Barnes & Noble 3rd Quarter Financial Results

Barnes and Noble reported their 3rd quarter numbers today and they were widely discussed and classified as disappointing.  The following is from their press release today:Third quarter consolidated revenues were $2.2 billion, a decrease of 8.8% as compared to the prior year.  Third quarter consolidated...

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Pearson Reports Financial Results

From their press release:Pearson accelerates global education strategy: Restructuring and investment in digital, services and emerging markets for faster growth, larger market opportunity and greater impact on learning outcomes  Financial highlights* Sales up 5% at CER to £6.1bn (with digital and services businesses contributing 50% of sales)Adjusted operating profit 1% higher at £936mAdjusted...

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Report on Use of eBooks in Libraries

An interesting set of research data from Primary Research Group on the penetration and use of eBooks in libraries. The sample size is small and also not focused on one library segment. According to OCLC (hat tip) the study queried corporate, public, academic and government libraries both in the US and overseas.  A total of 68 libraries. There is a sample of the data (here) to look at which...

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MediaWeek (V7, N8): TV Serials, Data Profiling, MOOCs. Wood + More

Serialization - Megan Garber in The Atlantic. The cliffhanger has an obvious narrative value, but it also has a significant social one. And this is part of the debt television now owes to the Internet: services like Facebook and Twitter and their counterparts—not to mention couch-friendly devices like smartphones and tablets—make watching television an increasingly collaborative experience. Trendrr.TV,...

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Wrigley Field 1988

After I graduated from Georgetown my friend and I drove the car of one of our classmates across to Los Angeles.  I then spent the summer in Beverly Hills which has to be one of the best summer vacations ever.  We drove virtually straight across and did the trip in about 2 weeks.  Here we passed...

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Duke University's MOOC Experience

Duke has released a report on what they learned from their Bioelectricity MOOC course they offered in the fall. The full report is here(pdf) but the executive summary is as follows:After only three months for planning and development, Duke University and Dr. Roger Barr successfully delivered a challenging open online course via Coursera to thousands of students around the world. Lessons learned from...

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MediaWeek (V6, N7): NY Public Library, Chinese Textbook Prices, Obligatory Downton, Nielsen's Problem + more

New York Times Interview with Julian Fellows (Fitzwilly to me).Q. This season, in particular, it felt like American viewers were much more aware that “Downton” was showing first in Britain, and were having plot details spoiled months in advance. You may not be able to control this, but would you like the series be shown simultaneously in both regions?A. Well, I would love them to be simultaneous....

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FASTR and Slower?: Proposed Open Access Bill

Yesterday the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR) bill was introduced in Congress by U.S. Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Mike Doyle (D-PA), and Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and the sponsors say the bill is designed to increase the openness, transparency, and accessibility of publicly funded research results. The bill would require public publication/access to all federally funded...

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Time Warner & Meredith - Match made in 1997?

I had an interesting breakfast recently with someone from one of the largest magazine publishers in the world and naturally we spent most of our time talking about digital.  This company had begun to see really interesting data come back on the behavior of their digital subscribers and as the usage data grew larger and larger it was clearly showing that subscriber behavior is not what we thought. ...

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MediaWeek (V6, N6): Google Mapping, Netflix, Higher Ed & Copyright, Library Publishing + More

Gee, I wonder why Google were interested in travel guides. Here James Fallows (Atlantic) interviews Michael Jones of Google about maps (Atlantic).We think there will be a new literature from the mapping dictionary that’s now being built. There’s an Android app we’ve released called Field Trip. You download it, and it says, “I don’t want to bother you, so how often should I talk to you?” You tell...

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South Maui 1978

Ulupalakua and South Maui 1978This view is from Ulupalakua ranch which sits on the south part of Maui and is owned by some friends of the PND family.  We went to school with number one son who now runs things up there.  The PND family moved to Maui in 1977 (about three weeks before Elvis died - although...

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The Big Merger - Interviews with some 'industry experts'

Earlier this year, Book Business Magazine asked some 'industry experts' and I were asked to discuss the pending merger between Random House and Penguin.  Four of us have some interesting perspectives.  Here is my section, but read all of them."Pearson and Random House have been talking about this for a while. They've been intellectualizing it for a lot longer than Simon & Schuster...

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BISG: Making Information Pay for Higher Education

THIS IS THE BISG NEWSLETTER (NOT MINE) REMINDING EVERYONE ABOUT THIS WEEK'S MIP FOR HIGHER ED.Enter my code MIP-INFO at registration for a 20% discount.Web Version  |  Update preferences  |  UnsubscribeLikeTweetForward LAST CHANCE TO REGISTERBISG's signature event for higher...

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