Tuesday Midday Links: Free wifi at all Starbucks locations beginning July 1
Last week, the head of Penguin Canada stepped down. This week brings to light allegations of sexual harassment against the former President by a female executive who alleged she was the subject of a long campaign of inappropriate emails, text messages, in office treatment, and finally, a forced entry into her hotel room at the Frankfurter Book Fair. More at Quill & Quire.
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Amazon is offering new levels of service which would require publishers and third party distributors to pay more to get featured access on the Amazon site. One unnamed publisher said that this was extortion. Of course, it makes sense that no one would go on the record to accuse Amazon of criminal (and hence defamatory) conduct. What I thought was most ironic about the piece was the complaint that Amazon wasn’t pushing quality books instead of basing it on a pay to play. Coop has always been about quality? I had no idea. Via Publishers Weekly.
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MediaBistro links to a USA Today interview with Glenn Beck whose book empire pulls in gobs more money than his tv empire. Beck promotes books on his TV show and he publishes books under his own name that are co written by several authors. If you recall, Beck has a copublishing deal with Simon & Schuster and is pulling in $13 million in for his publishing efforts. From Forbes:
He has managed to monetize virtually everything that comes out of his mouth. He gets $13 million a year from print (books plus the ten-issue-a-year magazine Fusion). Radio brings in $10 million. Digital (including a newsletter, the ad-supported Glennbeck.com and merchandise) pulls in $4 million. Speaking and events are good for $3 million and television for $2 million.
Is Beck the new Oprah? If so, how scary is that? Via MediaBistro.
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You would think that Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are the poster children for overexposed. Is there anything we really don’t know about them? In case your curiosity is not yet satiated, Demi Moore is coming to the rescue with her memoir that she sold to Harper Collins for over $2 million. Good luck with that. Via MediaBistro. I’m not sure what the trends are here in the US, but the Guardian reported that celebrity book sales were down in 2009.
Celebrity books sold badly last Christmas and their sales dipped steeply.
The Times said that the celebrity book sales were down 25-30%.
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Blackberry platform might be ported to a tablet by the end of the year. Will Xmas 2010 be the year of the tablet? Last year it seemed everyone and their cousin gave or received iTouches. Via Gizmodo.
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Starbucks will be offering free wifi at all its US locations beginning July 1. As if I didn’t already have enough excuses to go and get fattening lattes.
“Starbucks will be offering free wifi at all its US locations beginning July 1.”
Their coffee still tastes like ass.
I’ll stick to Dunks.
Amazon is offering new levels of service which would require publishers and third party distributors to pay more to get featured access on the Amazon site.
In other words: they're getting into the Coop game. Publishers have always paid for certain books to be up front in the store, face out. As book buying moves more and more to the electronic world, this is only to be expected.
In fact, I think I suggested it yesterday on this very blog as a means of keeping the midlist alive.
So this Starbucks thing…anyone know if it includes airport locations where the airport has pay-to-use WiFi? Or college campuses which already has existing, college-affiliated-only WiFi?
Just think it’s a bit misleading.
I didn’t realise Starbucks didn’t offer free wifi in the US. Almost every Starbucks I’ve been into in the UK does (the exception seems to be the nearest one to my office, which doesn’t have wifi at all. However, with another three in less than ten mintue’s walking distance, it’s not great loss!).
@Mina Kelly: The closest Starbucks to my office allows two consecutive hours free once a day. However McDonald’s offers free wifi, all you can eat. Of course IMO McDonald’s coffee regular or specialty is dreadful.
Did anyone else get caught up in the madness that was AT&T’s website yesterday? I was innocently trying to get a new phone for my assistant without thinking about it being iPhone preorder day.
@DS:
I’ll never understand why Apple sticks with AT&T and shuns the larger and more reliable Verizon network. Someone at AT&T must have compromising photos of Steve Jobs not wearing a black mock turtleneck.