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SPECIAL REPORT: The Transforming Booksellers’ Landscape
May 1, 2008

The biggest news in book retailing so far this year may be Borders’ opening its first “concept store,” a new generation of superstores unveiled in February in the company’s hometown of Ann Arbor, Mich. At 28,900 square feet, the new store—the first of 14 planned to open this year—does not skimp on size, and a lot of that space is taken up by innovative features: shop-within-a-shop “destination zones” for travel, cooking, wellness, graphic novels and children’s categories; bold, new architectural designs; and a “digital center” offering services ranging from book downloading to self-publishing. “Our mission is to be a headquarters for knowledge

The ‘Green’ TEAM
February 1, 2008

According to one of the better-known accounts in the compendium of humankind’s greatest achievements, it was in the year 105 that a Chinese man named Ts’ai Lun invented paper, mashing up wood from a mulberry tree with fiber from bamboo. Thus was born a technology that would literally change the world, making possible artistic, scientific and religious revolutions, democratizing literacy and learning, and ushering humanity into the modern age. In recent times, paper production has played a role in changing the world in other ways. The book industry alone required 3 million to 4 million tons of paper over just the last three years,

Hooked on Rapid Growth
August 1, 2007

Hooked on Phonics was created in 1987 as an instructional program to assist school-age children who were struggling with reading skills. Sold primarily through infomercials, the name grew increasingly recognizable as more and more television viewers stumbled upon the advertisements and their memorable “Hooked on Phonics worked for me!” tagline. Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the company introduced a handful of additional products, including “Hooked on Math,” but still remained true to its original direct-to-consumer sales model. In 2005, Hooked on Phonics, now known as HOP LLC, was acquired by Baltimore-based Educate Inc. (which also owns Sylvan Learning Center) and was

Supply Chain Management
June 1, 2007

When it comes to improving the supply chain function in book publishing, the watchword is communication—between various components of the chain, and especially between manufacturing, distribution and retail. Saying this, however, is not saying nearly enough, as the quality of information and the way it’s used matter just as much as making the right connections. “Communication is the No. 1 supply chain issue,” says Rich Eby, director of inbound distribution at Thomson Learning, the Stamford, Conn.-based provider of educational, training and reference books for academic and corporate customers. For Thomson, that means anticipating shipments from manufacturers around the world for distribution in the

Distribution:Are We Getting Swept Up in ‘The Tail?’
October 1, 2006

If there’s ever a good time to talk about the state of book distribution, this would be it. Right now, everyone is abuzz about changes occurring within the system thanks in part to the July release of Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.” Anderson, editor of Wired magazine, declares the demise of common culture and cites occurrences called “long-tailed distributions,” or distributions to a greater number of smaller markets, rather than one, big mass market. According to Anderson, this helps distributors since they are no longer cut off by bottlenecks of distribution, such as limited

… Likes Long Walks and Curling Up With a Good Cell Phone
June 1, 2006

It’s a metamorphosis of the media. Book publishers with ad-supported content models traditionally donned by magazine publishers. Magazine publishers broadcasting live event coverage on their Web sites, and traditional broadcast news media directing consumers to their Web sites for supplemental content. The newest development on this front opens up a whole new can of worms. Amazon.com has crossed over into traditional media territory with its first online, video entertainment talk show. And I realized that not only is the media blurring into one behemoth information-blob, but the boundaries that separate the media from the rest of the world are even beginning to disappear. Amazon.com

Going Guerrilla
June 1, 2005

In a world where small, independent business owners have been giving way to the likes of Wal-Mart or the seemingly ubiquitous Starbucks, there is one segment of society in which independents are on the rise. Independent operations in publishing are swarming the market like bees on a honey-drenched hive. The reason, some say, is due in part to advanced home technology, making the idea of becoming a published writer more accessible to the masses—specifically with the advent of print-on-demand, blogging, e-zines and other venues that allow sometimes even the not-so-literate to become self-described authors. But high numbers do not translate to

RFID Tags Embedded in Books
April 1, 2005

RFID (radio frequency identification) technology was patented in 1973 and now is making its way into book publishing. Manufacturers and retailers, including The Gillette Co., Michelin and Wal-Mart, are embedding RFID tags in their packaging to automate checkout, track inventory and control theft. A book manufacturer has developed a process that embeds the chips in the chipboard of hardcover books during manufacturing. BindTech Inc. in Nashville, Tenn., conceived of the idea to embed the Smart Guard technology serendipitously, while manufacturing DVDs last spring. "We put an electromagnetic bar inside the [CD] case to prevent theft, but the bar interfered with the CD's graphics," says

Automation to Cut Supply Chain's Weakest Link
December 1, 2004

Since paper is central to their business, it is understandable that book publishers have become very comfortable in continuing to use a paper trail to document transactions with suppliers. But the reliance on printing and scanning invoices, inventory status reports and receiving statements instead of completely moving to electronic communications has perpetuated a number of unnecessary business practices that should be treated as dead wood. However, most 20th century supply chain management practices and proprietary technologies will soon be filed under "H" for history. New XML-based standards for sending documents (called messages in the electronic age lingo) are beginning to revolutionize how publishers and

Print On Demand
January 1, 2001

Special to BookTech by Danny O. Snow For centuries, publishers have wrestled with one simple but crucial question upon which their success often depends: How many copies should we print? On one hand, fundamental economics of printing encourage publishers to produce as many copies as possible to achieve better economies of scale and lower per-unit costs. Meanwhile, the cost of unsold copies can also erode profit margins. The sunny side of POD Print-on-demand (POD) increasingly offers today's publishers a good solution to this central dilemma. By allowing publishers to print exactly enough copies to meet market demands and no more, POD drastically reduces, or