HarperCollins
(Reuters) - News Corp (NWSA.O), publisher of the Wall Street Journal, reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue as growth in its book publishing business helped to make up for a decline in revenue in its bigger news and information division.
News Corp, whose shares were up marginally at $17.50 in after-market trading on Thursday, has been focusing more on book publishing as its newspaper business struggles with weak ad spending in an increasingly digital world.
BitLit is a mobile app that allows readers to obtain free or discounted ebooks of printed works they already own. The company made headlines recently after partnering with HarperCollins to distribute a select number of its titles and is gradually bringing more publishers into the fold.
BitLit is a Canadian startup that answers the question many e-reader users have pondered at some point: why can't I download a free or cheap ebook version of a print book I already own? Especially now it's legal to rip your CDs on to iTunes.
Modern readers like to mix it up: we still love print, but also enjoy the portability (and search function) of an e-reader. However, the practice of "bundling" ebooks with p-books has been slow to take off; partly for technical reasons, but also because of fears about devaluing ebooks.
Qlovi, an ebook distribution platform for K-12 learning, has one foot in trade publishing and one in the classroom, says Shira Schindel, vice president of content acquisitions. "We are in a great position to help those industries connect," says Schindel, "There are many challenges in the educational market that are not always on the forefront of a publisher's mind."
Today readers want more than digital content, argues Matthew Shatz, head of strategy and partnerships at Oyster. They want access. The proof of that, he says, is in the rapid rise of access models like Netflix and Spotify.
A couple of weeks ago, HarperCollins rolled out a new website in the US that allows customers to buy ebooks direct from the publisher, and will follow with a new UK site next month. It is, of course, citing it as a community-building exercise (which means brand-building), and a way of ensuring that its authors' books are always available to the public. In truth, HarperCollins is currently locked in a pricing dispute with Amazon, as are several other publishers. Amazon recently started blocking pre-orders and delaying shipments on certain Hachette titles
In a long-expected move, Amazon on July 18 announced the launch of Kindle Unlimited, a new subscription service that will give users unlimited access to a selection of 600,000 ebooks and more than 2,000 audiobooks on Amazon Kindle devices and any device with a Kindle app for $9.99 per month. Amazon is not first to market with an "all you can read" commercial ebook subscription platform-it follows last year's launch of Scribd and Oyster. But the online retailer's financial resources, marketing clout, and massive base of Kindle users will doubtless raise consumer awareness
"The everything store" was never the extent of Amazon's ambition. Jeff Bezos has built a business that is, ultimately, about offering every kind of access to every kind of thing. You can buy shoes and coyote urine, subscribe to periodicals and deodorant, stream music and movies and TV shows. Oddly, books have been the holdout, as Amazon's fights with publishers have largely kept it from experimenting with new forms of packaging and distribution.
That's what's so exciting about Kindle Unlimited, the $9.99 / month subscription reading service Amazon appears to be ready to launch.
In a potentially major gain for the ebook-bundling concept, BitLit today is announcing its first deal with a Big Five publisher. HarperCollins (US) has entered what is being described as a pilot programme with the Vancouver-based BitLit to offer discounted ebook editions of print books that readers already own.
"This is not, obviously, HarperCollins' full list," Peter Hudson, BitLit co-founder, tells The Bookseller's The FutureBook. "This is a limited set of titles and it's going to be rolled out reasonably slowly over time, with new titles coming on board
Amazon is testing an ebook and audiobook subscription service called "Kindle Unlimited" that offers "unlimited access to over 600,000 titles and thousands of audiobooks on any device for just $9.99 a month." Most of the test pages were pulled down Wednesday after some users on the Kindle Boards noticed them, but they are still available through Google Cache and some are still live on Amazon's site.
Amazon's service, which has been rumored for a couple of months, would compete with existing ebook subscription services Scribd and Oyster.