As a prelude to their attendance at the Mobile World Congress, Adobe released some interesting data from over 600 publishers and 1500 tablet applications about the usage of their digital publishing platform. From the press release:The anonymous, aggregate data is derived from publications delivered using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and shows shifts in reading patterns, willingness to pay...
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Pearson announced their preliminary 2011 results and unless you were living under a rock you shouldn't be surprised that they continue to be the poster publisher for revenue growth, operating efficiency, investment and dividend growth. I've been following Pearson for almost 10 yrs and it is uncanny how they underplay their performance all year and deliver consistent performance year after year. ...
Friday, February 24, 2012
Bacon on a StickAnother weekly image from my archive. Click on it to make it larger.Not your typical backyard barbeque from January 1973 in the North of New Zealand where we used to go for weekends. We lived in Auckland for about four years and this would have been right before we left for Australia. ...
We will see more of these types of deals between institutions and educational publishers to provide content Campus wide. This announcement from Cengage is more unusual because it's an entire system. From the press release: - Cengage Learning, a leading global provider of print and digital teaching, learning and research solutions, today announced an agreement with California State University (CSU),...
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The BISG has released a second volume of its research into student attitudes toward content. Here is a summary from their press release:The first installment in Volume Two of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG)'s ongoing Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education survey shows that students are rebelling against the rising costs of textbooks in a variety of ways. Some students are...
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
It's been a while since I've linked to a Beyond the Book interview but here is an interview with Ingram's Chief Content Officer Phil Ollila. Phil speaks about how digital has changed the way Ingram operates and how that transition has enabled them to offer a broader array of services for publishers - especially on an international scale. (BTB)Here is a sample:KENNEALLY: Right. And it...
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
From the Independent "Hollywood ate my Novel"Novelists reveal what it’s like to have their book turned into a movie Literary adaptations rule this year's Oscar nominations. But, for an author, having a book transformed by movie magic isn't always pleasant. Five writers tell Charlotte Philby what it's like to see your creation 'brought to life'. Improving digital music but will we notice? (Economist):Rock-and-roll,...
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
As frequent visitors to PND will know, I have been posting images out of my family archive for about two years now. As it turns out, I've mixed images that were taken early on - that is, they are truly from the family archive versus some I've taken as an adult relatively recently. For most of you, I suspect...
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Nielsen Bookdata recently released a white paper/sales sheet on metadata enhancement which presents some real data on the direct link between deep accurate metadata and increased sales and long term revenue. Unsurprisingly, the document finishes by noting that BookData provides enhanced metadata services for a fee which, assuming publishers don't have the where with all to handle this very basic...
Monday, February 13, 2012
I think I tweeted this article several months ago but I was reminded of it again during a pre-conference session at Tools of Change this morning. The article from the Columbia Journalism Review is a fascinating tale of how an established media outlet - one in many ways pre-disposed to change - struggled to make the right decisions, the right investments and do these at the right time.Here are...
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Interesting experiment to publish a novel via Facebook (Haaretz):Epstein says that his decision to publish his new book on Facebook, where it appears in a photo-album format, was a response to the situation of the publishing market in Israel: "I'm not saying anything new when I say that the vast majority of writers and poets in Israel are unable to make a decent living from their work." The fact...
Friday, February 10, 2012
Dead Parrot Fish Tahiti 1971Another weekly image from my archive. Click on it to make it larger.In the archive there is a sequence of four or five images of an old toothless Tahitian spear fisherman who, from the shoreline, launches a spear into the pacific and comes up this this parrot fish. Despite...
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
The New Media Consortia has been publishing their annual Horizon report on trends in higher education for ten years. To celebrate that effort NMC brought together 100 thought leaders in education for a three day convocation in Austin. The group identified 28 megatrends in education and released a press release that documented the most important first 10. Here from their press release (NMC)...
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Serendipity killed the Internet: Ian Leslie writing in More Intelligent LifeThe word that best describes this subtle blend of chance and agency is “serendipity”. It was coined by Horace Walpole, man of letters and aristocratic dilettante. Writing to a friend in 1754, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had just made by reference to a Persian fairy tale, “The Three Princes of Serendip”....
Friday, February 3, 2012
Boy, Tehran September 1972Another weekly image from my archive. Click on it to make it larger.From September 1972, an Iranian boy wonders where his hair has gone. I was traveling back home to New Zealand with my father and grandfather after having spent almost three months in the UK with my grandfather. ...
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