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As colleges look to reduce the overall cost of education, many are centering efforts on course materials, which, according to Cal State officials, sets an average student back by more than $1,000 annually.

That's an 18% addition to an undergraduate's annual $5,472 tuition. According to the UC website, students pay about $1,500 for textbooks and supplies, adding about 11% to the $13,200 in overall tuition and fees. And at California community colleges, many students can pay more for textbooks than for course fees, officials said.

There's an old saying about a new year and a new beginning,  and Barnes & Noble is taking it to an extreme. Over the past few weeks no fewer than 4 members of the senior management at Nook Media, B&N's ebook sub, have either left the company, been promoted, or announced that they have one foot out the door.

The first to go was Michael Huseby. Barnes & Noble announced on 8 January that Huseby was leaving his position as head of Nook Media to take the CEO position at Barnes & Noble.

Just in time for the holidays, e-commerce operators are ramping up their brick-and-mortar efforts. As detailed over the weekend by the New York Times, Amazon and eBay, the two giants of e-commerce, are locked in an increasingly fierce battle for control of the streets, as they compete to offer customers in major cities same-day - or even quicker - delivery of orders placed online. Amazon now offers same-day delivery in 11 cities while eBay last month announced plans to expand its eBay Now same-day service to 25 cities in 2014.