Product Launches

Pearson Plc (PSON), the publisher of the Financial Times newspaper, reiterated its full-year earnings forecast and said its restructuring and investment program is on schedule to speed growth next year.

The shares rose as much as 4.1 percent. Adjusted earnings per share will be 62 pence to 67 pence in 2014, London-based Pearson said in a statement today. Profit will be heavily weighted to the second half, it said. First-quarter sales dropped 6 percent on a stronger British pound versus the U.S. dollar, according to the statement.

Encyclopedia Britannica, the oldest English-language encyclopaedia under production, has tied up with Indian publisher Katha to take Indian stories to children across India and worldwide. Britannica will convert titles owned by Katha into eBooks, and distribute them worldwide as part of its eBook program under the overall eLibrary initiative.

A U.S. federal judge denied a bid by Apple Inc on Wednesday to hold off a trial in a case brought by state attorneys general accusing the company of conspiring with five major publishers to fix e-book prices.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in a brief order said the July 14 trial had already been postponed once and should go forward, paving the way for more than two dozen states to pursue hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

In Invasion of the Space Invaders, Martin Amis's 1982 treatise on the emergent video game medium, the British author wrote: "The video game tells a story. The better you get, the longer the story lasts. And we all know how children feel about stories." In the early 1980s, video-game stories were laughably straightforward: the aliens die in Space Invaders, the dots are eaten in Pac-Man, the ball is batted in Pong.

It is the world's most definitive work on the most global language, but the Oxford English Dictionary may be disappearing from bookshelves forever. Publishers fear the next edition will never appear in print form because its vast size means only an online version will be feasible, and affordable, for scholars.

busuu - the world's largest social network for language learning at 40 million users - has signed a distribution partnership with Pearson English, a newly formed business unit of the world's largest education company, Pearson PLC. The deal will be exclusive for the next 4 months, after which Pearson will be free to sign similar deals with other partners, should it choose to do so. However, it gives Busuu and edge over its competitors, given that the bulk of foreign language learning is to learn English. 

Apple lost an attempt on Tuesday to get a judge to dismiss antitrust lawsuits filed by state attorneys general that accuse the tech giant of conspiring with book publishers to fix e-book prices.

US District Judge Denise Cote rejected Apple's contention that the motion should be rejected because the states lacked standing in the matter. In her 24-page opinion, Cote said that Apple presented an argument that seemed to contradict itself.

You have probably heard the news. So long Earls Court, last one out, turn off the lights. The London Book Fair is moving for 2015 and beyond. But what may have not come through about the end of the Earls Court era of the London Book Fair, is that its new home, the Olympia London, is, well, pretty spectacular.

"I think the one clear message I'd like to get across is that this is not the Olympia it was before," LBF director Jacks Thomas told PW.

Next week I will do two things I've never done before: visit London and attend the London Book Fair. I'm very excited about both -- though you probably want to hear my thoughts on books more than pubs (of the liquid variety).

Publishers' Graphics, a global POD and offset book manufacturer with three locations nationwide, is pleased to announce two hires to support the company's growth as a provider of global publishing solutions.