Friday News: Streaming Star Trek, Australia’s census woes, diversity in book marketing, and cool photo of Valentijn De Hingh
Publishing NewsAustralia / book marketing / cybersecurity / diversity / LGBTQ rights / on-demand viewing / online census / Star Trek2 Comments
Hey, Sailor, Wanna See the New Star Trek? CBS All Access Has Your Ticket. – While CBS has always drawn viewers to their paid online Big Brother live feeds, the network’s “All Access” service is now more of a Netflix-style service, limited, of course, to CBS shows, past and present. For about $6 a month, you can watch all of the CBS you want (are these network-specific services really appealing to people?), including the upcoming 13-episode Star Trek: Discovery series, which will air in January (even though it has not yet been cast). The main character will apparently be female and not the captain (hmmm). CBS obviously things this will draw a lot of subscribers, and they are planning more original content, but here’s my question: television has actually not sucked lately, and will this model mean that all the good shows will go on demand?
Marc DeBevoise, president and CEO of CBS Interactive, explained CBS All Access at length to television writers Wednesday, noting that the service’s initial original offerings will include an online-only edition of Big Brother and the online-only spinoff series from The Good Wife, starring Christine Baranski. . . .
Bryan Fuller, executive producer and co-creator with Alex Kurtzman, said the new [Star Trek] edition will be set “in the prime Universe, which is about 10 years before Captain Kirk’s five-year mission.” (Huffington Post)
Australia Stops Online Collection of Census Data After Cyberattacks – Speaking of online services, amid controversy over safety concerns, Australia’s attempt to gather census data online went awry after repeated denial-of-service attacks effectively shut down the process. The government has assured Australians that their information is secure, but the attacks have not exactly helped already shaky confidence in the current online process. Update: the census site has re-opened, but only for those using Australian servers (and shockingly (not really) participation is down).
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said its website had experienced four denial-of-service attacks, in which a torrent of automated requests is sent to overwhelm a site. The last attack, just after 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, contributed to the overloading of a router, which led to the decision that night to close down online data gathering.
The census, which occurs every five years, has been the subject of intense criticism and questions this year over whether the introduction of online data collection could leave Australians’ personal information at risk. – New York Times
Diversity In Book Publishing Isn’t Just About Writers — Marketing Matters Too – A good article on the importance of marketing in building literary diversity. Like other areas of publishing, marketing departments are overwhelmingly white, and cultural competence does not appear to be part of the marketing vocabulary (including categories of diversity beyond race). Because if books aren’t placed well, they probably won’t sell well, which negatively affects what books and authors get published. Just the fact that diverse books are often considered “risky” is twisted, since publishing is much more homogenous than the actual reading public.
The [2015] Lee & Low survey also reported on staff demographics by departments. In Marketing and Publicity, 77 percent were white. These are people who make decisions on how to position books to the press and to consumers, and if and where to send authors on tour — critical considerations in the successful launching of any publication. For writers of color, the lack of diversity in book publicity departments can feel like a death knell.
Kima Jones, who owns the publicity company Jack Jones Literary Arts, says, “There needs to be more women of color in publishing, in positions of power, period. As I see other book clubs and speaking series, reading series, organizations pop up that are dedicated to writers of color, queer writers, disabled writers, other marginalized writers, I’m like: yeah, do that! This is what we need.” – NPR
This trans model wore a gown made from flags where homosexuality is forbidden – This photo, and the story behind it, seem especially poignant in the midst of all the Olympics-related flag waving.
The dress, in a word, is stunning. The fact that it was released in honor of Euro Pride is incredible, because the move recognizes that, as lovely as Pride is, it isn’t the end of the fight for equality. The team announced that they will replace each country’s flag with a rainbow flag as they improve the state of LGBT rights in their countries. – Hello Giggles
Love the flag dress item . . . can’t wait to see it 100% rainbow.
The census was great fun – seeing as we couldn’t get on, and were threatened with $180 A DAY fines unless we completed it on the night.