represent unique moments to buy leading players in their segment and it is unlikely that a similar combination of assets will come up for sale within the next five years or so. Here is The Independent:

The analyst Simon Wallis believes valuing Reed's total discounted cash flow
on a multiple of 6 times pre-tax earnings, a typical private equity buyout
valuation, gives the shares a potential value of 930p. The Swiss bank UBS also
believes there is more upside in Reed, giving the stock a more modest 740p price
target. Shares in Reed firmed 3p at 666p while the rivalPearson rallied 17.5p to
908p on news that it has acquired the online learning group eCollege for
$477m.

Reed has already sold some of the Harcourt assets to Pearson but the rump educational business remains and likely will exceed earlier expectations on price.

Informa Buys Datamonitor

According to sources, Informa approached Datamonitor several months ago about acquiring the company and discussions resulted in the sale of the company. Datamonitor CEO Mike Danson is expected to receive over £60million as his share of Datamonitor. The total purchase price is £502million which is close to the current market cap but represents over 27x next years expected income. A high multiple indeed; however it should be expected that this company will fit well with the current Informa products and that some significant economies are anticipated once the product lines are combined. From The Telegraph,

According to Informa, the purchase represents an "attractive opportunity" that fits with its strategy of supplying specialist content to a business audience. David Gilbertson, managing director of Informa, said: "Datamonitor is a model example of a company that slots neatly into the Informa group. Both companies provide business customers with data and analysis that is essential and unique - information they cannot do without."

January 2007 Google Unbound Conference

Here is a presentation from the Google Unbound panels and presentations from earlier this year.

Transcript

Pearson Buy E-College

On the back of last weeks purchase of some of the Harcourt learning assets that seemed to take many in the industry by surprise, Pearson announced today that they have agreed to acquire E-College an online education provider. (Reuters) The company's product suite fits well with the acquisition strategy laid out by Pearson early last year that has seen the acquisition of PowerSchool, Chancery Software and the Harcourt assets.

Founded in 1996, eCollege provides a range of on-demand software services including course management, virtual campuses, and assessment, reporting and retention monitoring tools. The company, which supports around 180 institutions, with student enrollments of 1.2 million in 2006, generated sales of $52 million and operating profit of $22 million last year.

Shares of the stock went up 6% on news of the deal.

Increasing Traffic and New Authors for Personanondata

The past four months have seen a rapid rise in the traffic to Personanondata for which I am very grateful to the readers who have found me and stayed with me. I have also benefitted from multiple links from a variety of blogs and websites which have raised awareness and interest. Significantly, I have also seen some links from industry leading trades such as Mediabistro/Galleycat, Publishers Lunch, Library Journal and Book Business Magazine and these links have served to endorse some of what I have published.

But it is not enough (for me), and I would like to encourage all my readers to tell people about the site and hopefully build some discussion around some of the themes I talk about. (I have exhausted my contacts and don't wish to bother them too frequently).

I am also interesting in publishing material from other people in the industry with a point of view. Over the past three months I have published articles by Andrew Grabois, John Dupuis, Michael Healy and Michael Holdsworth. All have been well read on the site and I hope they will all return at some point but I would also like to include more perspectives. Along those lines if anyone is interested in blogging about sessions at BookExpo in a few weeks please let me know.

Thanks for the support.

Weekly Update: May 13th

Deals:
Silliness Regarding B&N/Borders Combo: Forbes
Thomson Transformation: Global&Mail
Spring Deals Rekindle M/A Market: Financial Week
Murdoch and Dow Jones: NYTimes

Publishing:
How Publishing Works: NYTimes
Holt on Reviews
News Corp 3Q Results (Harpercollins): Yahoo
Perseus Reorganization: PW
Wolters Kluwer 1Q Results: Webwire
EBrary Expands Publisher List Including ABC-Clio: Businesswire
Bloomsbury and Libre Digital: OhMyNews
Publishing Books On Line: The Times

Other News;
LOL Borders News: Businessweek
Launch of Amazon Author PodCasts: Businesswire
FT Reports Content Piracy Far Lower Than Estimated: FT LawGeek
Too Many Books? Design Observer Blog
Does Chaney Own an I-Pod? M&C
McCartney Goes Digital and The Beatles to Follow: Billboard
Review of IRex Illiad e-Reader: Guardian
Reflections On The Relationship Between Libraries and Publishers: Brantley

Colbert & Rushdie Spar Over Book Reviews

Listen up nation, as some of you will remember I commented on what I thought of this pandemic of flagellation over the fate of the nations big city newspaper book review sections. Perhaps the concern ascribed to their obvious fate cuts some of us too close to the bone as we watch a print based media struggle with extinction but nevertheless the ensuing discussion about publishers not supporting the sections and perhaps readers not reading anyway continues to miss two main points.

Firstly, newspapers are simply not the best method of promoting books. It maybe they were never that great but for a long period of time they (and magazines) were the best outlet available. Word of mouth, which derives from publicity, not advertising which is message and awareness based has always been the most effective method of influencing sales. Witness the amazon 'reviews' sections and the ranks ascribed to reviews which 'helped' in confirming the book choice. In contrast, the web supports book reviewing and book promotion in ways print based newspapers and magazines can never achieve. As I commented in my original post, the ability to interlace supporting content around a central essay linking directly to sections of the book discussed, enabling direct author involvement and allowing readers, fans and critics to add content results in a valuable package or 'body of work' about the book. Here is the opportunity to make exploring reading more interesting but it is not an argument seen in any of the discussions over the past few weeks. For the most part the conversation has been one long lament.

Last December, Genevieve Tucker in The Australian newspaper anticipated some of the discussion around the reviews issue and eloquently discussed the issues and opportunities that the web offers book lovers. The following is representative of her article and is her conclusion.

Indyk may not consider his republic of letters has come to stay just yet, but many book bloggers would heartily endorse the words at the end of his 1997 essay and see them as a warning to those who would encroach upon their independence in he name of the marketplace: "It is in the conversation about literature, the recommendation and the debate, that the literary community really exists. It is here that reputations take root, and word of mouth, that mysterious and voluntary power that can sell more books than a fortune spent in advertising, has its source. To insulate authors from this realm, as has been the practice, is to guard them from the kind of challenge that is a spur to creativity. If you try to tamper with the conversation of criticism, if you restrict it in order to take all the space you can for hype, if in the end you silence it altogether, not only do you drive away readers, but you place a fatal limitation on authors as well.'

Secondly, there is a cultural snobbery that pervades best summed up in this comment by the author Richard Ford in the New York Times:

“Newspapers, by having institutional backing, have a responsible relationship not only to their publisher but to their readership,” Mr. Ford said, “in a way that some guy sitting in his basement in Terre Haute maybe doesn’t.”

Times they are a changing, and it is no longer the case that iconic media properties like the NY Times, LA Times and Atlanta Journal Constitution are the only outlets for legitimate cultural criticism. There are scores of highly regarded book reviewers with loads of web traffic producing critical analysis and support for the book industry. The publishing industry should be supporting these bloggers and website owners rather than waste time supporting a medium that hasn't adapted. Efforts by Random House and Harpercollins (others will follow) to make it easier to incorporate their content onto blog and web sites will only exaggerate the gap between the print based media reviewers and the guys (and girls) sitting in their Terre Haute basements. As they close down or reduce their expenses devoted to book reviews sections, the newspaper companies should be looking at acquiring some of these web sites and bloggers and build on the communities that these people have successfully established. That is if they are really committed to books.

I will try not to address this subject again but here is Salman Rushdie and Stephen Colbert on book reviews. I disagree entirely with Mr Rushdie:





PS: If you didn't catch the piece with Jane Fonda on the same show later that night, it is very funny.

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Lynn Scanlon
Pat Holt