It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons: Robert Maxwell. By Stephen BuranyiIn 2011, Claudio Aspesi, a senior investment analyst at Bernstein Research in London, made a bet that the dominant firm in one of the most lucrative industries in the world was headed for a crash. Reed-Elsevier, a multinational publishing giant with annual revenues exceeding £6bn, was an investor’s darling. It was one of the few publishers that had successfully managed the transition to the internet, and a recent company report was predicting yet another year of growth. Aspesi, though, had reason to believe that that prediction – along with those of every other major financial analyst – was wrong.The core of Elsevier’s operation is in scientific journals, the weekly or monthly publications in which scientists share their results. Despite the narrow audience, scientific publishing is a remarkably big business. With total global revenues of more than £19bn, it weighs in somewhere between the recording and the film industries in size, but it is far more profitable. In 2010, Elsevier’s scientific publishing arm reported profits of £724m on just over £2bn in revenue. It was a 36% margin – higher than Apple, Google, or Amazon posted that year. Related: The high-tech war on science fraud Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital technology is transforming the world of textbook publishing much as it is changing every other aspect of the book world. Digitization is bringing down the cost of textbook content, transforming static print works into interactive learning experiences and allowing publishers to create and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 18/08/2011 - 15:35 Canadian novelist Kate Pullinger has said the power of Amazon, Apple and Google has put publishers in a "difficult situation". read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The good news: Publishers aren't cutting manufacturing and production budgets as much as they did last year. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon moved aggressively to fulfill its new ambition to publish books as well as sell them, announcing that it had signed Timothy Ferriss, the popular self-help guru. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 16/08/2011 - 08:45 The Edinburgh International Book Festival has said it has no relationship with print-on-demand publisher Publish America, after the US firm sent letters to its mailing list of authors promising their books will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Laura Frerer-Schmidt has been named publisher with Rodales Womens Health magazine. Slated to begin her new position on September 6, Frerer-Schmidt comes from Self magazine, where she was associate publisher. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 16/08/2011 - 15:46 Amazon's move into publishing is a "concern" and the business is close to being in a monopolistic position, according to the c.e.o. of HarperCollins. Victoria Barnsley was the latest book trade figure to appear on BBC Radio 4's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 15/08/2011 - 15:49 Waterstones m.d. James Daunt has accused publishers of being lax in not paying enough attention to the physical quality of books while warning bricks and mortar bookshops will not survive unless they are good enough. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 10/08/2011 - 09:40 FIve US publishers and Apple have been named in a US lawsuit alleging the companies "illegally fix prices of electronic books" and that the five publishers "forced Amazon to abandon its discount pricing and adhere to a new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Move Over Rubik's Cube ... There's a New, Addicting Puzzle in Town App: Esquire's Hardest Puzzle Ever Produced by: Esquire magazine (Hearst) Price: First level and sponsor level are free; next four levels cost $4.99 (total) to... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2011-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In my biography of Rupert Murdoch, I referred to News Corporation as Mafia-like, provoking the annoyance of my publishers libel lawyers. I explained to them that I did not mean to suggest this was an organized crime family, but instead was using mafia as a metaphor to imply that News Corp.... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2011-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 08/08/2011 - 16:08 Literary agent Andrew Wylie has said publishers need to "stand firm" in the face of digital companies like Amazon and Apple or risk being locked into an insupportable business model that is unable to reward writers. In an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 05/08/2011 - 14:16 Companies that publish phonics material have warned overseas sales are being lost as a result of a government listing of approved phonics programmes. Last month the Department for Education published a new, slimmed-down list... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Fri, 05/08/2011 - 08:50 Publishers must tighten up their business practices across the developing world or risk falling foul of new anti-bribery legislation, senior figures from the international book trade have said. The Bribery Act, which came... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 03/08/2011 - 09:14 Facebook has bought the innovative ebook publisher Push Pop Press but will not use the company to publish ebooks. The giant social networking website will instead use PPP's platform and technology to give "people even richer... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 29/07/2011 - 14:59 The Random House Group's turnover for 2010 is understood to have been £296m, staying level with 2009. Profit was slightly down on 2009, falling from £44.3m to £42.5m, following a year of digital investment and challenges... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 29/07/2011 - 09:30 Penguin reported lower sales and profits in the first half of 2011 as it adjusted to the "unprecedented challenges" afflicting the publishing sector including the loss of high street booksellers in the US and Australia... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Even though ad exchanges and networks were created to lubricate the buying and selling of digital ad inventory, the system is still far from slippery. One lingering issue is that of transparency: when online publishers cant sell all their inventory directly to advertisers (often at a premium),... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 28/07/2011 - 14:11 Oxford University Press has described a surge in pretax profit by nearly 25% as "excellent", but said it does not underestimate the challenges publishers are facing. The academic publisher has reported pretax profits of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new-releases display at the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle contains both paperbacks and hardcovers. Now publishers often don't wait the traditional year before bringing out paperbacks. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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