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Jellybooks Wins £25,000 Technology Prize
April 4, 2014

  London based publishing start-up Jellybooks has won £25,000 from the Government-backed Technology Strategy Board to develop user tracking tools for e-books. The prize was awarded this week at IC Tomorrow’s latest digital innovation contest, which this time around was focused on the collection and use of data.

 

The Innovators
April 1, 2014 at 7:00 pm

All of the innovators interviewed in this section, whether from trade, academic, or independent publishing, have joined the digital revolution and are pushing the industry into a sustainable future, exploring new products and services, and adapting to disruption.

Amazon: Education’s Passive Lurker Gets Aggressive
April 1, 2014

If you want to see the future of Amazon in education, don't look to Seattle. Look to Sao Paulo.

For months, I've wondered what Amazon's strategy for the Kindle in education might be. Amazon's presence in the K-12 school market has been notable largely by its absence. No grand, sweeping announcements. No blow-out presentations at education technology conferences. No dramatic Bezos schoolyard laughs.

Digital Content Can Be More Intelligent
April 1, 2014

When new communications media emerge, the typical pattern has been to simply put old content into the new format. I would argue that the most effective use of any medium is achieved only once the unique characteristics of that medium are fully grasped.

Zoobean Debuts a Recommendation Service for Children’s Apps and Books
March 28, 2014

Zoobean, one of many startups to experiment with the “Netflix for kids’ books” business model – meaning, a subscription-based children’s books service where new books arrive monthly – is today shifting to become a broader recommendations platform instead. Going forward, the company aims to become something that’s more like a “Pandora for children’s apps and books,” helpfully pointing parents to personalized content they can buy if they choose.

Kindle vs. Glass, Apps vs. Text: The Complicated Future of Books
March 27, 2014

Is the future an interactive novel read on a Google Glass? One thing's for certain: the transformation of the written word is one of the defining issues of our age.

How many e-book consumers realise that some publishers, writers and distributors know an awful lot about their reading style? They have knowledge about how far into the book you've reached, when you get bored, which characters you like and those you don't. Amazon, Apple and Google, along with countless large publishers, embrace the idea of providing products that readers are apparently craving.

Inside the Digital Platform that's About to Revolutionize Book Publishing
March 26, 2014

The e-book is not going away - and that's not a bad thing for books. 

Ever since the advent of the Kindle, a doomsday cloud has hovered over the world of book publishing, a portent that the rise of the e-book will mean the fall of the print book, and eventually the end of any good literature at all.

Even with recent optimistic forecasts for the future of books, the underlying assumption driving the conversation is still that technology and traditional literary reading are somehow incompatible, different ways of life.

Press Release: Bertelsmann Invests Billions; Achieves Leap in Profits
March 26, 2014

The international media company Bertelsmann invested heavily in expanding its businesses in 2013, as the company increased its revenues, operating result and Group profit. Investments in implementing the Group's strategy amounted to €2 billion, including financial debt assumed, up from €655 million in the previous year, and its largest sum since 2005. Group profit increased by 42 percent to €870 million. This is the highest Group profit since 2006, and is well above the latest expectations.

Square Enix Launching English-Language Ebook Distribution of Manga in April
March 25, 2014

Square Enix is partnering with publisher Hachnette Book Group's graphic novel arm Yen Press to internationally distribute English language versions of the former company's manga properties in ebook form, the companies announced today.

The initiative will launch on April 8 and grant readers access to 175 ebook titles through Amazon, the Apple App Store, Barnes and Noble, Google and Kobo. New volumes in these series will be available through these services as they are released in the future.

Rise of the Plagiarist in the Digital Age
March 24, 2014

Thanks to the internet, it has never been easier to steal other people's work. There's also a high risk you'll be found out. So why do it? Rhodri Marsden goes in search of a little originality.

It's not that hard to think of something totally original. If you don't worry about it being any good, it's easy. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously," was Noam Chomsky's spirited attempt in his ground-breaking 1957 book on linguistics, Syntactic Structures.