Inkling: Another Digital Textbook Approacheth, But This Time, It Has Friends
A new app for textbooks on the iPad has a lot of backers, and there’s a lot at stake.
The New York Times' B2B Opportunity
The New York Times is likely to introduce institutional pricing now that it is beginning to charge for consumer access.
The Google Books Settlement: Where Things Stand, and Some Suggestions for What's Next
The Google Books Settlement actually hit its second roadblock this week. Here’s why, and where matter might go from here.
Google Book Settlement — Opponents 1, Google 0
The Google Books Settlement hits a barrier. The implications of this will need to be sorted out over the coming days and weeks.
College & Research Libraries Adopts Open Access
After years of debate, ACRL will finally “walk the talk.” But without a business model, they could get tripped up.
HarperCollinsGate: Some Thoughts
The HarperCollins e-book lending limitations provide lessons in how both sides typically deal with change.
The Vexed Problem of Libraries, Publishers, and E-books
The recent brouhaha about HarperCollins’ policy of restricting ebook circulation in libraries misses the larger point that libraries and publishers can work toward satisfying their respective interests.
Customers Move Online = Bad News for News in the Internet Age
Online news increases in popularity, online advertising grows, and an iPad newspaper pure-play exists — why does this all seem like bad news?
The Expensive e-Book: The Illogical Reasons Why Paper Books Can Sell for Less
When you explore the revenue model of e-books vs. print books, some pricing practices make sense. But when you factor in the expenses, the logic begins to break down.
Even Crowdsourcing Can Get Too Expensive
Transcribe Bentham loses its grant after six months, and has to wind down.
Kevin Kelly on Generating Value in a Free Copy World
A fascinating talk from last month’s O’Reilly Tools of Change conference, in which Kevin Kelly talks about how the proliferation of screens, the incorporation of gestures and voice, the abundance of data streams, the notion of “always on,” and so […]
The New Economics of the University Press — A Report from the AAUP
A report by the AAUP outlines the business models available to university presses and makes a case for ongoing subsidies by parent institutions.
Authors — Only One Reason Why the Revolution in Book Publishing Continues
The revolution in book publishing shares some aspects with revolutions everywhere. Here’s a short slideshow by the founder of Smashwords examining current motivations for authors.
Prices, Models, and Fairness: A (Partly) Imaginary Phone Conversation
[Phone rings.] Librarian: Hello? Sales Rep: Hello! Robert from Acme Scholarly Journals here. As you know, for the past year we’ve been working on a new pricing model for our journal package, and now that it’s ready my boss and […]
The Digitized Book Corpus and the Cracking Dam
A new report from OCLC underscores how much water is already over, and how fragile the foundation has become.