ePublishing Week in Weeks – April 1st to 5th, 2013
ePublishing Week in Weeks – April 1st to 5th, 2013
Publishing ANYTHING on .uk? From now, Big Library gets copies
‘Preserving cultural ephemera … FOREVER’
On the same day that thousands of public sector bods will go on strike in a row over pay, pensions and working conditions, new regulations will come into force at midnight tonight allowing the British Library to begin scraping content from UK websites.
Under the rules – known as legal deposit – the country’s biggest collector of publications produced in the UK and Ireland will start harvesting what it described as “ephemeral materials like websites” to ensure that the content is “preserved forever”.
That said, the British Library indicated that the word “forever” was relatively limited, by noting that a record of life and society in 21st-century Blighty might last 50, 100 or even 200 years into the future.
As of midnight the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales, the Bodleian Libraries, Cambridge University Library and the Trinity College Library in Dublin will be granted access to every UK electronic publication.
The £3m-and-counting system, which will capture blogs, ebooks and the entire .UK web domain, follows the same principle under which print publishers are required to supply those libraries with copies of every book, magazine and newspaper published in Britain (and have been required to do so for several centuries).
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/05/british_library_to_harvest_web/
Magazine and Newspaper Publishers Benefit from New Publishing Tools for Windows 8
Traditional publishing companies that focus on newspapers and magazines have been embracing digital over the course of the last few years. In some cases, we are seeing the digital editions outselling their printed counterparts. However, maintaining a fleet of Android and iOS apps can be taxing with all of the different screen size requirements. Many smaller publications are finding it economically unfeasible to develop and maintain dedicated apps. To solve this problem Microsoft and NewspaperDirecthave developed a Windows 8 App Building Program, aimed exclusively at magazine and newspaper publishers.
The new AppBuilding program allows publishers to maintain and develop their own native Windows 8 application. It incorporates the same type of technology that PressReader uses by streamlining XML and graphic heavy content. It will allow publishers to maintain a replica edition of their traditional print edition and convert it to a more e-reader and tablet friendly format. Users can click on the heading of of any given article and be able to strip away the superfluous data and give the user pure text. This is useful for increasing the size of the font or even adopting a read aloud feature.
EU antitrust body gives green light to merger of book publishing giants Random House, Penguin
BRUSSELS – The European Union’s antitrust watchdog on Friday gave its green light to the proposed merger of Penguin and Random House that will create the world’s largest book publisher.
The deal will bring classics like George Orwell’s “1984″ and the recent literary phenomenon “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E.L. James under one umbrella. The merged publisher Penguin Random House is set to control about a quarter of the world’s consumer book market.
Still, the deal does “not raise competition concerns, in particular because the merged entity will continue to face several strong competitors,” the EU Commission said in a statement.
The decision follows a similar unconditional green light by U.S. antitrust authorities in February. The Canadian Competition Bureau and other regulators are still reviewing the deal’s impact.
Random House’s German parent company, Bertelsmann SE, welcomed the EU’s decision in a statement, calling it “another important stage” toward completing the merger.
http://www.680news.com/2013/04/05/eu-antitrust-body-gives-green-light-to-merger-of-book-publishing-giants-random-house-penguin/
Indy publishing legend exits after 32 years
Go ahead and congratulate Deborah Paul on her retirement this month as executive vice president and editorial director of Emmis Communications’ publishing division.
Just don’t call her a legend.
Ugh—makes one seem old, bristles the 65-year-old Paul, who appears to have the energy to do her job for another 32 years.
Like it or not, the longtime publisher of Indianapolis Monthly and head of Emmis magazines in five other markets is a legend.
Paul just doesn’t want to play the role of Mildred Heath, whom she notes in her April column in Monthly was still working at a local Nebraska newspaper until age 101.
Health only got three years of “freedom” until dying at age 104, Paul noted. “It’s a mistake to get off the stage too late,” she told BJ.
Paul’s column reflects her own struggle with the decision to retire. On the other hand, she won’t miss conducting performance reviews, PowerPoint presentations and having to fire another employee. “Too much blood,” she wrote.
http://www.ibj.com/publishing-legend-exits-after-32-years/PARAMS/article/40587
Teen pens book about beatingleukemia
— Turning adversity into opportunity, a local teenager has published a book about her experiences dealing with a life-threatening disease in hopes of inspiring others to persevere.
Christiana Roszik was diagnosed with leukemia at age 4 and battled the debilitating disease until after she turned 8, losing her hair a number of times in the process, until she was at last declared cancer free. Later, encouraged by her family, she wrote a book about it called “Through My Eyes: Leukemia at Age Four.”
“Before writing this book, I never really talked about having leukemia,” said Roszik, now 18. “When I was sick, my mom still let me do things. I did gymnastics and anything else a normal kid would do. It was only those times when I had no hair that I did things differently. But having this book to write let me talk about it all more openly. Before doing that, I would never just go up to somebody and say that I was a cancer survivor.”
http://www.nashobapublishing.com/pepperell_news/ci_22960318/teen-pens-book-about-beating#ixzz2PfCQIYtY
Abu Dhabi International Book Fair: Over 50 publishing experts, 500,000 titles, and more
This year’s exhibition grows by 15% to accommodate hundreds of exhibitors from over 50 countries showcasing over 500,000 titles, offering a mix of cultural, intellectual, commercial publications.
ABU DHABI – The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF) has unveiled a dynamic new events schedule as part of its annual Professional Programme to strengthen the event’s standing as the publishing industry’s leading professional platform in the MENA region.
The comprehensive agenda of panel discussions, presentations, talks and networking opportunities is bigger and better than last year and will run throughout the book fair at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).
The varied and interesting line-up of over 30 sessions will bring together over 50 professional speakers, market leaders and trend setters to share their views on topical publishing topics.
“This will help deliver an accurate and up-to-date assessment of the current state of the book publishing industry and digital content in the Arab region,” said Jumaa Abdulla Al-Qubaisi, Director, ADIBF.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=57878
Macmillan eBooks now Being Discounted
Macmillan was the last company to settle with the US Justice Department in February, when all of the other major publishes had settled months back. We are now seeing some online book sellers discounting book titles from Macmillan.
Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Apple iBooks are discounting eBooks and even matching each others promotional deals. Meanwhile, Kobo and Google books are starting to discount books, but the better deals are found with the big three. For example, the The Silver Linings Playbook has a list price of $9.99, and you can get it from Amazon, Apple and B&N for $7.99.
http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/macmillan-ebooks-now-being-discounted/