Macmillan Publishing Solutions

Weisberg Leaves Penguin to Join Macmillan US
November 20, 2015 at 2:59 pm

President of Penguin Young Readers Group US, Don Weisberg, is leaving Penguin Random House at the end of the month to become president for Macmillan Publishers U.S. Penguin Random House announced the division’s senior v.p and associate publisher Jen Loja as Weisberg’s successor, who steps into the role of president for Penguin Young Readers effective…

Press Release: Global Publisher Macmillan Education Partners with Blinklearning to Build Next Generation Digital Products
November 10, 2015 at 2:24 pm

MADRID—November 10, 2015—Macmillan Education, a leading global publisher of English Language Teaching (ELT) and school curriculum materials, and Blinklearning, a company at the forefront of educational technologies, today announced a global partnership. Macmillan Education, widely recognized for its innovative publishing and award-winning materials over the last 170 years, will enhance its next-generation digital services by…

Best Sound Bites from the Digital Book Printing Conference 2015
October 28, 2015 at 2:54 pm

While there have been major advancements in digital printing and inkjet technology, there are still some barriers to widespread adoption among publishers. The most notable is perhaps book publishers’ fear of using the zero-inventory model that complements a short-run, digital printing strategy. Publishers don’t want to lose control over distribution and fear lost revenue from…

Press Release: Macmillan Higher Education & Macmillan New Ventures to Become Single Unit
October 27, 2015 at 1:49 pm

NEW YORK—October 23, 2015—Macmillan Higher Education and Macmillan New Ventures announced today that the companies will unify as a singular education unit under the new brand, Macmillan Learning, as of January 1, 2016. The move unites two premier education companies within Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (HPG)—Macmillan Higher Education, which include the renowned publishing imprints of Bedford/St.…

Apple Is ‘Its Own Worst Enemy,' Says U.S. Antitrust Monitor
October 8, 2015 at 2:17 pm

Apple is "its own worst enemy," says a court-appointed monitor whom the company continues to impede. After it was confirmed that Apple conspired with at least five major book publishers to up ebook prices and keep competitors such as Amazon at bay from the industry, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote assigned former U.S. Justice Department…

Canada Investigates Apple for Possible Ebook Pricing Conspiracy
July 8, 2015

Here in the US the DOJ may have completed its investigation into the price-fixing activities of Apple and 5 major trade publishers and gone after the parties involved, but Canada is a different matter.

My contact with the Canadian Competition Bureau informed me today that its investigation into whether publishers and retailers may have conspired to raise ebook prices in Canada is ongoing and has not yet been resolved.

Rather, the investigation has expanded to include Kobo, Penguin, and Apple.

Apple's Mistake Was Hooking Up with the Book-Publishing Cartel
July 1, 2015

Apple may be trying to keep the spotlight on its latest foray into the streaming-music business, but it is also still trying to clean up the mess caused by its ham-handed entry into an earlier market: book publishing. A federal court on Tuesday rejected the company's appeal of an earlier ruling that found it guilty of orchestrating a conspiracy with the major book publishers, in what the court said was a successful attempt to artificially inflate the price of e-books.

Apple Conspired With Book Publishers, Appeals Court Confirms
June 30, 2015

An appeals court in New York on Tuesday upheld a 2013 verdict that Apple organized an illegal conspiracy with five book publishers to raise the price of ebooks, noting that so-called horizontal price-fixing is "the supreme evil of antitrust."

The ruling ends a long-running legal fight between Apple and the U.S. Justice Department, and paves the way for Apple AAPL 0.58% to start issuing payouts to consumers in a related class-action settlement.

PRH Signs Amazon Sales Agreement
June 18, 2015

Penguin Random House has signed new long-term sales agreements for print and e-book sales with Amazon in both the US and UK, on undisclosed terms.

The agreement was confirmed by Amazon. A PRH spokesperson said: "We do not discuss our relationships with our retail partners. But, as you can see, we still are in business with Amazon, and with all our retail partners, and will continue to be." In the US, Penguin Random House was the last of the original agency publishers to reach a new agreement after its Department of Justice

Epic! Subscription Service Adds Macmillan Kids’ Ebooks
May 22, 2015

Epic!, an ebook subscription service for children, is adding digital titles from Macmillan to its inventory. The service offers access to a library of about 10,000 digital titles for $4.99 per month.

Macmillan will provide "a few hundred" children's e-books to Epic!'s library, according to Epic! cofounder Kevin Donahue. When the Macmillan titles go live in a few weeks, Epic! will have titles from two of the Big Five publishers: HarperCollins and Macmillan.