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July
2001
PROFIT
LOSS
Harcourt:
Sales rose 8 percent to $454.6 million in the second quarter,
compared to a year earlier, but the company had a net loss due
partly to expenses for its pending sale to Reed Elsevier.
Harcourt (el-hi):
Sales grew 20.6 percent to $90.2 million in the second quarter,
compared to a year earlier, with gains in all disciplines.
Harcourt (college):
Sales fell 0.8 percent to $50.7 million in the second quarter,
compared to a year earlier.
Harcourt (STM):
Sales grew 1.4 percent to $165.8 million in the second quarter,
compared to a year earlier, boosted by the Academic Press, Harcourt
Health Sciences, and international divisions.
Wiley: Sales
grew 1 percent to $613.8 million in the latest fiscal year and
net income grew 15 percent to $58.9 million. Domestic STM sales
grew 4 percent, education sales 3 percent.
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R.I.P.
Cliff Hillegass
Cliff Hillegass,
founder of Cliff's Notes, died in May after a stroke. He was 83.
Hillegass wrote the guides himself from his basement.
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Chicago
Press vet Kaiserlian to Virginia
CHICAGO,
July 1, 2001 -- The associate director at University of Chicago
Press for 32 years, Penelope Kaiserlian, resigned to take over
the University of Virginia Press. Kaiserlian said she was attracted
to Virginia partly by a pledge of $650,000 to develop a web imprint.
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Tasini
response: Lexis-Nexis to trim sites
NEW YORK,
July 1, 2001 -- The Lexis-Nexis databases will begin deleting
material that was posted without author permission from the New
York Times, Time Warner and other media companies, said Michael
Jacobs, vice president and general counsel. The deletions will
bring Lexis-Nexis into conformity with a U.S. Supreme Court decision
last week that said author permission is needed before their work
is put into online databases. About the decision, Jacobs said:
"We are disappointed. It has the effect of compromising our database."
At the same time, he said. the loss will be only a minor part
of three billion documents from 30,000 sources on Lexis-Nexis.
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Web courses
may have new copyright latitude
WASHINGTON,
July 1, 2001 -- The Senate passed a bill to allow professors
to build movie clips and popular songs into web courses without
copyright infringement worries. Sponsors Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont,
and Orrin hatch, R-Utah, said the bill recognizes new digital
realities in higher education. A similar bill has been introduced
in the House by Rick Boucher, D-Virginia.
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Librarians:
Tasini a "major pronouncement"
WASHINGTON,
July 1, 2001 -- The American Library Association and the Association
of Research Libraries commended the Supreme Court's author-friendly
opinion in the Tasini electronic rights case, saying the
decision "represents a major pronouncement on issues of copyright
law in the digital age." Both library groups submitted a friend-of-the-court
brief in support of the freelancers. The Supreme Court's decision,
they said, recognized their belief that there were "constructive
ways" to deal with the outcome of the case "which would be fair
to the freelance authors, commercial database publishers, and
the public." The Supreme Court's decision also affirmed that microfiche
and microfilm do not constitute copyright infringement, the library
groups said in a statement. That recognition maintains the historical
record of periodicals and newspapers contained in the nation's
libraries -- "a matter of utmost importance to librarians," the
statement said.
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Three texts
proposed already for TAA awards
ST. PETERSBURG,
FLORIDA, July 1, 2001 -- With the 2001 Texty and McGuffey
awards presented less than a month ago, project administrator
Janet Tucker already has received three proposals at Text and
Academic Authors' headquarters for nominations for the 2002 awards.
"We normally don't call for nominations until October," said Tucker.
"Never before have we had interest shown this early." The awards,
which recognize excellence, were launched in 1992 and 1993 and
have become the Academy Awards of textbooks and learning materials.
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NWU:
Publisher liability $600 million
NEW YORK,
July 1, 2001 -- The National Writers Union estimates the publishing
industry's potential liability for the unauthorized use of freelance
writers' material on electronic databases and CD-ROMs could be
as much as $600 million. The union based on the figure on a survey
of 25,000 freelance writers. The union's president, Jonathan Tasini,
was the lead plaintiff in challenging the publisher presumption
that authors had no rights to material being recycled for digital
sale. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has found for the authors,
the task for publishers is to figure out how to compensate authors.
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College
stores extend on-demand inventory
LAVERGNE,
Tennessee, July 1, 2001 -- The print-on-demand company Lightning
Source will place 30,000-plus titles in more than 3,500 college
bookstores. A deal between Lightning and an association of campus
stores, NacsCorp, will allow stores to tap into Lightning's database
and print out books almost instantly for customers in either traditional
printed format or as e-books for delivery by the web. Pamela Sedmak,
president of NacsCorp, said: "Through this alliance, NacsCorp
will be able to provide a seamless way for college stores to benefit
from the leading edge print-on-demand capabilities of Lightning
Source and the impressive selection of titles available in their
digital library."
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College
textbook deal in ethics probe
OLYMPIA,
Washington, July 3, 2001 -- Auditors asked for a state ethics
investigation into whether a former community college president
set up college contracts for e-Werkz.com, an online bookseller,
just ahead of taking an executive job with the company. According
to the auditors, Gary Oertli facilitated a contract at his Shoreline
Community College and also at Bellevue and Spokane community colleges.
The Ethcis Board voted unanimously to investigate. Oertli denied
"inappropriate behavior."
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Princeton
Review goes public
PRINCETON,
New Jersey, July 3, 2001 -- Workbook publisher Princeton Review,
which is expanding into web ventures, raised $59 million with
an initial public offering of stock. Investors bought 5.4 million
shares at $11. Most Princeton Review products are published by
McGraw-Hill and Random House.
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Guild sues
New York Times on e-rights
NEW YORK,
July 3, 2001 -- The Authors Guild sued the New York Times
with a new charge of infringement for selling freelance articles
through electronic databases. The Guild asked the court to give
the suit class-action status, which could mean damages for all
freelancers whose work for the Times has been sold on the
Internet. The issue is the same as in the Tasini case,
which the U.S. Supreme Court decided in May in favor of freelancer
Jonathan Tasini and five fellow members of the National Writers
Union.
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TAA calls
on seasoned authors for McGuffey, Texty judging
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, July 4, 2001 -- The staff administrator for Text
and Academic Authors awards program, Janet Tucker, issued a call
for judges for next year's McGuffey and Texty award. Tucker asked
experienced authors to volunteer for the genres in which they
write. Entries are mailed to judges in December.
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OverDrive
adds Fathom web site
NEW YORK,
July 5, 2001 -- A provider of online learning services for
professional development and lifelong learning, Fathom, entered
an agreement with e-book developer OverDrive so people can download
learning content, including lectures, interviews, articles and
other materials, from fathom.com, Fathom carries content from
about a dozen institutions, including Columbia University, the
London School of Economics and Political Science, Cambridge University
Press and the New York Public Library.
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TAA seeks
committee members
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, July 5, 2001 -- Members of Text and Academic Authores
were asked to volunteer to service on new asscoaition committes.
In a mailing to members, Executive Director Ron Pynn listed committees
that will deal with key issues:
- Awards
- Author
relations
- Budget
- Convention
- E-journal
- Ethics
- Grants
- Author
organizations liaison
- Membership
- Nominations
- Awards
- Publisher
relations
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Thomson
chooses agency for textbook sale
NEW YORK,
July 6, 2001 -- Canada-based Thomson hired a New York firm,
Berkery, Noyes, to manage the government-mandated sale of college
textbooks for 38 courses. The books include some existing Thomson
titles and some titles being acquired from Harcourt. The U.S.
Anti-Trust Division required the sale as a condition of Britain-based
Reed Elsevier's acquisition of Harcourt, a deal in which Reed
is selling the whole Harcourt college list to Thomson. In addition,
the government is requiring that Thomson divest itself of the
ASI testing unit. Merrill Lynch is handling that sale separately.
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Tasini
damages issue back in first court
NEW YORK,
July 6, 2001 -- The resolution of the Tasini electronic
rights case is back in the U.S. District Court where it originated.
The issue: How much publishers owe authors for recycling their
work without permission in digital formats, including digital
databases. The case was remanded to the court of riginal jurisdction
by the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed with the authors that
their copyright interest in their work had been infringed. The
district court also will be considering three other class-action
infringement suits that had been held up until the Supreme Court
spoke on Tasini:
- Laney
v. Dow Jones
- Authors
Guild v. Dialog Group
- Posner
v. Gale Group
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Michigan:
"Total transformation" ahead
ANN ARBOR,
Michigan, July 6, 2001 -- The incoming director of the University
of Michgan Press, Philip Pochoda, said he plans "A total transformation:
toward books that will return a profit in the marketplace. The
goal is to make scholarship available to the broadest audience
possible, Pochoda said. Schoalrly monographs now account for 85
percent of Michigan's list. The commitment to monographs will
continue, but the Press' overall focus will change dramatically,
he said.
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NWU: Times
still erring with freelancers
NEW YORK,
July 7, 2001 -- The National Writers Union will sue the New
York Times -- again -- for how it deals with freelance
writers. The Union, fresh from Jonathan Tasini's Supreme Court
victory over the Times, said the newspaper is improperly
asking freelance contributors to waive their rights to compensation
for work that appeared in databases.
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Vivendi-Houghton
almost a done deal
PARIS,
July 8, 2001 -- France-based media giant Vivendi Universal
completed its cash tender offer to acquire 90 percent of the shares
of U.S. education publisher Houghton Mifflin, the company announced.
The offer was through Vivendi subsidiary Soraya Merger. Now Soraya
will be merged into into Houghton to complete the deal "as soon
as practicable."
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Tasini
comment: Homage to Clio? Give me a break
NEW YORK,
July 8, 2001 -- The newspaper trade journal Editor & Publisher
chastised the New York Times and other publishers and data
base operators who said posterity would suffer now that the U.S.
Supreme Court is requiring them to remove thousands of freelance
items from the web. "The idea that publishers rushed to create
electronic archives for the sake of history is pretty amusing,"
said E&P in an editorial. "In the early days of the Internet,
publishers were not so disingenuous about why they were 'repurposing'
their archives. Then as now, the goal weas to make money off the
morgue -- not to honor Clio, muse of history."
EXCERPT:
"Now publishers are bumping up against one of history's oldest
lessons: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Back when
they thought writers wouldn't notice, publishers tried to create
a lucrative new use for free-lance work without making any bothersome
extra payments to the writers. The Supreme Court called them on
it." --Editor & Publisher
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R.I.P.
Mortimer Adler
Mortimer
Adler, who developed the Great Books program, died at his
home in San Mateo, California. He was 98. He was a long-time editor
of Encyclopedia Britannica.
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To TAA's
awards judges: Thanks
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, July 10, 2001 -- The judges are the key to the reputation
of Text and Academic Authors' excellence awards, the McGuffeys
and Textys, said Janet Tucker, the association's awards project
coordinator. For the 2001 awards, 24 veteran authors did the judging,
Tucker said. To maintain the pristine reputation of the awards,
Tucker never releases the names beore the awards are announced.
Now that the awards have been presented, Tucker thanked the judges
publicly:
- Bill Anderson
(engineering), University of Michigan
- Michael
Barbour (botany), University of California, Davis
- Donna Besser
(mass communication), Carbondale, Illinois University
- Warren
Bovée (journalism), Marquette University
- Don Collins
(math), Western Kentucky University
- Charles
Corbin (physical education), Phoenix, Arizona
- Michele
de Cruz-Saenz (literature), Willingford, Pennsylvania
- Michael
Cummings (biology), Chicago
- Dwight
DeWerth-Pallmeyer (communication), Widener
- Terry Giles
(Biblical studies), Gannon University
- John Harley
(biology), Richmond, Kentucky
- Jack Hermance
(environmental geophysics), BrownUniversity
- Edward
R. Jones (physics), University of South Carolina
- Mike Keedy
(math), Purdue University
- Kim King
(computer science), Georgia State University
- Charles
Lytle (biology), Raleigh, North Carolina
- Lee Mountain
(reading), University of Houston
- Ron Pynn
(political science), University of North Dakota
- John Russo
(computer science), Wentworth Institute of Technology
- Frank
Silverman (speech disorders), Marquette University
- Mike Sullivan
III (math), Joliet Junior College
- Ed Tarbuck
(earth science), Illinois Central College
- Denisse
Thompson (math), University of South Florida
- Michael
Zelik (astronomy), Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Reed-Harcourt
deal wins British OK
LONDON,
July 10, 2001 -- The British minister for competition approved
Europe-based media giant Reed Elsevier's plan to acquire Harcourt
General, a major player in the U.S. school and textbook market.
The decision, the last regulatory hurdle for the acquisition,
followed the recommmendation of the British Competition Commission.
The U.S. Justice Department approved the deal earlier. To clear
the way for the approval, Reed said it would sell Harcourt's college
publishing business to Thomson.
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Interim
group to discuss newsletter, site
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, July 10, 2001 -- The six-member Text and Academic
authors executive committee, newly created to take up association
business between semiannual TAA Council meetings, will have its
first telephone conference call on July 18. Ron Pynn, executive
director, said the agenda includes the association's web site
and newsletter. Also, a report on the Authors Coalition is expected
from Michael Sullivan, TAA's delegate to the coalition. Besides
Pynn and Sullivan, executive committee members are Peggy Stanfield,
president; Mary Kay Switzer, secretary; John Wakefield, treasurer;
and Michael Lennie, convention program chair.
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TAA textbook
archive on web soon
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, July 10, 2001 -- The Text and Academic Authors textbook
archive will be posted in an online catalog by the end of the
year, according to Kathy Arsenault, interim director at the University
of South Florida-St. Petersburg library, The TAA archive, comprised
of books by TAA authors, is part of the USF's special collections.
the library has begun revamping its web site. The site could be
up as early as September, December at the latest, Arsenault said,
She made her update report during a visit to TAA's USF headquarters
by former TAA Council member Lee Mountain, a Universty of Houston
reading author.
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On the
block: 68 Harcourt, Thomson titles
WASHINGTON,
July 11, 2001 -- As a condition for approving the Reed acquisition
of Harcourt, the U.S. Antitrust Division insisted that 68 textbooks
used in 38 high-enrollment college courses be sold to another
publisher. Because Reed is selling the Harcourt college list to
Thomson, some of the books, 26, are came from Harcourt and some,
42, from Thomson. Without the divestiture, the antitrust division
said would have been anticompetitive situation would have led
to higher prices and lower quality for textbooks. The 68 titles
are for courses in accounting, chemistry, communication, criminal
justice, economics, foreign language, management, marketing, math,
music, philosophy, psychology, environmental science, nutrition,
and finance.
Complete
list of books
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Why Mike
Keedy didn't make San Antonio
BARLOW,
Florida, July 11, 2001 -- The excited rumor at Text and Academic
Authors' national convention was that the association's founder,
retired math prof Mike Keedy, would be attending. Everybody knew
the Menger was Keedy's favorite hotel. Indeed, it had been the
site of TAA's 1989 convention. Ron Pynn, executive director, was
all set for Keedy to present the annual Mike Keedy award for distinguished
service. But Mike never showed. It turned out he was on his way
when a knee started acting up. He decided to bypass San Antonio.
"I did make it to Colorado and my family reunion," said Keedy,
now back home in Barlow from the motorhome expedition west. "The
decision to bypass San Antonio was the right one but difficult."
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Publisher
e-claims take hit in Rosetta case
NEW YORK,
July 11, 2001 -- From the perspective of Random House, the
closely watched Rosetta e-rights case took a bad turn. Federal
Judge Sidney Stein denied a Random House request for an injunction
to prevent upstart e-publisher Rosetta from issuing works that
were first published by Random House. Random argued that its non-compete
clause with authors meant that another publisher couldn't re-issue
their books, including e-books -- even though nobody anticipated
e-books back when the contracts were signed. Judge Stein said
no reasonable person would make the jump that digital books are
the same as ink-on-paper books. Next step: Possibly a trial.
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Phoenix,
major publishers in e-deals
PHOENIX,
Arizona, July 11, 2001 -- The giant University of Phoenix,
which runs 90,000 students through five-week and six-week courses,
has signed up McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Thomson and Wiley to develop
a wide range of multimedia materials, including electronic textbooks.
Publishers are eager for Phoenix business because the university's
textbook commitments generally are long-term. Also, the percentage
of Phoenix students who buy textbooks is unusuaully high. Most
are upper-division and graduate adult learners at remote sites,
Beta testing began in July.
Phoenix
making long-term e-commitments
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At stake
in Rosetta case: Backlist revenue
PHILADELPHIA
July 12, 2001 -- A federal judge's recent ruling against Random
House in the Rosetta e-rights case could liberate authors
from the threat of publisher squatting on their books, an attorney
for Rosetta said. The impact of the decision depends on whether
Random House accepts the judge's ruling or pushes the issue into
a trial, Michael Boni told the Wall Street Journal. The
ruling could become precedent if Random House abandons its claim,
Boni said. Rosetta is a new e-publisher that has arranged with
authors Robert B. Parker, William Styron and Kurt Vonnegut to
issue their works in e-form. The works all were published earlier
by Random House in print format. If Rosetta and the authors prevail,
publishers revenue from backlists could suffer.
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Reed winds
up Harcourt borrowing plan
LONDON,
July 12, 2001 -- Now that Reed Elsevier has final governmental
permission to acquire U.S. publishing house Harcourt, it is wrapping
up its borrowing program to pay for the $4.5 million acquisition.
Reed announced plans to sell $1 billion in bonds to help finance
the deal. Earlier the company sold additional equity shares for
$1.6 billion.
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REED ELSEVIER
Reed Elsevier's
2000 revenues exceeded $5 billion. Only 5 per cent was from educational
publishing About 44 percent was from the business division, which
sponsors trade shows and publishes Variety, Publishers Weekly
and other trade journals. The legal division, which includes
the Lexis-Nexis databases, contributed 31 percent. Science and
medical publishing contributed 18 percent.
Reed Elsevier
aspires to be a stronger global player, mostly through acquisitions
and internal growth. The company is weak in Asia, Latin America
and parts of Europe. The 2001 acquisition of Harcourt, a U.S.
educational publisher, will make Reed the fourth largest player
in that segment in the United States -- even after shedding Harcourt's
college program, which government regulators required for anti-trust
reasons.
Reed Elsevier
was created in 1993 with the merger of Reed International of Britain
and Elsevier of the Netherlands. They had been rivals in science,
medical and technology publishing. The new company had a rough
start with separate boards of directors, one in London and one
in Amsterdam. Crispin Davis was brought in from Procter & Gamble
as chief executive in 1999. Davis replaced 11 of 12 top-level
managers and pared costs to improve profitability. To beef up
Lexis, which was faltering behind competitor Westlaw, he hired
away a West executive and put him in charge. Meanwhile, the two
boards have been consolidated.
Investors
have taken a shining to Reed Elsevier, which trades in London.
Since October 1998 shares have risen 80.7 percent.
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Poll find
upbeat data on teen reading
WASHINGTON,
July 12, 2001 -- Teenagers rate reading more important to
their futures than math, writing, science and even computers,
a new survey by the National Education Association says. The conclusions
were drawn from a sample of 500 teenagers. Eighty-seven percent
characterized reading as relaxing. Thirty percent called reading
boring or dull. Forty-one percent reported reading more than 15
books in the last year, almost half for pleasure. The leading
readers were minorities, first blacks, then Hispanics.
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University
press deficits running high
WASHINGTON,
July 12, 2001 -- University presses have suffered their worst
financial year in recent memory, the Chronicle of Higher Education
reported. Harvard ran its first deficit in 10 years. Other major
presses, including the University of California Press, have been
hit hard too, the Chronicle said. Much of the downturn
has been with returns. Retailer Barnes & Noble reportedly has
had a 49 percent return rate with Princeton University Press.
Textbook returns have been substantial.
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Random
considering next Rosetta step
NEW YORK,
July 12, 2001 -- Random House executives are caucusing on
what to do with their claim that e-book publisher Rosetta is infringing
on Random House rights. After a federal judge denied Random House's
request for a preliminary injunction against Rosetta Books, Random
spokesman Stuart Applebaum said: "There will be a next step from
Random House, but we have not yet decided what it is. We stand
by our view that an e-book is a book." Random argues that it has
a contractual proprietary interest in e-versions of the books
it has published in print form. Judge Sidney Stein saw the issue
otherwise in refusing to bar Rosetta from proceeding with e-versions
of old Random House titles: "Because Random House cannot establish
a prima facie case of copyright infringement, it is not likely
to succeed on the merits and is not entitled to a presumption
of irreparable harm. Random House has made no showing of irreparable
harm; therefore, it cannot meet the test for obtaining a preliminary
injunction."
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Top-paid
exec: McGraw at $2.3 million
NEW YORK,
July 13, 2001 -- Salaries in the U.S. book industry shot up
9 percent on average in the year 2000, according to the annual
survey by trade journal Publishers Weekly. Presidents at
the largest houses averaged $511,000 led again in 200 by Terry
McGraw's at McGraw-Hill: $2.3 million. Senior vice presidents
averaged $342,500. In editorial, averages ranged from $30,000
for editorial assistants to $155,000 for top editors. Methodologcally,
the survey is less than perfect, based on responses from 600 PW
readers, supplemented by publicly available data, but it is the
only effort to track such data. Leading salaries:
| McGraw-Hill |
Terry
McGraw
Chairman, president,
chief executive officer |
$2.3
million |
| Harcourt |
Brian
Knez
President,
co-chief operating officer |
$1.8
million |
| Wiley |
William
Pesce
President,
chief executive officer |
$1.1
million |
| Houghton
Mifflin |
Nader
Darehshori
Cahiman, presiident,
chief executive officer |
$806,000 |
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Pearson:
No profit from web investment yet
WASHINGTON,
July 14, 2001 -- Britain-based education publisher Pearson
has been throwing scads of seed money at e-projects and losing
it. In papers filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commisison,
Pearson reported putting $130 million into web operations in the
year 2000 and scoring less than $5 million in sales. In all of
its operations, including the Financial Times and Penguin
Books, Pearson reported web endeavor losses of $294 million.
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U-presses
urged to fill trade vacuum
TORONTO,
July 14, 2001 -- The bottom-line mentality of commercial publishing
houses is squeezing lots of wonderful material out of the marketplace,
and creating an opportunity for unversity presses if only they
would realize it, said author-critic Jay Parini. "This is an age
of corproate censorship, when economic perogatives are dominant,"
Parini rold the American Association of University Presses convention.
"If university presses cannot see this as a mandate, we are in
a very deepc crisis indeed." Parini called on university presses
to seek out trade book opportunities even at the risk of altering
their traditional role. In a slap at the monographs that dominate
most university press catalogs, Parini said: "Put your foot down
and refuse to publish any book you can't understand."
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Scholar
compares scholarly title outputs
NEW YORK,
July 15, 2001 -- In relative terms, university presses kept
pace with commercial scholarly publishers in title output through
the 1990s, according to preliminary data from a study by book
industry scholar Albert Greco at Fordham University. University
press out is 12,000 titles and commercial output 40,000 -- both
about double over the 10-year period of the study. Commercial
houses have higher retail prices, $59 on average in 2000 compared
to $42 from university presses, Greco said. He noted, though,
that price differentials range widely by discipline.
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Modest
salary gains expected in book industry
NEW YORK,
July 16, 2001 -- Salaries for rank-and-file book industry
employees probably aren't keeping pace with the 9 percent increase
of 2000, said Jim Milliot, senior editor at the trade journal
Publishers Weekly. Milliot blamed the weak economy, the
dot-com implosion and soft sales. He drew his conclusion partly
from salary expectations solicited from respondents to the annual
PW reader survey.
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Nasco to
absorb American Education
BOULDER,
Colorado, July 156, 2001 -- Schol supplement publisher American
Education Products will be meged into Nasco International, a privately
held company. AEP will operate as a subsidiary, the company said.
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Brits consider
journal pricing probe
LONDON,
July 16, 2001 -- The British Office of Fair Trading said it
may investigate pricing in the academic publishing industry. The
concern stemmed from comments by a separate agency, the Competition
Commission, in evaluating the Reed Elsevier acquisition of Harcourt
-- a deal that has been approved. The only company specifically
named in the comments was Taylor & Francis. Other players in the
British scientific, medical and technical publishing field include
Blackwell, Elsevier Science, Harcourt , Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins, Springer Verlag, and Wiley.
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Reed delivers
titles to Thomson
NEW YORK,
July 16, 2001 -- Pieces are falling into place in the complex
Reed Elsevier takeover of Harcourt. Canada-based media giant Thomson
announced it had completed its acquisition of selected Harcourt's
college list from Reed Elsevier -- a $2 billion that also includes
Harcourt's corporate training and assessment businesses. Thomson
said plans are proceeding for the sale of 68 college textbooks
from its list and from Harcourt's list, as required by U.S. anti-trust
authorities. The sales are expected to take place during a 120-day
period that started June 27.
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Palgrave
joins Questia.com roster
HOUSTON,
Texas, July 17, 2001 -- The Questia web subscription service,
aimed at collegiate researchers, has added Palgrave content from
Holtzbrinck. Questia now claims 225 oublishers with 45,000 books
and journals.
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Guild:
Times distorting Tasini opinion
NEW YORK,
July 17, 2001 -- The president of the Authors Guild, Letty
Cottin Pogrebin, says the behavior of the New York Times
since losing the Tasini e-rights case prompted the Guild
to go to court. The Times, she noted, has been claiming
that the U.S. Supreme Court decision compelled it to purge articles
from electronic archives unless writers come forward to say to
leave the articles alone. But, said Pogrebin, the Court didn't
say that. The Court stressed that these issues could be resolved
through licensing systems, she said, noting that the Guild operates
one such system. Another liceensing system is operated by the
National Writers Union. Said Pogrebin: "The Authors Guild has
taken this action to protect the economic interests of our members
and all freelance writers."
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School
sales way ahead of year earlier
WASHINGTON,
July 17, 2001 -- School boak sales are soaring. The latest
monthly report from the Association of American Publishers reported
el-hi sales through May running 15.1 percent ahead of a year earlier.
As extrapolated from 82 reporting publishing houses, college sales
were up 4 percent. Here are the AAP data for genres iun which
most text and academic authors write:
| El-hi |
15.1 percent |
| College |
4.0
percent |
| University
press (hardcover) |
-1.3
percent |
| University
press (paperback) |
-5.1 percent |
| Professional |
-14.3 percent |
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Random
House on Rosetta: We will appeal
NEW YORK,
July 17, 2001 -- Random House will appeal the denial of its
request for a preliminary injunction to bar Rosetta Books from
issuing former Random House titles in e-form. Random House attorney
Harriette Dorsen said that U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein
erred in denying Random's reqauest for an injunction by creating
two "new use" precedents: "Random House believes that the District
Court misconstrued the prior cases dealing with 'new' technological
uses' by emphasizing the mode of delivery as opposed to the content.
The e-book contains the exact same text as the print book." In
a tangentially related announcement, Random House said it will
release classics from its backlist in e-book form, including Truman
Capote's In Cold Blood and nine Raymond Chandler novels.
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Torstar
sells Delta to investment group
NASHUA,
New Hampshire, July 19, 2001 -- Math and science education
publisher Delta Education was sold by the Canada-based media company
Tortsra toWicks Grioup, a New York detailed. The company invests
in a wide range of communiatiuons, information and media businesses.
Delat is one of several children's supplementary units that Torstar
has been selling off.
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TAA ponders
newsletter, site future
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, July 19, 2001 -- The new Text and Academic Authors
executive committee decided it needed more information from the
association's editor, John Vivian, before recommending a course
for the TAA web site and newsletter. Vivian told the TAA Council
in June he would resign at the end of the year to devote more
time to writing textbooks. Ron Pynn, TAA executive director, told
the executive committee that he would review a range of options
with Vivian. "We all would like to find a way to persuade John
to stay," Pynn said.
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First Swedish
photocopy money en route
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, June 19, 2001 -- A $78,000 shot-in-the-arm for Text
and Academic Authors' budget can be expected soon from Swedish
reprographic collections, TAA Vice President Michael Sullivan
told the association's executive commitete in a conference call.
The amount is close to what Sullivan had projected earlier. The
money, the first ever from Sweden for U.S. authoring groups, will
come from through U.S. Authors Coalition, which channels reprographic
fees collected abroad for U.S. works and divvies them up among
U.S. authoring groups. Sullivan said that reprography income from
Norway, which has funded a major part of TAA's activities in recent
years, will be down this year.
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Authors
picket Times on Tasini course
NEW YORK,
June 20, 2001 -- Two-hundred authors formed a protest line
outside the New York Times offices to protest the newspaper's
response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Tasini
case. After losing its appeal, the Times first refused
to talk with authors. Later the newsaper issued a statement that
it had "opened discussions with the plaintiffs' lawyers." Meanwhile,
however, the company continues deleting freelance-written articles
by the thousands from databases like Nexis without, at this point,
attempting to compensate the authors for the years that the articles
were online and generating revenue for the company.
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New publishers'
dilemma: Where have all the authors gone?
FORT WORTH,
Texas, July 20, 2001 -- As the U.S. professoriate ages, the
pool of faculty from which publishers traditionally have recruited
authors is dwndling, said a Harcourt acqusitions editor. In an
interview, John Swanson noted that recently tenured associate
professors were the bulwark of college textbook authors -- seasoned
and confident in their teaching yet with several years of writing
time before retiring. Swanson, of Harcourt, said the problem is
being exacerbated by the growing number of part-time faculty and
professors on one-year contracts. As a group, these are not strong
candidates for textbook authoring, Swanson said.
Author
pool dwindling
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Vivendi
touting Houghton synergies
PARIS,
July 21, 2001 -- France-based Vivendi Universal, which recently
bought U.S. education publisher Houghton Mifflin, told investors
that synergies from the merger will boost pre-tax income at least
$75 million a year by the end of 2002. The gain will be partly
through production, warehousing and distribution efficiencies
in the United States and corporate restructuring. Vivendi paid
$2.2 billion for Houghton.
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Reed merges
Rigby, Steck-Vaughn
LONDON,
July 21, 2001 -- Britain-based Reed Elsevier combined Rigby
Education, its supplemental educational unit, with Steck-Vaughn,
which it acquired in buying Harcourt. Steck-Vaughn is the largest
U.S. supplemental publisher. Steven Korte, president of Rigby,
will be in charge of the merged operation, Reed announced. The
new unit will be called Harcourt Supplemental Publishers. Steck-Vaughn
chief Ron Cox has left the company. Rigby will remain in Barrington,
Illinois, and Steck-Vaughn in Austin, Texas.
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Thomson
closing Harcourt college office
FORT WORTH,
Texas, June 22, 2001 -- Mega-publisher Thomson, based in Canada,
will close the higher-ed division of Harcourt in Fort Worth in
September. Thomson made the announcement three days after sealing
its deal to buy Harcourt's higher-ed assets from Reed Elsevier
of Britain. About 250 employees will be affected. Thomson said
it would offer some of them jobs elsewhere in the company. Thomson
also announced there will be vacancies at facilities in Boston;
San Francisco; Cincinnati; and Florence, Kentucky. Those vacancies
will result from new efficiencies in combining Harcourt higher-ed
operations with its own, Thomson said.
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Feds mum
on Thomson divestiture details
WASHINGTON,
July 24, 2001 -- The U.S. Antitrust Division won't disclose
how it settled on the titles that Thomson is being required to
divest in its acquisition of the Harcourt college list. Antitrust
spokesperson Jill Cumbey Stillman said the entire Reed-Harcourt-Thomson
transaction, although approved, is still under review. So, she
said, the division cannot discuss details of how and why it chose
the 68 titles from both the Harcourt and Thomson lists to be divested.
Had affected authors complained? Or adopters? Or competitors?
No comment.
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TAA ponders
hotel for San Diego convention
SAN DIEGO,
California, July 25, 2001 -- The Horton Grand Hotel in San
Diego's historic Gaslamp District is being considered for the
2002 Text and Academic Authors national convention, TAA's convention
site planner, Michael Sullivan, said. The hotel was recommended
by Alana Lennie, who scouted possibilities for husband Michael
Lennie, chair for the San Diego convention program. The convention
will be June 21 and 22. The Horton Grand was rebuilt brick-by-brick
in 1986 from two previous hotels in the Gaslamp District, which
specializes in shopping, entertainment and dining.
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Times
shifts freelancer ploy slightly
NEW YORK,
July 27, 2001 -- The New York Times reworded its web
site notice to freelance contributors to clarify that they could
lose out financially if they sign over their electronic rights
retroactively. The Times has been under pressure from the
Authors Guild, which says the newspaper was seeking to deprive
freelancers of payments they might be due for their materials
that the Times has been reselling on the web. Times spokesperson
Toby Usnik told the Wall Street Journal that the company's
attorneys recommended the rewording. The Times is the subject
of an Authors Guild class-action suit that challenges the newspaper's
response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Tasini decision. In Tasini,
publishers were faulted for reselling freelance materials online
without seeking permission from the authors or sharing the profits.
After the decision, the Times declined to settle its author
debts through licensing systems set up by the Guild and the National
Writers Union. Instead, the Times has used its web site
to ask freelancers to turn over the rights. The ultimatum-like
alternative: The Times said it would purge the materials
from web resale outlets like Nexis.
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Reed, Vivendi
dancing in yet another deal
LONDON,
July 28, 2001 -- Paris-based media giant Vivendi has been
in talks with Reed Elsevier of London to buy Vivendi's professional
publishing unit, the private equity company Apax confirmed. Press
speculation has Bertelsmann of r also being interested. The value
of the Vivendi profssional publishing unit has been pegged at
$1.6 billion. Vivendi needs the money to help pay for its acquisiton
of U.S. education publisher Houghton Mifflin. Vivendi paid $2.2
billion. Reed has declined comment on its plans, but industry
sources said the company has the resources to make the buy --
even after its recent $4.5 billion acqusition of U.S. education
publisher Harcourt.
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TAA seeks
committee members
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, July 29, 2001 -- Members of Text and Academic Authores
were asked to volunteer to serve on new association committees.
In a mailing to members, Executive Director Ron Pynn listed committees
that will deal with key issues:
- Awards
- Author
relations
- Budget
- Convention
- E-journal
- Ethics
- Grants
- Author
organizations liaison
- Membership
- Nominations
- Awards
- Publisher
relations
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McGraw
reports rosy school adoptions
NEW YORK,
July 30, 2001 -- In a quarterly report to shareholders, McGraw-Hill
said its California, Florida and Texas schoolbook adoptions propelled
its sales to $556.2 million, a 26.4 percent increase, in the latest
quarter. McGraw said it has been the first or second choice in
every major reading or literature adioption. The company's breakdown
for its Glencoe, MacMillan/M-M, SRA, Wright and other imprints:
California:
The SRA Open Court reading program scored gains. Other strengths:
First-year secondary math adoptions, second-year science adoptions,
and third-year social studies adoptions. McGraw's elementary math
program lagged in Califronia, although not elsewhre.
Florida:
Elementary and secondary art and language programs weremarket
leaders.
Texas: McGraw
products won more than 20 percent of K-12 sales. MacMillan and
SRA elementary reading programs led the market. Glencoe's new
literature program had 27 percent of the market. High school
titles acquired from NTC/Tribune showed well for Glencoe.
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Boise Cascade
article flap settled out of court
BOISE,
Idaho, July 31, 2001 -- The authors of a scholarly article
that castigated Boise Cascade settled out of court with the University
of Denver, whch had yielded to the company's pressure to withdraw
the article from a university-sponsored law journal. The authors
had sued for libel, contending that their scholarly reputations
were tarnished when the article was withdrawn. Under terms of
the agreement, the university will apologize to the authors in
an upcoming issue of the university's Denver Journal of International
Law & Policy. The university also required by the settlement
to issue a joint news release with the authors: Mark Buchanan,
Donald J. Smith and William Wines.
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