ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Authorlink News, Nov. 5, 2009)—As part of Borders Group’s ongoing strategy to right-size its Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment and emerge with a smaller, more profitable mall chain in fiscal 2010, the retailer will close approximately 200 mall stores in January, leaving approximately 130 mall-based locations open. A list of mall stores expected to close is included in this news release and has been posted at www.borders.com/waldenstorelist. The list is not final and is subject to change pending finalization of agreements over the coming weeks. Importantly, today’s announcement regarding the mall business does not include Borders superstores or the company’s seasonal mall kiosk business, which includes over 500 Day by Day Calendar Co. units, among other mall-based retail concepts.
“America has a number of malls that continue to do well and draw customer traffic even in the current economy,” said Borders Group Chief Executive Officer Ron Marshall. “We believe there remains an opportunity to profitably operate a much smaller Waldenbooks segment that complements our core Borders superstore business and continues to serve readers in their communities. Through this right-sizing, we will reduce the number of stores with operating losses, reduce our overall rent expense and lease-adjusted leverage and generate cash flow through sales and working capital reductions.”
As long as the stores remain open, all will honor previously purchased gift cards, and gift cards can continue to be used in any Borders or Waldenbooks location or online at Borders.com. There will be no change in member status for customers who joined the Borders Rewards customer loyalty program at locations slated to close.
Stores that remain open will be integrated into the Borders superstore computer system, an investment Borders Group is making to merge all stores to a single platform. This is expected to produce operating efficiencies as well as benefits for mall shoppers, including enhanced store staff capabilities to search for and fulfill customer requests.
With the store closings in January, approximately 1,500 positions—the majority of which are part-time jobs—will be eliminated. Employees have been informed of the right-sizing plan and efforts will be made to place qualified individuals in other positions within Borders Group. Displaced employees will receive severance.
The mall-based right-sizing initiative has been ongoing at Borders Group for a number of years as the retailer has closed underperforming Waldenbooks Specialty Retail stores annually as part of its overall turnaround strategy. The company shuttered 112 stores in the segment in fiscal 2008 and from fiscal 2001 through 2007, closed an average of 66 stores per year within the Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment.
About Borders Group, Inc.
Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) is a leading specialty retailer of books as well as other educational and entertainment items. The company employs approximately 25,000 throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders® and Waldenbooks® stores.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Steve Rubin Named President and Publisher of Holt
NEW YORK, NY (AUTHORLINK NEWS, October 27, 2009)-- Stephen Rubin, the former publisher-at-large at Random House, has been named president and publisher of Henry Holt & Company, a division of Macmillan publishing, it was announced today by Macmillan CEO John Sargent. Rubin succeeds Dan Farley, who will now exclusively oversee Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. Both men will report to Sargent.
Rubin, 67, had stepped down from the Random House Doubleday imprint which underwent restructuring last December. He had served for the past seven months as publisher-at-large of Random House, where he worked closely with authors including Dan Brown, John Grisham, Pat Conroy and Bill Moyers.
Dan Farley had been leading Holt since February 2008 when the previous president and publisher, John Sterling departed.
In a media statement, Rubin said he plans to publish books "that bridge the gap between commercial and literature. I believe that Holt is the perfect place to do this, given that its sister companies are the distinguished Farrar Straus and the powerhouse St. Martin's Press." Rubin also said he was eager to "develop a tight, powerful focused list."
While at Doubleday/Broadway, Rubin was called “the expansionist publisher.” He used the company’s riches amassed from The Da Vinci Code (and A Million Little Pieces) to keep the business growing in a downsizing era.
Rubin had spent his entire twenty-six year career at Random House and its predecessor companies and divisions. For fifteen years, until December 2008, he was President and Publisher of Doubleday and later the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group. Prior to that, he was Executive Editor and Publisher and Editor-in-Chief at Bantam Books in the eighties, and the London-based former Chairman of the Transworld U.K. division.
Privately-owned Macmillan Publishers Ltd, with over 7000 staff operating in more than 80 countries, is held by Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, based in Stuttgart, Germany. Macmillan is one of the largest and best known international publishing groups in the world, with divisions in the USA and UK.
The US group includes Farrar Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt & Company, W.H. Freeman and Worth Publishers, Palgrave Macmillan, Bedford/St. Martin’s, Picador, Roaring Brook Press, St. Martin’s Press, Tor Books, and Bedford Freeman & Worth Publishing Group.
Rubin, 67, had stepped down from the Random House Doubleday imprint which underwent restructuring last December. He had served for the past seven months as publisher-at-large of Random House, where he worked closely with authors including Dan Brown, John Grisham, Pat Conroy and Bill Moyers.
Dan Farley had been leading Holt since February 2008 when the previous president and publisher, John Sterling departed.
In a media statement, Rubin said he plans to publish books "that bridge the gap between commercial and literature. I believe that Holt is the perfect place to do this, given that its sister companies are the distinguished Farrar Straus and the powerhouse St. Martin's Press." Rubin also said he was eager to "develop a tight, powerful focused list."
While at Doubleday/Broadway, Rubin was called “the expansionist publisher.” He used the company’s riches amassed from The Da Vinci Code (and A Million Little Pieces) to keep the business growing in a downsizing era.
Rubin had spent his entire twenty-six year career at Random House and its predecessor companies and divisions. For fifteen years, until December 2008, he was President and Publisher of Doubleday and later the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group. Prior to that, he was Executive Editor and Publisher and Editor-in-Chief at Bantam Books in the eighties, and the London-based former Chairman of the Transworld U.K. division.
Privately-owned Macmillan Publishers Ltd, with over 7000 staff operating in more than 80 countries, is held by Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, based in Stuttgart, Germany. Macmillan is one of the largest and best known international publishing groups in the world, with divisions in the USA and UK.
The US group includes Farrar Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt & Company, W.H. Freeman and Worth Publishers, Palgrave Macmillan, Bedford/St. Martin’s, Picador, Roaring Brook Press, St. Martin’s Press, Tor Books, and Bedford Freeman & Worth Publishing Group.
Monday, October 19, 2009
B&N Announces Long-Awaited E-Reader at Frankfurt
Frankfurt, Germany (Authorlink News, October 19, 2009)--Barnes & Noble announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair this past week that it will introduce its own dedicated eBook reader that will run its e-book applications, in partnership with Plastic Logic. Video report.
The touch-screen reader is reportedly “the size of a trade paperback book and will feature full color,” and will be available by April 2010. Barnes & Noble is still tight-lipped about the cost of the reader, but some say it will range between $199 and $800.
A Fair spokesman for Barnes & Noble said the as-yet-unnamed B&N e-reader will “allow the user to comfortably read for hours,” unlike reading on an iPhone or other smart phone, which he said are suitable only for short periods of time.
The Barnes and Nobles e-reader project, according to the blog Gizmodo, has been under development for years, with several devices of varying size and capability in the pipeline. The B&N device will reportedly have two screens, one a monochrome e-ink screen like the Kindle—and a multi-touch display similar to an iPhone underneath the other.
B&N’s partner, Plastic Logic, is a spin-off company from Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory and specializes in polymer transistors and electronics. The principal product the company has developed is a flexible A4-size and robust plastic electronic display the thickness of a credit-card. It will be the core part of its own upcoming eReader. The headquarters of Plastic Logic is in Cambridge, United Kingdom. A factory for the mass-production of the display units was opened on September 17th 2008 in Dresden, Germany.
Plastic Logic plans to release its own QUE proReader in January 2010. It is intended as a replacement for paper, allowing electronic documents to be transported and read just like paper documents. It will have a thickness of less than 7 mm, a form factor of 8.5" x 11" and a weight of less than 16 oz (453 grams). It will be capable of displaying MS Office documents (Excel, PowerPoint, Word), PDF files and others.
The so-called “proReader” will have some stiff competition against a host of e-readers, including what may be the first Google Android-based e-reader.
Some say the e-reader could be on the market in time for the Christmas selling season. Barnes & Noble's entry into the e-reader fray adds another major player to the mix-- and one that has its own book distribution to compete with Amazon and the Kindle.
The as-yet-un-named Barnes & Noble device will supposedly be built on a Google Android operating system, and will feature all titles in Google’s huge book search program.
The touch-screen reader is reportedly “the size of a trade paperback book and will feature full color,” and will be available by April 2010. Barnes & Noble is still tight-lipped about the cost of the reader, but some say it will range between $199 and $800.
A Fair spokesman for Barnes & Noble said the as-yet-unnamed B&N e-reader will “allow the user to comfortably read for hours,” unlike reading on an iPhone or other smart phone, which he said are suitable only for short periods of time.
The Barnes and Nobles e-reader project, according to the blog Gizmodo, has been under development for years, with several devices of varying size and capability in the pipeline. The B&N device will reportedly have two screens, one a monochrome e-ink screen like the Kindle—and a multi-touch display similar to an iPhone underneath the other.
B&N’s partner, Plastic Logic, is a spin-off company from Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory and specializes in polymer transistors and electronics. The principal product the company has developed is a flexible A4-size and robust plastic electronic display the thickness of a credit-card. It will be the core part of its own upcoming eReader. The headquarters of Plastic Logic is in Cambridge, United Kingdom. A factory for the mass-production of the display units was opened on September 17th 2008 in Dresden, Germany.
Plastic Logic plans to release its own QUE proReader in January 2010. It is intended as a replacement for paper, allowing electronic documents to be transported and read just like paper documents. It will have a thickness of less than 7 mm, a form factor of 8.5" x 11" and a weight of less than 16 oz (453 grams). It will be capable of displaying MS Office documents (Excel, PowerPoint, Word), PDF files and others.
The so-called “proReader” will have some stiff competition against a host of e-readers, including what may be the first Google Android-based e-reader.
Some say the e-reader could be on the market in time for the Christmas selling season. Barnes & Noble's entry into the e-reader fray adds another major player to the mix-- and one that has its own book distribution to compete with Amazon and the Kindle.
The as-yet-un-named Barnes & Noble device will supposedly be built on a Google Android operating system, and will feature all titles in Google’s huge book search program.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Grove Atlantic to Sell Shares in Atlantic Books
NEW YORK, NY (AUTHORLINK NEWS, October 14, 2009)—Grove/ Atlantic, Inc., (GAI) New York-based independent publishing house, is selling a portion of its UK-based subsidiary, Atlantic Books, to Australian publisher Allen & Unwin, and has secured additional new financing to support the UK operation.
The Australian publisher will become a significant new shareholder in the publisher, and the additional funding will be used to develop its new fiction imprint, Corvus, which plans to increase its output to 48 titles in 2010.
Under the new structure, GAI will no longer be the parent company for Atlantic Books. Instead, GAI will take minority shareholder position in the UK unit.
Anthony Cheetham was named director of the Corvus imprint in September. Chairman and publisher Toby Mundy said both he and Cheetham "may invest in due course".
A raft of changes at Atlantic will also see independent Australian publisher Allen & Unwin becoming what Atlantic described as “a significant new shareholder" in the publisher, while Atlantic said it had also secured “substantial" additional new financing. Part of this will be used to develop its new fiction imprint Corvus, which will increase its publishing programme to 48 titles a year in 2010.
Mundy said: "Atlantic Books has prospered within the Independent Alliance and it remains an important part of our world; now the business is strengthened significantly by these new relationships with Allen & Unwin and Grove/Atlantic, the finest independent publishers in Australia and the United States.
"With my outstanding colleagues here, and partners around the world, I think we are well placed for the next phase of the company's growth."
Morgan Entrekin, the CEO of GAI, will continue to sit on the board of Atlantic Books. Ravi Mirchandani has joined the Atlantic board in his current role as editor-in-chief.
Grove/Atlantic, Inc., one of America’s oldest independent publishers, was formed by the 1983 merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. Grove/Atlantic's imprints (Grove Press, Atlantic Monthly Press, Canongate U.S., Black Cat, and Open City) publish literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and translations.
The British subsidiary, Atlantic Books, was founded in 2000, and is a member of The Independent Alliance, a global alliance of ten UK publishers and their international partners.
Allen & Unwin is Australia's leading independent publisher and has been voted "Publisher of the Year" eight times including the inaugural award in 1992 and six times since 2000.
A&U publishes around 250 new titles each year including literary and commercial fiction, a broad range of general non-fiction, academic and professional titles and books for children and young adults. Imprints include Allen & Unwin, Arena, Crows Nest, Inspired Living (MBS) and Jacana (Natural History). The company is headquartered in Sydney.
Monday, October 12, 2009
German Book Prize Bypasses Nobel Winner
STOCKHOLM (Authorlink News, October 15, 2009)—The announcement last week that Herta Mueller, a little-known Romanian-born author persecuted for her critical depictions of life behind the Iron Curtain, had won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature, has drawn a mixture of criticism and praise from various observers. A Monday announcement showing Mueller had been passed over for the German Book Prize added to the controversy.
Mueller's latest novel, ''Atemschaukel,'' or ''Swinging Breath'' was short listed for this year's German Book Prize. But Kathrin Schmidt, age 51, was honored for her novel "You're Not Going to Die," the story of a woman who wakes up in a hospital after a coma unable to speak or move or remember her former life.
Mueller, a member of Romania's ethnic German minority, was honored with the Nobel for work that ''with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed,'' the Swedish Academy said.
The decision fueled controversy surrounding the Swedish Academy's pattern of awarding the prize to European writers. Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, told The Associated Press this week that the secretive Swedish Academy had been too ''eurocentric'' in picking winners.
His predecessor, Horace Engdahl, stirred up heated emotions across the Atlantic when he told the AP in 2008 that ''Europe still is the center of the literary world'' and the quality of U.S. writing was dragged down because authors were ''too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture.''
After Mueller was announced, he told the media that ''If you are European (it is) easier to relate to European literature. It's the result of psychological bias that we really try to be aware of. It's not the result of any program.''
The 56-year-old Mueller, published her first work in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled ''Niederungen,'' or ''Nadirs,'' depicting the harshness of life in a small, German-speaking village in Romania. The communist government quickly censored it.
In 1984 an uncensored version was smuggled to Germany, where it was published and devoured by readers. That work was followed by ''Oppressive Tango'' in Romania but she was eventually blocked from publishing inside her country for her criticism of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's rule and its feared secret police.
Much of Mueller's work is in German, but some works have been translated into English, French and Spanish, including ''The Passport,'' ''The Land of Green Plums,'' ''Traveling on One Leg'' and ''The Appointment.'' She is the 12th woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
The New York Times’s Art Beat quoted several bloggers’ mixed reactions to the Noble prize:
Among those on the short list for the 2009 German prize were:
Who selects the Nobel Laureates? In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel, scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, author and pacifist, specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, Karolinska Institute for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and a Committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was given the task to select the Economics Prize Laureates starting in 1969.
Mueller's latest novel, ''Atemschaukel,'' or ''Swinging Breath'' was short listed for this year's German Book Prize. But Kathrin Schmidt, age 51, was honored for her novel "You're Not Going to Die," the story of a woman who wakes up in a hospital after a coma unable to speak or move or remember her former life.
Mueller, a member of Romania's ethnic German minority, was honored with the Nobel for work that ''with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed,'' the Swedish Academy said.
The decision fueled controversy surrounding the Swedish Academy's pattern of awarding the prize to European writers. Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, told The Associated Press this week that the secretive Swedish Academy had been too ''eurocentric'' in picking winners.
His predecessor, Horace Engdahl, stirred up heated emotions across the Atlantic when he told the AP in 2008 that ''Europe still is the center of the literary world'' and the quality of U.S. writing was dragged down because authors were ''too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture.''
After Mueller was announced, he told the media that ''If you are European (it is) easier to relate to European literature. It's the result of psychological bias that we really try to be aware of. It's not the result of any program.''
The 56-year-old Mueller, published her first work in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled ''Niederungen,'' or ''Nadirs,'' depicting the harshness of life in a small, German-speaking village in Romania. The communist government quickly censored it.
In 1984 an uncensored version was smuggled to Germany, where it was published and devoured by readers. That work was followed by ''Oppressive Tango'' in Romania but she was eventually blocked from publishing inside her country for her criticism of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's rule and its feared secret police.
Much of Mueller's work is in German, but some works have been translated into English, French and Spanish, including ''The Passport,'' ''The Land of Green Plums,'' ''Traveling on One Leg'' and ''The Appointment.'' She is the 12th woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
The New York Times’s Art Beat quoted several bloggers’ mixed reactions to the Noble prize:
- “Another obscure author honored while far better writers remain unrecognized. It is time to abolish the Nobel Prize for Literature! — HS
- “Congratulations to the winner that many of us well-read Americans have never heard of. Let’s hope this spurs some of her work being translated into English so a wider audience can read her. Thanks to the hard work of translators we’ve enjoyed Haruki Murakami and Roberto Bolano. — Fjorder
- “Why is this award a great idea? Because Müller is a very good writer, of course, dealing with one of the most terrible of the 20th century political regimes (Ceausescu’s Romania). And awarding the prize to her is, at the same time, awarding it to all writers from eastern Europe who raised voice against communist dictatures. — O. Bondy
- “Wake up: the age of Americans winning the Nobel has long been over. It has nothing to do with quality of literature, but with geopolitics. — nme”
Among those on the short list for the 2009 German prize were:
- Rainer Merkel: “Light Years Away” (Lichtjahre Entfernt), S. Fischer Verlag
- Herta Müller: “Everything I Own I Carry With Me” (Atemschaukel), Suhrkamp Verlag
- Norbert Scheuer: “The Rushing of the Weir” (Überm Rauschen), C.H.Beck Verlag
- Katrin Schmidt: You’re Not Going to Die (Du Stirbst Nicht), Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag
- Clemens J. Setz: “Frequencies” (Die Frequenzen), Residenz Verlag
- Stephan Thome : “Border Walk” (Grenzgang), Suhrkamp Verlag
Who selects the Nobel Laureates? In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel, scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, author and pacifist, specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, Karolinska Institute for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and a Committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was given the task to select the Economics Prize Laureates starting in 1969.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Book Publishing Sales Post Gains in July
New York, NY (Authorlink News, September 23, 2009)— Book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of July increased by 2.0 percent at $1.54 billion and were up by 1.9 percent for the year.
The Adult Hardcover category was up by 6.9 percent in July with sales of $88.7 million; year-to-date sales were down by 15.5 percent. Adult Paperback sales increased 9.0 percent for the month ($124.0 million) but decreased by 11.2 percent for the year. The Adult Mass Market category was down 13.5 percent for July with sales totaling $68.2 million; sales were down by 5.3 percent year-to-date. The Children’s/YA Hardcover category decreased by 5.4 percent for the month with sales of $55.8 million, but sales for year-to-date were up by 22.2 percent. The Children’s/YA Paperback category was up by 4.1 percent in July with sales totaling $58.2 million; sales increased by 2.0 percent for the year.
Audio Book sales posted an increase of 3.5 percent in July with sales totaling $11.7 million; sales to-date decreased by 29.9 percent. E-books sales reached $16.2 million, reflecting a 213.5 percent increase for July, and a 173.9 percent year to-date. Religious Books saw a decrease of 9.3 percent for the month with sales totaling $42.4 million; sales were down by 8.1 percent for the year.
Sales of University Press Hardcover books reflected a 15.1 percent decrease in July with sales of $5.2 million; sales decreased by 8.6 percent for the year. University Press Paperback sales posted a decrease of 3.2 percent for the month with sales totaling $8.8 million; sales were down 5.5 percent for the year. Sales in the Professional and Scholarly category were up by 13.2 percent in July ($117.7 million) but decreased by 2.3 percent for the year.
Higher Education publishing sales rose by 0.9 percent for the month ($941.5 million) and increased 19.0 percent for the year. Finally, the net El-Hi (elementary/high school) basal and supplemental K-12 category posted a decrease of 32.2 percent in July with sales of $675.9 million; the category was down by 27.6 percent for the year.
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies—small and large. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and electronic products and services. The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities.
NOTE: All sales figures cited in this release are domestic net sales
The Adult Hardcover category was up by 6.9 percent in July with sales of $88.7 million; year-to-date sales were down by 15.5 percent. Adult Paperback sales increased 9.0 percent for the month ($124.0 million) but decreased by 11.2 percent for the year. The Adult Mass Market category was down 13.5 percent for July with sales totaling $68.2 million; sales were down by 5.3 percent year-to-date. The Children’s/YA Hardcover category decreased by 5.4 percent for the month with sales of $55.8 million, but sales for year-to-date were up by 22.2 percent. The Children’s/YA Paperback category was up by 4.1 percent in July with sales totaling $58.2 million; sales increased by 2.0 percent for the year.
Audio Book sales posted an increase of 3.5 percent in July with sales totaling $11.7 million; sales to-date decreased by 29.9 percent. E-books sales reached $16.2 million, reflecting a 213.5 percent increase for July, and a 173.9 percent year to-date. Religious Books saw a decrease of 9.3 percent for the month with sales totaling $42.4 million; sales were down by 8.1 percent for the year.
Sales of University Press Hardcover books reflected a 15.1 percent decrease in July with sales of $5.2 million; sales decreased by 8.6 percent for the year. University Press Paperback sales posted a decrease of 3.2 percent for the month with sales totaling $8.8 million; sales were down 5.5 percent for the year. Sales in the Professional and Scholarly category were up by 13.2 percent in July ($117.7 million) but decreased by 2.3 percent for the year.
Higher Education publishing sales rose by 0.9 percent for the month ($941.5 million) and increased 19.0 percent for the year. Finally, the net El-Hi (elementary/high school) basal and supplemental K-12 category posted a decrease of 32.2 percent in July with sales of $675.9 million; the category was down by 27.6 percent for the year.
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies—small and large. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and electronic products and services. The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities.
NOTE: All sales figures cited in this release are domestic net sales
Monday, September 21, 2009
Government Urges Court
to Reject Google Settlement
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Authorlink News, Septemer 21, 2009)--The Department of Justice today advised the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that while it should not accept the class action settlement in The Authors Guild Inc. et al. v. Google Inc. as proposed due to concerns of the United States regarding class action, copyright and antitrust law, the parties should be encouraged to continue their productive discussions to address those concerns. In its statement of interest filed with the court, the Department stated:
"Given the parties’ express commitment to ongoing discussions to address concerns already raised and the possibility that such discussions could lead to a settlement agreement that could legally be approved by the Court, the public interest would best be served by direction from the Court encouraging the continuation of those discussions between the parties and, if the Court so chooses, by some direction as to those aspects of the Proposed Settlement that need to be improved. Because a properly structured settlement agreement in this case offers the potential for important societal benefits, the United States does not want the opportunity or momentum to be lost."
In its filing, the Department proposed that the parties consider a number of changes to the agreement that may help address the United States’ concerns, including imposing limitations on the most open-ended provisions for future licensing, eliminating potential conflicts among class members, providing additional protections for unknown rights holders, addressing the concerns of foreign authors and publishers, eliminating the joint-pricing mechanisms among publishers and authors, and, whatever the settlement’s ultimate scope, providing some mechanism by which Google’s competitors can gain comparable access.
The settlement agreement between Google and the authors and publishers aims to resolve copyright infringement claims brought against Google by the Authors Guild and five major publishers in 2005 raised by Google’s efforts to digitally scan books contained in several libraries and make them searchable on the Internet. The District Court’s hearing on the proposed settlement is scheduled to take place on October 7, 2009.
Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers said they will consider the points raised by the Justice Department, and will address them as court proceedings continue.
European opponents to the settlement have called for the EU to investigate the proposed deal, charging it will allow Google to dominate the digital books industry. " A group of opponents, including Microsoft-backed ICOMP and the German publishers and booksellers association, says the settlement is unacceptable in its present form and violates the rights of copyright holders and authors. The group also said the settlement will lead to a de facto monopoly.
"Given the parties’ express commitment to ongoing discussions to address concerns already raised and the possibility that such discussions could lead to a settlement agreement that could legally be approved by the Court, the public interest would best be served by direction from the Court encouraging the continuation of those discussions between the parties and, if the Court so chooses, by some direction as to those aspects of the Proposed Settlement that need to be improved. Because a properly structured settlement agreement in this case offers the potential for important societal benefits, the United States does not want the opportunity or momentum to be lost."
In its filing, the Department proposed that the parties consider a number of changes to the agreement that may help address the United States’ concerns, including imposing limitations on the most open-ended provisions for future licensing, eliminating potential conflicts among class members, providing additional protections for unknown rights holders, addressing the concerns of foreign authors and publishers, eliminating the joint-pricing mechanisms among publishers and authors, and, whatever the settlement’s ultimate scope, providing some mechanism by which Google’s competitors can gain comparable access.
The settlement agreement between Google and the authors and publishers aims to resolve copyright infringement claims brought against Google by the Authors Guild and five major publishers in 2005 raised by Google’s efforts to digitally scan books contained in several libraries and make them searchable on the Internet. The District Court’s hearing on the proposed settlement is scheduled to take place on October 7, 2009.
Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers said they will consider the points raised by the Justice Department, and will address them as court proceedings continue.
European opponents to the settlement have called for the EU to investigate the proposed deal, charging it will allow Google to dominate the digital books industry. " A group of opponents, including Microsoft-backed ICOMP and the German publishers and booksellers association, says the settlement is unacceptable in its present form and violates the rights of copyright holders and authors. The group also said the settlement will lead to a de facto monopoly.
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