Web Development

With the launch of Amazon.com’s “Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher” earlier this month, the Internet-based retailer made its first foray into the realm of original, episodic entertainment webcasting. The new half-hour program is a talk show produced by Amazon. “Amazon Fishbowl” can be found exclusively on its Web site home page. It features conversations between Maher and a variety of guests who come on to promote recently-released books, music and movies. A new episode of the show premieres each Thursday night 8 p.m. PST throughout the summer, while host and executive producer Maher, best known for his edgy political humor and pop culture observations, is

Google’s controversial campaign to scan and digitalize library collections for online viewing on its Internet search engine continues to raise objections and claims of piracy from the publishing world. According to the Agence France-Presse news agency, another publishing group--this time French publisher La Martiniere--filed suit Tuesday against the Internet giant for indexing the company’s titles without first obtaining permission. La Martiniere, owner of France’s Le Seuil, Switzerland’s Delachaux and Niestle, and the United States’ Harry N. Abrams, contends that even if the company is only showing portions of a work online, it still constitutes an infringement of copyright. More than 100 La Martiniere books have

Last year, retail e-commerce totaled $88 billion, or 2.4 percent of total U.S. retail sales, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. In the first quarter of this year, U.S. retail e-sales hit $25 billion—2.7 percent of total retail sales for the quarter ($906 billion). And based on the average annual growth rate (in the mid 20-percent range) of the last few years, 2006’s year-end e-commerce totals are likely to top $110 billion. Book publishers in almost every market have launched e-commerce sites to tap the growing potential in e-sales. Major publishers such as Scholastic (ShopScholastic.com), Random House (RandomHouse.com), McGraw-Hill (Books.McGraw-Hill.com), Penguin Group

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

Workman Publishing’s release of “The NPR Listener’s Encyclopedia of Classical Music” marks the culmination of author Ted Libbey’s 11-year odyssey. Libbey, known at one time to classical music fans and listeners of National Public Radio (NPR) as the station’s commentator on the popular “Performance Today” program, is one of the country’s most distinguished classical music critics. The book aims to be the classical music fan’s do-it-all resource—from educating readers on different terms, styles and genres to providing Libbey’s musical criticisms. Most notable, however, is the interactive element: Buyers are given a password that gives them access to a special Web site—run by Naxos, a

Book publishers have used catalogs to sell their titles for many years. However, in this digital age, the advent of digital catalogs would seem to be a foregone conclusion, especially as many magazines launch digital counterparts. These digital editions—more than Web sites featuring content—actually mimic the print publications, some even creating a visual page-turning experience. According to those in the digital catalog business, there may be as many as a dozen vendors offering book publishers the ability to recreate the look-and-feel of their print catalogs in digital form. Still, the concept has yet to become a sweeping trend. In fact, some solutions providers

Imagine you’re a medical student and, like all students, you’re facing major textbook expenses. Enter Thieme Medical Publishers Inc., New York, a unit of Thieme International. Last year, this 27-year-old medical textbook publisher put its books for medical students online and is using the Internet to grow its business. The publisher wants to triple or quadruple its revenue from this market segment over the next three years, says Brian Scanlan, managing director of Thieme International, a division of the Stuttgard, Germany-based Thieme Publishing Group, founded in 1886. While the Thieme Publishing Group is a $150 million company, Scanlan declined to disclose revenue contributions and market share

It used to be that an encyclopedia salesman knocked on your door in hopes of selling you the latest 12-volume series of books brimming with factual information about everything from binary cell division to Benjamin Franklin. And your only option for finding the definition of onomatopoeia used to be to lug the dictionary off the shelf and thumb through its pages. Those days are, to some extent, history. As a result, reference publishers face significant challenges—reflected in a significant drop in new titles released in 2005—as they strive to adapt to new trends in the market. Paul Kobasa, editor in chief for World

In a May 27, 2005, article called “Put Away the iPod: ‘Harry Potter’ Unlikely as a Download,” The Wall Street Journal reported that the “Harry Potter” novels were not likely to become available for downloading. The primary reason: author J.K. Rowling’s previous experiences with unauthorized digital publication of her novels. In the article, Rowling cautioned readers to distrust any ‘Harry Potter’ e-books offered for download on the Internet. Today, however, it is a different story. The entire “Harry Potter” series became available for download on the iTunes Music Store in fall 2005. Ironically, the reason Rowling, who plans to write the final book in the

In a May 27, 2005, article called “Put Away the iPod: ‘Harry Potter’ Unlikely as a Download,” The Wall Street Journal reported that the “Harry Potter” novels were not likely to become available for downloading. The primary reason: author J.K. Rowling’s previous experiences with unauthorized digital publication of her novels. In the article, Rowling cautioned […]