Book World to close, leaving void for many small Wisconsin communities – This U.S. midwestern chain, inclusive of 45 stores and more than 300 employees, is closing all of its stores and has commenced a liquidation sale. There is a lot of blame being directed Amazon’s way, not only for ... more >
Peter Matthiessen, Co-Founder Of The Paris Review, Dies At 86 – Peter Matthiessen died last week of acute myeloid leukemia. He may be best remembered for the writing he did in the wake of his world traveling, but Matthiessen was also a lifelong community and political activist, and he initially ... more >
Yahoo Protects Users with Lots More Encryption – Good news for Yahoo users; the company has boosted encryption for email and for traffic between its data centers. Yahoo has also instituted HTTPS encryption for search queries on the Yahoo homepage, and between Yahoo Mail and some other mail servers (like ... more >
OPEN THREAD: WHAT MAKES A BLACK FILM A BLACK FILM? – A short but pithy piece about how films get categorized as “black films” versus, say, “Comedy” or “Sports Drama.” There is a strong parallel to Romance here, not only in terms of the way POC Romance has often been ... more >
Ebook Growth Slows to Single Digits in U.S. in 2013 – In 2012, digital books comprised 23% of adult trade sales, and in 2013, that percentage only grew by a few points, to 27%. Children’s books decreased in digital, even though sales are up since 2011. What segment of the ... more >
Amazon Considers Streaming Media Service – To be honest, I’m surprised this hasn’t already come to pass, given the way Amazon continues to expand its media services. Is it the ad-supported aspect of a streaming video and music service that’s noteworthy? Is it the fact that such a service would ... more >