Stephen Smith

US publishers are poised to take their battle to stop books bought abroad being resold in the US to Congress, after the Supreme Court ruled against them in a case that will have broad implications for global commerce.

In the case of Kirtsaeng v Wiley, the court ruled in favour of Supap Kirtsaeng, a California student who asked his family in Thailand to buy textbooks for him at low international prices so he could resell them at a profit on eBay.

We can all learn some valuable lessons about making the “transition to digital” from John Wiley & Sons, the $1.7 billion publisher of scientific, technical, medical (STMS), higher education, and professional trade books and journals.

... Wiley’s outgoing CEO, William Pesce and incoming CEO, Stephen Smith spoke yesterday in an excellent webinar hosted by Book Business Magazine’s editor-in-chief Noelle Skodzinski and sponsored by publishing technology vendor Aptara. I strongly encourage you to take some time to listen to Learn from Wiley’s Legacy and Leadership.

A major publishing acquisition was completed in early February as John Wiley & Sons Inc. announced the finalization of its acquisition of Blackwell Publishing Holdings Ltd. The purchase price of $1.1 billion (U.S.) Wiley paid for the academic and professional publisher was financed with a combination of debt and cash. Blackwell’s publishing program will be merged with Wiley’s global scientific, technical, and medical business, Wiley representatives said. The merged business is now the largest of the three owned by Wiley; its other publishing ventures are professional/trade and higher education. “Wiley begins our third century of publishing by embarking on the path of growth