University press publishers gather to talk about their business. Like all publishers, the university presses are having to reinvent their business. This spring the presses were hit with a glut of textbook returns. It seems students are getting more saavy about used textbooks. One expert warned that “today’s students, tomorrow’s faculty have grown up with technology. This Net Generation’s expectations are defined by Google, Amazon.com, and eBay. They expect everything to be online and everything to be free. They have become a visual culture. They’re moving away from text.”
Tag: 06.19.06
Remaking The Public Theatre
“With its reach, history, and unique mix of uptown glamour and downtown ideals, the Public has long occupied a pivotal place in New York culture, but New York is not what it was when Joseph Papp, the Public’s founder, outdueled Robert Moses to bring Shakespeare to the park. At a complicated time, the place has a uniquely complicated leader. Oskar Eustis is bold and cautious, radical and judicious.”
ABC’s TV Downloads Test A Big Success
Viewers downloaded 11 million shows from ABC.com in a test of free TV downloads for a month. “The ABC.com pilot program in one month outperformed the results Disney had seen in its nine-month partnership with Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes to offer episodes of its hit television shows for download, without commercials, for $1.99 each.”
Apple, Movie Studios Argue Over Pricing Movie Downloads
Apple is negotiating with movie studios to sell movies over iTunes. But there’s a hitch over what the price should be. “As with the recording studios, who have been pressuring Apple to offer different pricing for different songs, the studios want to charge more for their most popular products. But Apple chief executive Steve Jobs wants a flat price of $9.99 per movie.”
Hungarian State Opera Director Fired
Hungarian minister of culture István Hiller has fired Árpád Jutocsa Hegyi, the controversial general director of the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, Italy’s ANSA news agency reports.
What Should Scotland’s National Anthem Be?
“The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has launched an online poll asking users of its website to vote for one of five choices. The contenders are Highland Cathedral, Flower of Scotland, Scots Wha Hae, Scotland the brave and A man’s a man. The anthem debate has been stoked by different sports playing different songs before Scotland matches.”
Trade Association: Chinese Pirates Cost Movie Industry Big Bucks
A movie association group says pirates in Chine cost the movie industry $2.3 billion in revenue last year. “China’s film industry lost about $1.5 billion in revenue to piracy last year, while the major U.S. studios lost $565 million, according to data released on Monday by the Motion Picture Association.”
The Theatre That Ate (Or Energized?) Minnesota…
Minnesota’s Guthrie Theatre has always been a giant on the local theatre scene. But what impact will the theatre’s huge new building have on the Twin Cities? “Will the new Guthrie, with an invigorated regional and national profile, create a rising tide that will help lift all theaters in the area? Or, with its increased need for audience and financial support, will it become the Theater That Ate the Twin Cities?”
Kushner’s Operatic “Angels” More Literally As An Opera
“The rush of time drives ‘Angels in America’ — first as Tony Kushner’s gargantuan Broadway play about AIDS, politics and morality, and now in an operatic setting by Peter Eotvos. Written for the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and produced for an American audience by Opera Unlimited at the Calderwood Pavilion here on Friday night, “Angels” as opera thrives on characters who — in their varying pettiness, nobility, cowardice, heart and sheer size of personality — were operatic before there was music to make them so.”
Daniel Barenboim Takes Leave Of Chicago
“For all that Mr. Barenboim has changed the orchestra’s character, it is not always apparent to one who has not heard a lot of the Chicago Symphony in recent years what, precisely, the new character is. While the sound retains weight and solidity, it tends more to invite listeners in rather than overwhelm them. Perhaps it is a matter not so much of a new personality as of a new versatility.”