“Macmillan’s success in bending Amazon to its will represents a tipping point in the book industry — a shift in power from online distributors to content owners, who after all, have an effective ‘monopoly’ on every product in their catalogs.”
Tag: 02.01.10
How The iPad Has Already Changed The Publishing Game
Laura Miller: “Ultimately, if the iPad takes off, the Kindle is in serious trouble. In order to maintain the complete, current selection of titles that is one of its device’s great features, Amazon has to be willing to come to terms with publishers.”
Analyzing The Smithsonian’s New Salinger Portrait
“[I]t was jarring to read obituaries of the 91-year-old Salinger last week accompanied by pictures of him in what appeared to be his early 20s. A portrait from a 1961 Time magazine cover reveals a slightly different Salinger: grayer, morose, perhaps beaten. The National Portrait Gallery unveiled the work by Robert Vickrey today.”
Artist Stephen Huneck, Creator Of Dog Chapel, Dies At 61
“Mr. Huneck shot himself, his wife, Gwen, said. She said he had been despondent over having had to lay off most of the employees of his art business [last month]. A largely self-taught carver, Mr. Huneck achieved a level of success that comes to few outsider artists.”
British Theatre’s Oxbridge Fetish Is Obstructing Diversity
“Plenty of professions including law and journalism have an Oxbridge bias, and theatre criticism in particular has been, and continues to be, dominated by people who attended those universities. But why should the same be true of directors – particularly when you’d assume that it is creativity, not academic prowess, that counts on stage?”
Scuffle With Macmillan Was A Public Loss For Amazon
“Amazon, which pulled Macmillan’s titles from its site, came out of the fight with egg on its face. The publisher, meanwhile, won new fans. … Amazon also lost the public relations battle with literary agents, a group that the giant retailer has been trying to woo in recent months.”
Why Does It Feel Like Time Moves Faster As We Get Older?
“This seems to be true across cultures, across time, all over the world. No one is sure where this feeling comes from. Scientists have theories, of course, and one of them is that when you experience something for the very first time, more details, more information gets stored in your memory.”
Irony Alert: Summit Of Documentarians Bars The Media
“RealScreen said that press would be confined to a press room, and any attempt to take cameras or recording equipment outside of it ‘will be monitored and any instances of transgression will be met with expulsion from the event.’ Further, reporters ‘will not be permitted to chase potential subjects down in the halls — that too will lead to expulsion.'”
Obama Budget May Be Bad News For Philanthropy
Under the plan, “tax deductions for charitable donations will be capped at 28% starting in 2011 for individuals earning more than $200,000 and joint-filers whose income tops $250,000. … So an arts philanthropist donating a $1-million gift to a museum or performance group would get a $350,000 tax break this year, but only $280,000 in 2011.”
Protesting Language Quota, Catalan Cinemas Go Dark
“More than 70% of cinema screens in Catalonia, one of the richest regions in Spain, were dark Monday as exhibitors staged a one-day strike in protest against the regional government’s move to force them to screen more films in the Catalan language.”