Google's Ancient Project

In my second post about Google in a day, I note the release of Ancient Rome using the Google Earth application. Anyone with a more than a passing interest in history is fascinated by the Roman Empire and its closely related architecture. Google has created Ancient Rome at the time of Constantine (320AD) and users of the application can navigate through the streets of Rome as it was. How cool is that?

Here is a YouTube video and more information.

The company have also launched a competition for educators.

While Google's suite of geospatial tools--Earth, Maps, SketchUp, and Sky--are used daily around the world by educators hoping to bring a fresh perspective to lessons, every once in a while a new product feature comes along that we believe will knock the socks off teachers and students alike! We're proud to announce the Ancient Rome 3D Curriculum Competition in conjunction with a brand new layer in Google Earth that models the ancient city of Rome in unbelievable detail.

For the first time ever, K-12 educators in the United States will have the chance to highlight their creativity and technical know-how by combining this brand new Google Earth content with classic classroom curricula.

The Google Registry

It would be a shame if the opportunity to create a unified (and uniform) bibliographic database itemizing the copyright status of our collective published works only resulted in a copyright database. Perhaps that comment appears strange but I believe the establishment of this 'registry' under the terms of the Google/AAP/AG settlement opens up a opportunity to tie an alphabet soup of identifiers, bibliographic (and multi-media product details), full content and transaction capability together in one form.

A primary reason ISBN was implemented so successfully in the publishing industry was that the number rapidly became integral to the publishing supply chain. Newer standard numbers such as ISTC, DOI - even ISSN in the retail channel - are not widely adopted because they have not become transactional identifyers. The same will be true if/when an Interested Party Identifier is established. The development of the Google Registry (surely the first task of the Executive Director is to come up with a name) may represent the only opportunity to tie each of these ancillary identifiers to one common objective. That objective is the better identification of content - not simply 'book' content, but content we will be using and transacting in an on-line environment.

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 'transaction gateway' the bottom tier. Then again maybe it's a cube and I should be adding subjects, a retail/library segmentation, and transactional details like rights information. Regardless, it seems to me combining each of these segments into a registry might engender significant opportunities to improve the publishing supply chain. But more than that, the combination I suggest works better for the on-line world than the off which is the failing of the current crop of ISBN databases (including Amazon.com).

Merchandising and search would be vastly improved if we were able to search by ISTC or IP using one database that would return all renditions of a work or all works/items produced by an author. Additionally, access to the content would be immediately available providing views of the content the searcher was interested in. Of course, all the copyright details about that work would also be available. Importantly, each of the elements in this registry would be linked so if someone happened on work they could rapidly find associated versions (ISTC) or other content produced by the author or publisher (IP).

The most obvious application enabled via the 'transaction gateway' would be purchase but a 'transaction' can be many things: views, queries, checkin-out, use rights, syndication and may more. An open service architecture would enable development of third party API's that could result in all kinds of new applications but existing ones would also benefit as well. Worldcat and Copyright Clearinghouse applications are good examples where users could find the physical content in a library or attain usage rights from CCC.

Google has provided $35mm to fund this registry and the governing board including publishers, and author reps will be forming a company to carry out the objectives of this registry. I hope their vision isn't too conservative because delivery of a copyright database is too simplistic a solution given how our content businesses are developing. Visioning a comprehensive 'bibliographic' solution that marries uniform content identification with an end transaction is what our industry really needs. We don't really need another stand alone bibliographic database.

Fred Newman

The Bookseller is reporting that Fred Newman has died after a long battle with Cancer. Fred started Publishing News 30yrs ago and only recently closed the publication down to concentrate of two of his newer businesses the British Book Awards and BML.

Shared Book Grows

I have mentioned Shared Book a few times here and they continue to gain traction with major publishers. In particular, their personalized books for children. Today they announced several new agreements:

SharedBook Inc., the Custom Publishing Platform provider, announced today new affiliate agreements with First Book, a national children’s literacy organization; Tattered Cover Book Store, the renowned independent bookseller in Denver, Colorado; Capitol Book and News of Montgomery, one of the oldest independent book stores in Alabama; Kidmondo, the online baby journal and organizer, and Grandparents.com, the premier life-stage destination for a new generation of active grandparents. All will link to www.kids.sharedbook.com , the first direct-to-consumer store featuring classic children’s books that can be quickly and easily be personalized. Kids.SharedBook.com is the new online destination for personalized editions of Fancy Nancy, The Night Before Christmas, Bad Dog, Marley and more than 100 other well known classic children’s books.

Visitors to SharedBook’s affiliates are taken to a custom-branded store that maintains the look and feel of the originating site. Once arriving in the store, consumers can create a custom dedication with text and photo that appears in the front of the book and, in some cases, can also personalize the back covers. Books are then purchased and printed in hard cover and shipped free to the recipient.

"SharedBook’s first group of affiliates reflects the broad range of companies interested in affiliating with the next wave of digital publishing. We hope these personalized books will spark lots of gift-giving ideas as we head into the Holidays,” said Caroline Vanderlip, Chief Executive Officer, SharedBook Inc. “We are extremely grateful for the support of our affiliate partners, and are pleased they have joined with us to re-think how books can utilize technology to create something lasting and special.”

Bertelsmann Reports Higher Net Income

From their press release:

After nine months of the 2008 financial year, Bertelsmann reported a solid business development. The international media company achieved revenues almost at the level of the previous year in its continuing operations. Operating EBIT remained below that of the previous year. EBIT and net profit increased significantly.

Consolidated revenues reached €11.4 billion to the end of third quarter, down 0.7 percent year-on-year (€11.5 billion). Adjusted for portfolio and exchange rate effects, revenues rose by 1.6 percent. After nine months, Operating EBIT reached €926 million (previous year: €1.03 billion). The return on sales amounted to 8.1 percent. EBIT increased to €823 million compared to €692 million in the same period of the previous year, when high special items were incurred. At €387 million, net income almost tripled (previous year: €132 million).

The company also noted that they continue to manage their operations portfolio notably selling their half interest in the SONY/BMG music business and the North American book club business. No detailed discussions about the performance of Random House although in separate news the company announced that Ian Hudson (Deputy CEO of RH UK) has been named to the Bertelsmann supervisory board.

Enid Blyton - Aged 13

Mrs PND brought some newspapers back from the UK yesterday and this story in The Telegraph caught my eye:

Blyton was recently voted Britain's best-loved author and prided herself on writing about the "jolly, happy things in life", but since her death in 1968 a picture has emerged of a cold, occasionally malevolent figure.

Mrs Smallwood, 73, said that witnessing a particularly upsetting argument between her mother and drunken father, shortly after which he moved in with another woman, could have contributed to Blyton's troubled personality.

"Barbara Stoney, [Blyton's 1974 biographer], suggested the trauma she suffered around about her 13th birthday was so huge that a lot of her emotional development just froze there and I think this is a very good way of looking at her," Mrs Smallwood told the BBC in a new Radio 4 documentary, A Fine Defence of Enid Blyton.

Most of Blyton's stories were written in a different time but continue to be repackaged in new covers and formats. The FT notes there have been some required changes:

Some names have been changed to avoid sniggers or racist overtones - the characters originally named Fanny, Dick and Bessie in The Faraway Tree stories have become Frannie, Rick and Beth. In the Famous Five books, the boys now have to do household chores with the girls. And there's not much left that's "queer" or "gay".

But dig about a bit and it's clear that reports of wholesale PC changes have been exaggerated. Hachette, publisher of the very popular Famous Five, Secret Seven and Naughtiest Girl series, points out that it has changed none of its characters' names. And it says claims that the important Blyton staple food of biscuits had been changed to American cookies were also inaccurate.

It's also wrong to suggest that Blyton's stories are full of entrenched sexist attitudes.

The War, Dead Trees and Obama

It was an historic event. It was memorialized in countless millions of expressions of exuberance, reflection, fear and hope. Later, someone made a documentary about it and in doing so relied upon all those expressions. These came in the form of photos, letters, news articles and other physical detritus that encapsulated the emotion, urgency and meaning of one of the 20th century's formative events. World War Two was the subject of Ken Burn's The War which aired last year on US television. During this broadcast, I wondered how future generations would capture the same raw emotion that Burns relied on in reading back to viewers the letter home from the soldier on the front.

Not all of this primary material was easy to find. A good proportion will have been found in attics and basements or even dumpsters. Is there an electronic version of the box of great uncle Tom's letters home found in the demotion of that row house? I think not. While there is significant collection and documentation of experiences of the Iraq War for example, will this material be retained? In many respects the ability to capture this experience may be easier than generations ago; Blogs and email make this easy. However, how much of this electronic material will be retained? How will historians access the digital equivalent of all those letters and photos that formed the basis of The War? News reports and 'formal' media will be easy but it is the real life experiences that could be lost.

I am unsure of the answer and this post has been circulating in my head for months since I watched The War last year. I was lacking a punch line but in the last several days I have marveled at how thousands and thousands of people rushed to purchase the dead tree edition of the NY Times to capture the most important political event since reconstruction. Ironic given the imminent demise of paper based media. Our experiences still need to be legitimized by seeing them on paper. Perhaps the moment we cease to need this legitimization and believe in some type of substitute will come to be the true moment we gave up print forms for electronic. I wonder however, whether any of us are cognizant of this dilemma and it will only be when the alternative is forced on us will we really know what we have given up.

Five Questions with the Society of Young Publishers

At Frankfurt this year I had the opportunity to speak to Jon Slack current chair of the UK based Society of Young Publishers. He told me about a number of new programs that the SJP is working on to encourage the young people in our industry and also to draw in the old ones. One of the more interesting programs they recently developed was something called Canon Tales.

Here is a description of Canon Tales:

Twelve figures from the publishing industry spoke to a captive audience at the Cochrane Theatre, conveying their own personal take on creativity in publishing. Canon Tales was conceived two years ago, when Doug Wallace heard about a similar event for creative professionals in architecture that proved to be a huge success. Jon shares Doug’s belief that publishing is overlooked as a creative industry, and Canon Tales seeks to redress this.

Each speaker told their canon tale to the backdrop of visual images – 20 images, each lasting for 21 seconds, thus totalling a seven-minute presentation. Some were personal stories, some were focused on the speakers’ own output. First to take the stage was Rob Williams, Creative Director of Penguin. He chose to speak about the launch of the new James Bond book, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks. His slides showed us figures and pictures from the marketing campaign for this book, whilst Rob gave the audience some maxims that he has discovered during his publishing career, including ‘Make a story at every stage’, ‘Engage in creative collaboration’, ‘Limit access to the product and create theatre around its launch’, and ‘If nobody wants to talk about it, it doesn’t work.’

In addition to mentioning Canon Tales below, Jon also notes a program the group is arranging for Frankfurt 09 which will be designed to make Frankfurt less intimidating for a young first time visitor. Jon is reaching out to overseas groups and it would be interesting whether we could organize a similar group in the US.

I asked Jon Slack my five questions:

Tell me about your involvement in SYP?

I am the current Chair of our group; as with the rest of our 18-strong Committee, it is a voluntary position and lasts for a year. I've been involved with the group for a little over two years now; in 2007 I held the position of Social Secretary (basically someone who organises the parties!). This year we've run over a dozen and a half events from London alone, with some very prominent names in UK publishing. Our main aim has been to exchange information between 'young' and 'old' publishers that can benefit everyone, and facilitate the networking that goes with that.

How long has SYP been in existence, and is it only a UK based organization or does it go beyond?

The SYP has been around officially since 1949; next year is our 60th anniversary. It started out as a talking shop for young publishers (ie people under 35) and has largely remained that way since. At the moment we are based only in the UK, with another division set up in Oxford, and others being set up in Scotland, Ireland and Wales in 2009. The only country outside of the UK I've seen with a group like ours is Denmark, and to a smaller extent the Young Publishers Group, based in New York.

What are your plans for drawing in the young publishers in other countries – specifically the US and Australia?

I met some fantastic people at Frankfurt from the US who are already helping to get the operation off the ground during 2009. We're hoping to work with groups such as the AAP, the American Collective Stand and also BEA, and use word of mouth and the advantages of the internet to help attract anyone interested in taking part. In Australia, the APA is already setting up events for young publishers and, again, the level of enthusiasm I've seen to make something like this happen is very encouraging. We want to use international events, particularly the Book Fairs in London, New York and Frankfurt 2009, to bring everyone together, dicuss the possibilities, and really explore the potential of a truly global young publishing network.

In another conversation you told me about your upcoming program for Frankfurt; can you tell me a little more about that?

We're working with the Frankfurt organisers on a number of things, including the International Young Publisher's conference which I mentioned earlier, which ties in with our focus on how we can make the Fair work better for younger publishers. We'll be hosting a Canon Tales event (see attached flyer for info on the last one held this July) at a new venue away from the usual publishing hangouts. If possible we'd like to see it made more affordable for younger publishers to come to Frankfurt, and perhaps this network can help make that happen too.

What type of involvement do you look for from old publishers like me and how do we get involved?

Our name is responsible both for our appeal and also for regular confusion; our voluntary committee are publishers all under the age of 35, yet we've always been supported by 'older' publishers, who attend and speak at our events. One of the reasons behind the SYP's longevity is the remarkable good will within the industry to help our events succeed. There are countless publishers happy to volunteer their time and share their views on big issues facing all of us. In the US, or Australia for instance, the independent committees we're forming we'll be hoping for a similar level of support, and from what I've seen so far, there's precisely the level of willingness we need to make this happen. But please get in touch if you want to help!

Jon can be reached as follows: jslack @ thesyp.org.uk

Michael Crichton Dies

Sadly, Michael Crichton has passed away after a battle with Cancer. Obit in The Times online. For me I was more a fan of his early work such as The Andromeda Strain, Congo and The Great Train Robbery. The latter became a great movie with Sean Connery and generally is an example of how Crichton's work translated so well to visual representation.

Video with Crichton on Charlie Rose from Feb 2007.



Link: (Starts Immediately)

Reed Name Smith as CEO Designate

Ian Smith has been named to replace Sir Crispin Davis as CEO of Reed when Davis retires early next year. Smith will join Reed in January. Who is he? Well, he has no media experience for a start and comes most recently from the construction company Taylor Woodrow. During his short tenure at TW, he apparently engineered a very large merger with competitor George Wimpey which has lead many to speculate that Reed's board is focused on a mega-merger of its own once the recent Choicepoint acquisition is decided.

As the primary reason for the hire, the association with deal making could be tenuous because Davis engineered a number of large deals during his tenure. As examples, the acquisition and subsequent divestiture of Harcourt, the acquisition of ChoicePoint and the protracted divestiture of RBI. In addition, if the Reed board were looking for a pure deal maker then there would have been any number of media experienced private equity players who could have fit the bill. Nevertheless, without any other logical connection to the Reed business, this is what most reporters are focused on. This argument also allows them to discuss the long protracted idea that bringing Wolters Kluwer and Reed Elsevier together would make great sense. Perhaps for WK but not as much for Reed in my opinion.

In my view, I think the ChoicePoint acquisition is a better indicator of the type of acquisition strategy that Reed may follow. They want to own distinct verticals and to play in these verticals they plan to acquire the biggest player to achieve immediate scale. I think WK may actually be too small for what they may be considering. For example, they don't have a presence in the Financial sector: would they see Bloomberg as a target? Remember they compete with Thomson Reuters in several areas and Thomson has a big financial information business. Wider afield, Reed may be looking internationally to acquire very large information companies that will broaden their current offerings into both mature and developing markets.

One other interesting aspect of the hiring of Smith is what the board must be thinking about the crop of senior executives below Davis. Some of these executives have extraordinary experience both with RE and with other publishing companies. Several (at least three senior executives are in their mid-late 40s to very early 50s) so perhaps the board didn't feel one of these executives was more ready than their colleagues (or they were not willing to risk upsetting the apple cart by promoting one of them). The board may have decided to wait six years or so to make their choice from this crop of executives to choose the next CEO to replace Ian Smith.

FT.

Borders and Retailing Troubles

The Bookseller is reporting that insurers have backed away from Borders. It is hard to determine how significant this is since most suppliers to Borders will have their own insurance. Terms on which suppliers are selling to Borders are very, very tight at the moment. Should Borders get into cash flow difficulties, this could have a cascading effect across the industry. The balance of on-line retailing, physical retailing and wholesale/distribution could change radically. As many have noted, the expectation is for the Christmas retailing season to be soft (or 'terrible') which will cause a number of January bankruptcy filings across all retailing. Whether book retailing is one of those remains to be seen, and we all hope not as the market changes may not be in our long term interest.

MediaWeek (Vol 1, No 44):

The short list for Australia's richest literary prize was announced earlier in the week.

The final five contenders were narrowed down from 12 novels for the inaugural $110,000 Australia-Asia Literary Award.

The shortlisted works are The Lost Dog by Australian author Michelle de Kretser, Blood Kin by Australian and South African citizen Ceridwen Dovey, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Pakistani and UK citizen Mohsin Hamid, Orpheus Lost by US-based Australian author Janette Turner Hospital and Complete Stories by Australian David Malouf.

Mr Day said the short list demonstrated the literary strength of Australia and Asia.

I've read a few by Janette Turner Hospital and they are pretty powerful novels. The winner is to be announced November 21. EBSCO has acquired several new database products from NISC which already has EBSCO host their content:

NISC databases include Family & Society Studies Worldwide, Gender Studies Database, Woman's Studies International, and Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide. Many of the databases acquired from NISC are already available on EBSCOhost and several others will soon migrate to the EBSCOhost platform. Fred Dürr, president of NISC, Inc., says EBSCO and NISC are longtime partners. "NISC content has had a long and rich existence on the EBSCOhost platform. Those NISC users who do not access the databases via EBSCOhost will undoubtedly find the new EBSCOhost 2.0 platform an enjoyable search experience. We expect NISC users to have an easy transition as they continue their NISC relationship directly with EBSCO."

Australian & New Zealand retailer A&R Whitcouls reported results for their year: Link

A&R Whitcoulls says its annual revenue rose 9 percent despite tough trading conditions as the book retailer looks forward to a "strong" Christmas.

However, the company reported a net loss for the year of A$5.2million, hit by a number of one-off items including the acquisition of Borders Asia-Pacific and "considerable" investment in its internet sales platform.

"These initiatives were undertaken to drive sales, lift profits and, in the case of the Borders acquisition, gain significant benefits from synergies as a result of the union of the major brands," A&R Whitcoulls said. Sydney-based Pacific Equity Partners, Australia and New Zealand's largest private equity fund, which owns A&R Whitcoulls, bought the 30 Borders stores in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore for $137.6 million in June.

The company is rumored to be planning a flotation sometime within the next two years and they also said that pre-Borders operational planning focused on cost reductions is on plan. ALA looks for a $100mm handout for libraries. Can't say I agree with this one. Link

The American Library Association (ALA) is asking Congress for a one-time infusion of $100 million in stimulus funding to help libraries aid Americans as they deal with the nation’s current fiscal crisis. At a time when Congress is considering another economic stimulus package, ALA points out that public library usage has risen during this tough economic time while their budgets face severe budget cutbacks. While public libraries depend heavily on local property taxes to maintain operations, increased foreclosure rates, lower home values, and fewer sales have sharply reduced available funds, forcing libraries to cut services and hours.

They're not going to get it. Future VP Joe Biden gets interviewed by fifth grader Damon Weaver. "What is the job of the VP" Cute. LINK Reed continue to offer incentives for any purchaser of Reed Business Information. There are still three possible buyers involved in the process. Something has to break soon. LINK.

Second-round bids for RBI were made last month, but details of a deadline for the next stage of bidding are unclear. Buyout firms still in the process include Bain Capital, which has taken on Helen Alexander, the former chief executive of The Economist Group to advise on the deal, and a consortium of TPG and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners.

The vendor financing on offer from Reed comes as the credit crisis has made financing of large leveraged buyouts difficult, therefore limiting the ability of private equity firms to invest money. The original price tag for the deal was £1.25bn, but sources have said that next-round offers could come in at below £1bn, particularly as a difficult advertising market is understood to have put pressure on trading at the magazines unit.

Some obvious suggestions from ex-RBI CEO Jim Casella: Lower the price and/or break it up. PAIDContent. He also mentioned Reed may hold some innvestment as they have with the Harcourt disposal which I mentioned when they announced the proposed disposal. He notes below the separation from Reed Exhibitions:

Casella - now CEO of his Case Interactive Media investor - told our moderator and ContentNext publisher Rafat Ali that RBI isn’t a perfect acquisition right now: “It’s logical that you’d (have to) be looking to buy events to go along with the company since exhibitions don’t come with the property.” Could it be broken up? “I think there’s a very good possibility there’s certain assets (buyers) want to focus on and others they want to dispose of. A new owner is going to want to follow a more focused strategy; I think there will be disposals.”

A Cruise to Yankee Stadium

Mrs PND and I visited Yankee stadium for the first time seven days before they held their last game before the move to the new one being erected next door. We chose to go on the Ferry which we had read about and which proved to be an idyllic and relaxing trip. We travelled from the PND offices, down the Hudson river, around the tip of Manhattan and up the East River to the stadium. Highly recommended. Yankees won.

There are comments on each photo but you need to click on the stream to open up the window and then click on the image. Possibly too much work.



Link: Here

Wikio Top Blogs

I don't know if this means much but I have as many above me as below me. Pressure is on to maintain my position. I have no idea what drives it although I am sure if I have more subscribers and more people linking to me then I should do OK. So, tell your friends and check out all these links. Wikio ranks blogs across a number of categories.
1 The Conscience of a Liberal
2 Calculated Risk
3 Seth Godin's Blog
4 Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Brad DeLong's Se
5 DealBook - New York Times blog
6 Greg Mankiw's Blog
7 Real Time Economics
8 naked capitalism
9 Law Blog - WSJ.com
10 A VC
11 Economist's View
12 Infectious Greed
13 DealBreaker
14 Market Movers
15 Robert Reich's Blog
16 Econbrowser
17 Vox
18 CARPE DIEM
19 Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
20 MarketBeat
21 The Digerati Life
22 24/7 Wall St.
23 The Financial Page
24 Information Arbitrage
25 Global Neighbourhoods
26 BizzyBlog
27 Interfluidity
28 Adland
29 FoundRead
30 Brazen Careerist
31 Environmental Economics
32 Odd Numbers
33 Union Square Ventures: A New York Venture C
34 Common Tragedies
35 EconoSpeak
36 Small Business Trends
37 Chronicle of the Conspiracy
38 Kudlow's Money Politic$
39 Business Pundit
40 The Austrian Economists
41 Global Development: Views from the Center
42 Information Processing
43 Groundswell
44 Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog
45 Macro Man
46 Accrued Interest
47 The Marketing Minute
48 Organizations and Markets
49 Diva Marketing Blog
50 PersonaNonData
51 Macro and Other Market Musings
52 Dinocrat
53 ataxingmatter
54 Jaffe Juice
55 26econ.com
56 Who Has Time For This?
57 The Bonddad Blog
58 American Shareholders Association
59 Dr. Housing Bubble Blog
60 China Financial Markets
61 Sramana Mitra on Strategy
62 Footnoted.org
63 YouNotSneaky!
64 Cassandra Does Tokyo
65 Freelance Folder
66 Trends in the Living Networks
67 The HR Capitalist
68 Compensation Force
69 Economics and...
70 The Swine Line
71 The Bayesian Heresy
72 Economic Investigations
73 Joel Makower: Two Steps Forward
74 Fast Food News
75 Business Opportunities Weblog
76 Parisian Party
77 Venture Hacks
78 My Quiet Life
79 The Oregon Economics Blog
80 american copywriter
81 Advergirl
82 Entrepreneur's Journey
83 Ask a Manager
84 Futurelab
85 flyteblog
86 Boston VC Blog
87 Evil HR Lady
88 NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Eradicating Poverty through Profit
89 The Entrepreneurial Mind
90 Branding Strategy Insider
91 Small Business Trends Radio
92 CityEconomist
93 Phil's Blogservations
94 The Constant Observer
95 Black in Business
96 Wake-Up Wal-Mart Blog
97 Ask The VC
98 Shaping Youth
99 Gannon On Investing
100 Business Blog Consulting

Costco: Top Five Bookseller?

Via Michael Cader's Publisher's Lunch, he notes the cover article in Costco's in-house magazine on the stores' book buyers and the corresponding importance Costco represents to today's publishers. Len Riggio railed on the discounts offered to big box retailers generally suggesting that they were unearned (relative to B&N's importance) but it would be difficult to argue that when in some cases Costco is buying up 20-25% of the first print run. Jeff Rogart, VP Sales at Harpercollins is quoted as saying Costco is frequently their number one or two retailer on certain selected titles.

Selection of titles is matched to the slightly upscale demographic of the Costco customer (clearly the reason I never saw this publication) and indeed like any good retailer they closely monitor which titles their customers gravitate to and believe they can spot buying trends much earlier than other book retailers. Also noted in the article, the buyers have had similar success with magazines.

Read the whole thing.

Edelweiss From Above the Treeline

Shelf Awareness is reporting on a new application from Above The Treeline that will integrate publisher's catalog information into a stores POS system as well as offering more expansive functionality:

Above the Treeline is beginning to test Edelweiss, an online, interactive product that offers the information of traditional print catalogues electronically and allows the material to be customized, updated, managed, enriched and more. In addition, orders and bibliographic material can be integrated into retailers' point-of-sale systems. Edelweiss will likely be a "freestanding online module," available at no charge to book buyers, regardless of whether they use Above the Treeline, as well as offered to other users of catalogues such as publicists, bloggers, agents and others.

Edelweiss allows sales reps to mark up their publishers' titles for specific retailers. Reps can either do so through Edelweiss or create their own printable pdf versions of the catalogue.

Book buyers can manage their catalogues in an online library and search the catalogue by category, custom tags, pub dates, etc. Additionally, users can customize what they want to see about titles in a manner similar to a My Yahoo or iGoogle home page, where widgets such as "illustrations," "publicity/marketing info" or "notes from reps" can be placed on the page.

McGraw-Hill Reports 3rd Quarter

MGH expect a 1-2% revenue decline in the performance of their education unit this year and a resulting erosion in the units operating margin. Typically the MGH press release summary contains a lot of detail and here is the relevant educational division explanation:

Education: "Revenue for this segment declined 3.8% to $1.1 billion in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. Reflecting a pre-tax restructuring charge of $5.4 million in the third quarter for a workforce reduction of approximately 90 positions and a $15.9 million decline in incentive compensation expense, operating profit decreased by 14.5% to $351.5 million. Foreign exchange rates had no material impact on revenue and operating profit for the third quarter.

"Revenue for the McGraw-Hill School Education Group declined by 9.1% to $623.5 million in the third quarter. Revenue for the McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Professional and International Group increased by 3.7% to $507.8 million.

"In the seasonally important third quarter for the elementary-high school market, the McGraw-Hill School Education Group captured 31% of the total available dollars in a robust state new adoption market. Strong performances in K-5 reading and math were key to our results in this year's state new adoption market, which is anticipated to be $925 to $950 million.

"In the Florida K-5 reading adoption, we expect to capture more than 70% of the market. We also expect to take more than 40% of the K-12 reading/literature state new adoption market, which includes Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. In math, we had solid results in Texas and California. We project a 31% capture rate in the K-5 math market in Texas and similar success in the first year of the K-8 math adoption in California, where purchasing will continue into 2009.

"A solid performance in the growing state new adoption market, however, could not offset lower residual and supplemental sales in both adoption states and the open territory. The supplemental market has been soft all year, but the sudden decline in residual sales did not hit the market until August, normally a peak sales period each year for the school business. The decline in residual sales reflects budgetary pressures that school districts are facing due to higher energy and commodity costs, lower tax revenue and higher pension and salary requirements. These higher costs drain resources that otherwise would be used for discretionary purchases such as instructional materials.

"The worsening economic conditions were particularly acute for school districts in large urban markets. A significant factor for many of these districts was reduced funding for the federally supported Reading First program, which was cut from $1 billion in prior years to $383 million in 2008. A portion of the Reading First funding would have been used to provide materials such as workbooks.

"As indicated by the 16.6% decline in the market's sales for August followed by a 17.6% drop in September that was reported by the Association of American Publishers, the reduction in residual ordering is an industry-wide phenomenon. As a result of this unprecedented development, sales for the total Pre-K-12 market will probably decline by 3% to 4% in 2008.

"In testing, a decrease in custom contract work and legacy products offset growing sales from Acuity, our new formative testing program; LAS Links, our assessments for English-language learners; and TABE diagnostic assessments and instructional support for adult students.

"In the McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Professional and International Group, growth in international and U.S. college and university markets offset softness in professional markets.

"A surge in ordering in September was key to our improvement in the U.S. college and university market. We produced gains in each of our three main areas of academic focus: Business and Economics; Science, Engineering and Mathematics; Humanities, Social Sciences and Languages. Growth in our digital and custom career product lines was especially strong.

"Based on the performance of the U.S. college and university market so far this year, we still expect the industry to grow between 4% and 6% in 2008.

"In the international marketplace, our third quarter revenue increase was led by higher education products in Europe and the Middle East as well as the continuing success of the 17th edition of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine in India. In our Spanish-language markets, we benefited from back-to- school sales in Spain and Mexico together with the third quarter release of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine in Spanish.

"In professional markets, economically challenged retailers cut back on orders and reduced inventory, so even though six of our new titles appeared on best-seller lists during the third quarter, there was a decline in overall revenue. However, our digital subscription products for professional markets continue to produce solid growth.

Harlequin Another Stable Performance

Robert Prichard, Torstar’s President and Chief Executive Officer called out the performance of Harlequin in an otherwise bleak performance for Torstar, “Harlequin had a solid quarter and remains on course for a good year of growth. We also enjoyed strong revenue growth in our digital businesses which are performing well." He went on to cite rising news print costs, pension costs and lower ad revenues which continue to impact their core newspaper business.

From the press release:

Book Publishing revenue was $118.1 million in the third quarter, up $2.4 million from $115.7 million in the same period last year. Higher revenues in North America Retail were offset by declines in North America Direct-To-Consumer and Overseas. Approximately one-half of the increase came from the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates in the quarter.

Book Publishing operating profit was $15.6 million in the third quarter of 2008, down $0.7 million from $16.3 million in 2007. The decrease was due to the unfavourable impact of foreign exchange rates as underlying results were flat. Year to date Book Publishing operating profit was $50.3 million in 2008, up $2.4 million from $47.9 million in 2007.

Further details from the management report:

Book Publishing revenues were up $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2008 excluding the impact of foreign exchange. North America Retail was up $4.5 million, North America Direct-To-Consumer was down $2.2 million and Overseas was down $1.1 million. Year to date, Book Publishing revenues were up $3.6 million excluding the impact of foreign exchange. North America Retail was up $7.8 million, North America Direct-To-Consumer was down $4.8 million and Overseas was up $0.6 million.

Book Publishing operating profits were flat in the third quarter of 2008 excluding the impact of foreign exchange. North America Retail was up $0.4 million, North America Direct-To-Consumer was down $0.7 million and Overseas was up $0.3 million. Year to date Book Publishing operating profits were up $6.2 million excluding the impact of foreign exchange. North America Retail was up $5.6 million, North America Direct-To-Consumer was down $0.1 million and Overseas was up $0.7 million.

North America Retail operating profits were up $0.4 million in the third quarter with the continuation of the improved net sales rates and positive adjustments to returns provisions. The revenue growth in the quarter was offset by higher product costs and increased promotional spending.

North America Direct-To-Consumer operating profits were down $0.7 million in the third quarter from lower revenues. Revenue continued to be down in the quarter and year to date as the revenue growth from Internet book and digital sales was not sufficient to offset the decrease from fewer books sold in the traditional direct mail business. Lower costs, primarily reduced advertising and promotion spending in the traditional direct mail business offset some of the lower revenues in both the quarter and year to date.

Overseas operating profits were up $0.3 million in the third quarter of 2008 with the contribution from the sales of digital manga (comics) content to SoftBank Creative Corp., (a division of Softbank Corp., one of the largest providers of cell phone services in Japan) more than offsetting lower sales in other overseas markets. The lower sales are in part due to the direct-to-consumer businesses in certain overseas markets facing the same revenue challenges as the North America Direct-To-Consumer division.

Unfortunately, while you could argue that in the current environment these results reflect stability the issues noted are consistent with earnings reports for almost the past 24 months. There digital expansion shows a lot of promise but any potential 'break-out' seems unlikely given the pressure that the performance of Torstar implies for this operating unit. (The forex impact both negative and positive on Harlequins performance makes the picture a little murky).

Simon & Schuster Report Higher Quarter

S&S saw revenues increase for the quarter by 5% over the same period last year although the performance was not enough to push them into positive growth for the year. Year to date revenues are $612mm vs $643mm in the period last year and Operating Income was $59.9 vs $67.7mm last year. Summary details from the CBS press release as follows:

Publishing revenues for the third quarter of 2008 increased 5% to $225.0 million from $214.2 million for the same prior-year period reflecting the success of best-selling titles in the third quarter of 2008, including The War Within by Bob Woodward and Real Life: Preparing For the 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life by Dr. Phil McGraw. Publishing OIBDA and operating income both increased 8% to $25.8 million and $23.4 million, respectively, driven by the revenue growth partially offset by higher royalty expenses and selling and advertising costs. Publishing results included stock-based compensation expense of $1.2 million and
$.9 million for the third quarter of 2008 and 2007, respectively.

Dohle'n Out Some Change

Article in the New York Observer about Random House and Marcus Dohle. They contrast RH with the fortunes of the Hachette Book Group although this is done by illusion since the author seems to be saying just because Hachette is smaller they are better.

That would be between 600 and 700 titles per year, if you’re keeping score. Random House, which one rival publisher recently called “the biggest, fattest, most grotesquely obese company ever,” last year published more than 3,000.

Of course, the vast majority of those books were signed under Mr. Olson, whom Bertelsmann replaced late last spring with a much younger, more German man named Markus Dohle.

MR. DOHLE, who at 40 years old has never worked in publishing before but had previously managed a large printing company, has not yet ordered any major changes since moving to New York from his home in Gütersloh and taking up the frayed reins Mr. Olson left behind. There have been some adjustments, to be sure. For one thing, Mr. Dohle has hired several new people at the corporate level, including a director of human resources who, like his boss, is very young and comes from Germany (one editor said, half seriously, that “there do seem to be a lot more people speaking German in the elevators”). For another, some division heads have asked their employees to cut back on expenses such as lunch and travel.

Also, as an example of Dohle's impact they note (only) the elimination of 16 jobs at Doubleday. These apparently "stunned" the industry. Someone needs to point out to the Observer that we are in a recession and 16 jobs (with due respect to the people that held them) is small beans. Stunned is just silly.