Monday News: Changes at Penguin Random House, Google settles with photographers, Rumored changes at Twitter, and Scribd’s infographic on reading
The Penguin Publishing Group Takes Shape – So now that Penguin Random House has made its initial adjustments and realignments, CEO Markus Dohle has streamlined Penguin’s imprints by placing them all under new President of Penguin Publishing Group Madeline McIntosh. McIntosh’s promotion also means that Penguin Group USA President Susan Petersen Kennedy will be leaving at the end of this year. Dohle’s rationale is as follows:
In explaining his reasoning for creating the Penguin Publishing Group, Dohle wrote that, as the book market continues to evolve and e-book sales grow, “it is clear that capitalizing on our authors’ opportunities for growth will require even greater collaboration and coordination, and even more unified publishing strategies across all formats.” He stressed, however, that while McIntosh’s appointment was a significant change for Penguin, “there is no change being contemplated for the creative and entrepreneurial direction of Penguin’s individual publishing imprints.” –Publishers Weekly
Google settles Google Books lawsuit filed by photographer trade groups in 2010 – While the infamous Authors Guild lawsuit against Google has taken center stage in the news, in 2010, six photography trade associations — including the Digital Media Licensing Association, Professional Photographers of America, and National Press Photographers Association — all sued Google for copyright infringement associated with Google Books.
On a tangentially related note: I have seen more than one author utilize a celebrity photo, trademarked image, or clearly copyrighted image without any indication of licensing or permission. With all of the online complaining about piracy, people may forget that images are legally protected, too, and it is extremely problematic for authors to ask readers to respect copyrighted books when they do not show the same respect for copyrighted or trademarked images.
Google shared the news today on its blog, cautioning that this settlement is separate from its larger legal battle with the Authors Guild. This lawsuit, “American Society of Media Photographers, Inc. et al. v. Google Inc,” was first filed in 2010. Google’s Authors Guild legal struggles, however, first began in 2005 and continue to rage on. –Venture Beat
No, a ‘Facebook-style filter’ isn’t coming to Twitter — yet – In the wake of Twitter CTO Anthony Noto’s comments about how the Twitter timeline “isn’t the most relevant experience for a user,” there has been a lot of speculation that Twitter will go to a more Facebook-esque format, basically decimating what makes Twitter different — and for some of us — preferable. The Daily Dot’s Eric Geller tries to caution Twitter users that Noto hasn’t indicated that such a change is in the works. However, as Geller also points out,
Twitter has already been trying to improve its users’ browsing experience,adding tweets favorited by friends to the timelines of users who try to refresh their feeds when no new tweets are available. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo explained that Twitter was trying to give users valuable content when it saw that they were refreshing their feeds and not getting new tweets multiple times. –Washington Post
2014: A Year in Review – So here’s another infographic for you, this one from Scribd, who looked at what people are reading, and, perhaps more importantly, finishing. I’m not one to put huge stock in these types of surveys, but I’m also readily accepting that they found Romance to be among the top 3 genre of books opened and completed. Interestingly, books about “mind, body, and spirit” and “business” were among those most opened, but did not make the top 3 completed list. –Scribd
It makes a lot of sense to me that non-fiction books are finished less often. You don’t always need to read the whole thing – sometimes chapters are directed to different issues, not all of which are relevant to you, sometimes the book ends with appendices or case studies or study notes, which again, may not be relevant. Sometimes you just want to skim to grasp the central thesis of the book, then move on.
I’ve wondered often about authors using celeb photos for book promotion. I knew it wasn’t legal, and am always a little shocked when I see anti-piracy posts using photos without (I’m assuming) permission.
From the WaPo/Daily Dot article:
This guy needs to look up the meaning of “distort,” and for good measure, “curate.” If Twitter’s algorithm changes the temporal order of tweets, that’s both curation AND distortion from the original model. Moreover, it’s not clear that that is the only type of change that is being discussed. Anything that involves changing the raw feed as it is currently displayed is going to emphasize some tweets and de-emphasize others in ways that the user doesn’t control.
And the WSJ article suggests that Costolo either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about the ways in which people use the “favorite” button now. That does not fill me with confidence, and giving me group DMs doesn’t make up for it.
@Sunita: I don’t want them tinkering with my Twitter! Just leave it as is. How are they choosing which tweets they feel I need to see again? It’s intrusive, and like Sunita said, out of my control, which I hate because this is MY twitter feed! Also, I dislike how once in awhile I’ll see tweets favorited by friends cluttering up my feed – It’s similiar to getting a bunch of retweets you didn’t want and you can’t mute. I don’t really mind seeing what my friends have favorited, that’s not the issue. The problem is I didn’t ask for it. If I didn’t say yes to it, I don’t want it happening. I love Twitter because I feel free there with no restraints – my Twitter experience is self created. That’s important to me. I’m praying that isn’t changed.
I am very happy to experience twitter through a third party app that doesn’t show any of that nonsense: promoted tweets, others favourites, whatever. I pray that remains the same, otherwise I will have no use for it.
@Imani: Which app do you use?