Revenue
February 1, 2015
Paul Gazzolo had a sizeable task in front of him as soon as he took the job as senior vice president and global general manager of Michigan-based Gale in November 2014. His mandate: to turn Gale, a 60-year-old education, research, and reference publisher supporting libraries, schools, and academic institutions, into a global, patron-centered company
January 30, 2015
Bloomberg) -- Jeff Bezos showed Amazon.com Inc. can still pull out a profit, though the chief executive officer made no promises that he'll do it again next quarter. The stock soared as much as 12 percent after the online retailer reported a fourth-quarter profit of $214 million on sales of $29.3 billion, following two straight periods of losses. The results, posted Thursday after the markets closed, helped blunt investor concerns that Bezos was spending too much on initiatives including speedier package delivery and original video programming -- instead of making money.
January 29, 2015
2015 has already started with a bang and we think there's more to come, as you'll see from the Chef's responses to the question: What do you think will have the biggest impact on scholarly publishing in 2015?
According to the Chefs, we're looking at a year of mergers and acquisitions, the continuing growth of open access both in number of opportunities and in scale, the publication of data and objects (like multimedia, application code, etc.), and more start-ups.
What do YOU think will shape scholarly publishing in 2015?
January 28, 2015
There's no shortage of innovative ideas percolating within the publishing industry. But last year we noted the challenge of exposing the industry at large to those ideas. That's why we launched The Futurists blog.
January 27, 2015
One of the best parts of my job is picking the brains of some of the most intelligent and forward-thinking leaders in the book industry and learning how they drive success in their businesses. Whether it's forming direct relationships with their readers or exploring new digital products and services, these publishers are pushing the envelop of what it means to be in the book business. Following, I've compiled the best interviews we conducted last year in the hopes that you can apply what we learned to your successful evolution in 2015.
January 22, 2015
There are no egg-stealing pigs in the latest spin-off from games firm Rovio Entertainment. Angry Birds? Well, given that it's a series of young-adult (YA) novels with a piratical theme, perhaps there'll be a few parrots.
Storm Sisters is the latest project from the Finnish company, as it expands further into the book publishing world. Written by Mintie Das, the first novel The Sinking World will be published in late 2015 or early 2016.
The book is one of 12 being showcased at the Books at Berlinale event in February
January 22, 2015
James Frey has never lacked for controversy. The Oprah-disgraced-turned-Oprah-redeemed novelist has walked a unique literary path. His newest venture, Full Fathom Five, is described as a 'transmedia' company, though it's unclear that anyone knows what that means. Full Fathom Five (FFF) made a splash with The Lorien Legacies, a young adult series published by Harper Collins. The first book, I Am Number Four, was made into a film. Since, FFF has packaged mostly young adult titles, and Frey has hit pay dirt once more with Endgame,
January 21, 2015
All hail paper, the book reading technology resurgent. Eight years after the first Amazon Kindle and five years since the first Apple iPad, lowly pressed wood pulp is on the rebound.
The consequence looks more like co-existence than conquest. For now.
The latest numbers for 2014 book sales tell a surprising tale. Nielsen BookScan, which tracks what readers are buying, found the number of paper books sold went up 2.4% last year, including at Amazon and all types of bookstores.
January 20, 2015
The recent merger news about Macmillan, owners of the Nature Publishing Group (NPG), and Springer, owners of Biomed Central and other properties, hit the market with plenty of force. It's a major consolidation, and one that ratchets the Macmillan higher education and journals growth strategy up by an order of magnitude. Now, along with Elsevier, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis, we have another multi-billion-dollar publishing behemoth on the market - the combined entity is valued at $5.8 billion.
January 19, 2015
Most publishers cringe at the thought of crowdsourcing. Publishers often believe they exclusively own the art of content curation and they feel threatened when they sense others encroaching on their turf.
It's hard to argue with that logic, especially in our disrupted world where the publisher's role is under attack from self-publishing, free content, and authors with their own platforms. That's why every publisher should rethink the role they play and determine how to remain relevant in the years to come.
