McGraw-Hill Companies

The McGraw-Hill Companies announced in early January that it had restructured parts of its business during the final quarter of 2005, including the elimination of approximately 500 positions. The corporation—a leading global information services provider—released a statement indicating that the restructuring is the result of an effort to enhance its long-term growth prospects. "We are focused on extending the record of consistent growth achieved over the past decade, and the restructuring activities we completed in the fourth quarter have strengthened key capabilities, lowered costs and allowed us to direct resources to areas with the greatest potential for continued growth in the years ahead," said

A new consumer survey finds 70% of readers are ready to buy electronic books if they can read them on any computer. The survey also finds 67% of consumers are ready to read electronic books, and 62% would borrow e-books from the library. The research was sponsored by the Open E-Book Forum (OEBF), an industry trade association that promotes e-book technologies. But if consumers are ready to thumb through electronic pages, sentiment among leading book publishers hasn't changed. They believe consumers and retailers still aren't ready for e-books. Publishers are also wondering how to integrate e-books into manufacturing and distribution workflows originally designed

ONLINE BOOKSELLERS Since it was impossible to include everyone, we offer this listing below as a mere snapshot of the emerging business models in this exploding field. Browse this list to get an idea of how today's book publishers sell their wares--both printed and electronic--online. By spending just a few minutes on the Internet yourself, you will probably find even more companies . . . WHO: www.agoodbook.com, "Your basic $4.95 download" WHAT THEY SELL: e-books downloadable for $4.95; the site has an association with www.amazon.com WHAT FORMAT: PDF, HTML. WHO: www.amazon.com, "Earth's biggest selection" WHAT THEY SELL: printed books, CDs, gifts, DVD and video,