Round up #72: B&N CFO, E-cyclopaedia Britannica, win an EBR
The ILMK Round ups are short pieces which may or may not be expanded later.
Encyclopaedia Britannica ends print edition
It is the year 1768. The Declaration of Independence for the United States of America is still eight years away.
In Scotland, the first part of the first Encyclopaedia Britannica appears in print.
Over the next 242 years, there will be fifteen main editions published.
On March 14 of this year, in this
the company has announced that it will no longer publish a print edition.
That doesn’t mean that it isn’t doing well…it just means that it is going to drop the paper version and continue with the digital one and its other products.
Still, it does seem significant. It’s possible that this year we will really start to see the implosion of the physical book market (that’s already been happening to mass market paperbacks), and that this is part of it.
Personally, I would have cranked the price way up and kept it in print, but that’s their call.
Still, I’m glad I have my volume from the 1892 set, and several from 1960.
Appy Birthday, Amazon Appstore!
Can you believe that the Amazon Appstore is already a year old?
To celebrate, Amazon is giving special discounts on popular games and apps…and eight Kindle Fires! For the latter, you have to like them on Facebook.
For the other deals (and they will add to it each day through March 22), see the
Amazon Appstore birthday celebration page
Dummies.com giving away four EBRs
Speaking of giveaways, Dummies.com (of the “Such and such for Dummies”) is giving away one Amazon Kindle Fire, one Nook Color Tablet, one Sony Kobo Vox, and one Apple iPad.
There will be four winners, and it looks like which one a winner gets is chosen at random.
You can enter every day (one entry per day) at:
http://etips.dummies.com/contest.asp?sid=ZF53TK622Z5QES6UJVNB&id=141
Barnes & Noble mini round-up
- March 15 -18: $20 off on Nook Simple Touch and Nook Color: press release
- Michael P. Huseby becomes B&N Chief Financial Officer: press release
- Barnes & Noble Recognized As a J.D. Power 2012 Customer Service Champion:press release
Saving the money is an easy one, if you want to get a NOOK. It makes the NOOK Simple Touch $79, the same as Amazon’s non-touch screen Mindle (that’s what I call it, at any rate).
Huseby is an interesting choice, with strength in the digital world…and what I’m going to call “entity management”. The question here is how does this play into the NOOK versus the brick-and-mortar business. A reader sent me a link to an interesting Bloomberg take on it in a private e-mail:
It feels to me like people would see it as a failure if B&N closed (or sold) the brick-and-mortar side of the business, even though it might make good economic sense. The NOOK side is doing very well…if they separated the two, the NOOK business would look great.
The J.D. Power thing is interesting. I always tell people that one of the reasons I recommend the Kindle over the NOOK is that Amazon’s Customer Service has been great for me personally and is highly-rated, and I have had less than satisfactory experiences with Barnes & Noble’s Customer Service (online only…the stores have been fine). There are also policies at B&N I don’t like, which makes it not just my experience.🙂
Well, B&N can certainly be congratulated on making
but since Amazon.com made it as well, that doesn’t mean they are better.🙂
Amazons adds Discovery Communications video titles
Eligible Prime members are getting a lot more choices in the Prime streaming video (which they can watch at no additional cost). In this
Amazon announces a new licensing agreement with Discovery Communications, which includes shows from the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science and Military Channel.
Some of our favorite shows run on these channels…Cake Boss!
This looks like it won’t be the current season, but will include older seasons.
If you are already a Prime member, this enhances the value of your membership.
A highly recommended Agency Model timeline from A Kindle World
You’ve heard me mention Andrys Basten’s A Kindle World blog many times…I consider it one of the best Kindle blogs out there.
Andrys just recently did a particularly good post:
SIMPLER TIMELINE OF KEY ELEMENTS OF EBOOK PRICING WARS
I’ve written already about a reported DoJ (Department of Justice) investigation into the Agency Model (which makes the publisher the “seller of record” for an e-book, allowing them to set the price a consumer pays for the book ((eliminating retailer discounting)).
I highly recommend that you read that article, if you are interested in e-book prices. My guess honestly is that the DoJ and the publishers/Apple lawyers will read Andrys’ post…
So, what do you think? Are you sad about the Britannica dropping the print edition? Surprised? Should Barnes & Noble separate the NOOK business from the brick-and-mortar business? If you win any of the giveaways, I’d love to hear about it.🙂
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
November 6, 2012 at 3:35 am |
[…] six months ago, I reported that the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica was going to stop producing a physical […]