Mike Luckwell buys struggling title from Jon Moulton's private equity company, Better Capital, with plan to target over-50sReader's Digest has been sold for just £1 to Mike Luckwell, whose previous major investments have included Bob the Builder creator HIT Entertainment and WPP.Jon Moulton's private equity company, Better Capital, has offloaded Reader's Digest UK – the waiting room staple that was once the biggest selling magazine in the world – after investing tens of millions of pounds into trying to rejuvenate the struggling business.Luckwell, the venture capitalist whose personal fortune is estimated at more than £135m, has acquired the title with the aim of targeting the "frisky over-50s" group that holiday and insurance company Saga has built a successful business on."Saga cleverly focused on holidays and the financial sector for the over-50s, but now has a finger in many pies," Luckwell said. "Today it has annual sales running into hundreds of millions – that merits a bit of competition."Luckwell said the acquisition will provide access to a database of more than 1.5 million names, of which only 9% have recently purchased a Reader's Digest product."There is significant potential to further develop and utilise those large databases," he said.Better Capital took the business out of administration in a £13m management buy-out in April 2010, and has since ploughed a further £23m into the company.The investment failed to fuel a turnaround at the title, which no longer... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#early 1960s
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My Independent Bookshop allows book-lovers to set up a virtual bookstore, share their favorite reads and discover, recommend and review books online. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Total book sales rose 1.0% in 2013 over 2012, to $15.05 billion, at the 1,211 publishers that report results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#american publishers
#report results
Elizabeth Bewley has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers as executive editor based in the NYC office, starting April 14. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#young readers
If you bought a lot of bestsellers, you could see a hefty credit on your Amazon account on Tuesday. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#amazon account
Digital publishing is rapidly becoming a haven for struggling writers—but it turns out the format might hold similar potential for struggling readers too. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2014-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#digital publishing
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Barnes & Noble as disclosed some modifications to its agreement with Microsoft that will give B&N the option to not develop additional Nook Window apps. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#barnes noble
On the one-year anniversary of the service, digital comics locus ComiXology says it now offers more than 1,000 titles through its self-publishing platform Submit. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2014-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#one-year anniversary
Flipboard, an app that displays digital media in magazine-like form on tablets, is acquiring one of its smaller competitors, Zite, for a reported $60 million.As part of the deal, Flipboard will get direct access to all CNN content, including video, as well as CNN personalities like Fareed... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2014-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#including video
#jake tapper
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This essay is excerpted from The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business, by Christopher Leonard, published by Simon & Schuster. Read another excerpt from The Meat Racket, about how Tyson keeps chicken prices high. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vinutha Mallya recaps the highlights of GLOBALOCAL 2014, the 'forum for content' organized by the German Book Office, New Delhi and the Frankfurt Book Fair. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House imprint Vintage Books announces global sales of erotic thriller which started life as Twilight fan fictionOne-hundred-million copies of EL James's erotic trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey, have now been sold around the world, her US publisher announced today.More than 27m of the books,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#dakota johnson
#anastasia steele
During the Lenten season Christians are urged to more deliberately contemplate Christ’s suffering and death. But traditional observances, such as penance and fasting, all too often produce dour expressions instead of spiritual fruits. Three new books hope to resurrect the joyful side of this... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As of this week, E.L. James's Fifty Shades trilogy has sold 100 million copies worldwide, and has spent 100 weeks on the "New York Times" bestseller list. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's hard to read the latest gimmick for infusing a dying industry with cash as anything other than journalism selling its soulThe devil walks into a bar and sits at a table with eight newspaper and magazine publishers plus one strange little fellow in shabby, dated robes. The devil says, "How'd... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The devil walks into a bar and sits at a table with eight newspaper and magazine publishers plus one strange little fellow in shabby, dated robes. The devil says, "How'd you all like to get some advertising revenue at higher rates t ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#native advertising
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Currently soliciting crowdfunding, scheme hopes to transpose website's 2.6bn words onto paper for touring exhibitionIt would run to over a million pages, featuring more than four million articles by 20 million volunteers: an "record-breaking" new project to turn Wikipedia into 1,000 books has... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#successful eventually
Considered too inflammatory to publish in the wake of 1980s UK riots, these tales of anarchic runaways are to be re-released as ebooksMichael de Larrabeiti's classic stories of anarchic, pointy-eared street children the Borribles, which were judged to be so lawless in the 1980s that their... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pocklington - nicknamed Pock - is a small market town in the Yorkshire Wolds, about 13 miles (or 21 kms) from the city of York.Its population of 8,337 is served by a weekly newspaper, the Pocklington Post, which was chosen by its owner, Johnston Press, to pioneer the publishing of user generated... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#online subscriptions
Publishing Perspectives has launched a digital monthly magazine optimized for reading on tablets and screens. Our first issue on Selling & Sales highlights new strategies for boosting book sales. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Business psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic reveals the reasons why the online publisher is so successfulWhen it comes to online content and storytelling, there are few sites as savvy as BuzzFeed, a platform that combines artificial and human intelligence to detect, produce and increase viral... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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