Nielsen Media Research

Everything You Thought You Knew About Metadata…
January 1, 2013

It's no surprise that there's a lot of confusion around metadata for books. It's complicated. If only they hadn't used the "M" word—metadata. It reeks of digital complexity. And then you read the standard definition: "Metadata is data about data." Gee, thanks. As if your eyes hadn't already glazed over.

RSuite 4 Delivers a Breakthrough in Content Management for Publishers
November 29, 2012

Audubon, Pa.—November 29, 2012—RSuite CMS, a content management system for publishers, today announced the latest version of its software, RSuite 4. Combining a superior user experience with proven and secure content management provides publishers with the ability to use the best of today’s technologies to create, store, manage, transform, and deliver any content to any format.

RSuite CMS, powered by MarkLogic®, has been the software of choice for many of the world’s leading publishers. RSuite 4 offers a redesigned, more intuitive user experience to enable users to efficiently find and interact with their content with minimal effort. Improved usability is based on Nielsen’s Ten Usability Heuristics and manifested in action-oriented contextual menus, search-based content navigation, accordion-style search results, and a user interface (UI) with intentional color design. The new UI provides even greater productivity while dramatically reducing the learning curve.

What Can Publishers Learn from Indie Rock?
November 16, 2012

On Scholarly Kitchen today is a post after my own heart, "What Can Publishers Learn from Indie Rock?" Michael Clarke talks about the tactile joys of music on vinyl, while  noting that indie bands that sell their wares via the anachronistic medium almost always include a digital version, either a CD or a download code.

Quoth Clarke: "What indie rock bands have figured out is that the purchase of music does not have to be an either/or proposition. They don’t make their customers choose between analog or digital."

—Brian Howard

A decade of digital media flops and predictions
July 25, 2012

Microsoft rolls out the Zune to go up against the iPod in 2006. And then, three years later, a new Zune HD to vie with the iPod Touch.  The Zune gets more traction with late-night talk-show comedians than with consumers. Both the player and the brand are now dead. Burger King gives away a free AOL Music download with every Original Whopper. The download code is on the burger wrapper — try not to get grease on your screen! McDonald’s begins renting DVDs. Actually, this one wasn’t a total flop: Turns out people don’t want DVDs with their fries, but Redbox, which now has

As Book Sales Grow, Publishers Flock to India
April 24, 2012

David Davidar recalls the advice once given to him by the writer R.K. Narayan about publishing books in India. "Don’t worry, you’ll be gone in a few years," Mr. Narayan warned. "There aren’t enough writers here." Imagine that: An India lacking in writers. Mr. Narayan made his prediction more than 25 years ago, when Mr. Davidar was part of the team that launched Penguin India, now an industry leader. Mr. Davidar did leave for several years but has since returned to India to start a new imprint, Aleph. With the printed word considered an endangered species in much of

Larry Kirshbaum Shares Many More Details on How Amazon Publishing Will Work
April 18, 2012

Last week, Amazon New York publisher Larry Kirshbaum sat down for an interview with writer and former Random House editor Daniel Menaker at Stony Brook Southampton’s “Writers Speak Wednesday.” Here are the most interesting things he said.

“Despite the fact that Amazon is a very large company on the retail side, as you all know, we’re really a very small publisher. We’re a startup. We only have about 20, 25 people.… In a lot of ways, we are operating it as a small publishing house.

Tablets Siphoning Away Time With Desktops and Traditional Media [STUDY]
April 12, 2012

As many iPad and Kindle Fire owners know, when you get a tablet, your habits change. Some start reading their email or doing most of their shopping on their tablets instead of their desktops; others begin buying more ebooks than printed books. Those changes were highlighted in a recent Forrester survey. The research firm found that after purchasing a tablet, owners are far less likely to engage with more traditional devices and media. About a third of respondents say they use personal computers and read books less frequently. About one in four claim to read print magazines and newspapers

Amazon.com Introduces eBooks Kindle en Español, a Kindle Store with the Largest Selection of Spanish-Language Bestsellers Available Anywhere in the U.S.
April 5, 2012

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced a new Spanish-language eBook store within the Amazon.com Kindle Store, “eBooks Kindle en Español” (www.amazon.com/tiendakindle ), along with additional features specially implemented for U.S. Spanish-speaking customers like extensive help pages, and phone and email customer support in Spanish.

U.S. customers can now shop for Spanish-language books in the new store on Amazon.com, or set any Kindle device to access a customized shopping experience designed for books in Spanish. eBooks Kindle en Español offers customers the most Spanish-language bestsellers, as measured by Nielsen, including “El Alquimista” by Paulo Coelho, “Cien años de soledad” by Gabriel García Márquez and “Juegos del Hambre” by Suzanne Collins.

Comedy Central Launching Book Imprint
March 1, 2012

Comedy Central is taking its brand to bookstores. The network is launching a publishing imprint with Running Press (part of the Perseus Books Group) with plans to release everything from memoirs to joke and novelty books. The first title from Comedy Central Books will be a holiday themed novelty book from comedian/actor Denis Leary. It’s set to roll out in October with a multi-platform marketing push highlighted by a new Leary-headlined comedy special on the network the will be reminiscent of 2005's Merry F#%$in' Christmas.

Amazon Kindle Fire Faces Critics and Remedies Are Promised
December 12, 2011

The Kindle Fire, Amazons heavily promoted tablet, is less than a blazing success with many of its early users. The most disgruntled are packing the device up and firing it back to the retailer. A few of their many complaints: there is no external volume control. The off switch is easy to hit by accident. Web pages take a long time to load. There is no privacy on the device; a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing. The touch screen is frequently hesitant and sometimes downright balky. All the individual