Miscellaneous Publishing News 1/24/2012

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A few notes from the publishing sphere

Marvel launches all-ages comics for Avengers and Ultimate Spider Man. What's interesting here is that Avengers takes the viewpoint of fan-fave Agent Coulson, so it's also clear they know adults will buy these.

TAKEAWAY: Makes sense, this is part of Marvel's broadening their brand (under Disney). However it may indicate future conflict as Marvel evaluates markets (or tries to have it all).

Apple's new iBook publishing raises sone antitrust concerns. It doesn't seem intentional, but there's some off-putting possibilities of their EULA (if only poor phrasing).

TAKEAWAY: Watch this to see what's happening – and what Amazon does.

JManga is having a translation contest. Interesting, the winner gets some copies and prize points. Fun contest or an experiment with outsourcing/crowdsourcing/fansourcing?

TAKEAWAY: Stay curious.

– Steven Savage

Dodd Isn’t Popular

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Looks like Chris Dodd is having a few issues. He gets called out by the founder of Wikipedia, and the petition at Whitehouse.org to investigate him for corruption.

Takeaways:

  • People know who to blame for SOPA/PIPA.
  • It's still in people's consciousness.
  • Ignoring this will likely make it worse – so if the petition leads to nothing, expect more.
  • Dodd calling out Wikipedia was very stupid.

So, we know SOPA isn't dead yet. But neither is awareness of it.

– Steven Savage

Steve’s News Roundup 1-23-2011

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Man have we got a lot of news. So I'm going to pull a Scott and do a roundup.

Netflix Replaces Marketing Chief which is understandable considering. TAKEAWAY: I'm still concerned about Netflix, yet still positive, though this is a merely "understandable" move.

There's a move to toughen EU privacy rules so data breaches have to be reported within 24 hours. Its a bit fuzzy, but I see it as a good move. TAKEAWAY: If this passes, expect similar policies to come up in other countries – and for it to get bogged down with insane riders in the US.

A great, serious look at piracy on the internet, and a stark example of how creating new legitimate distribution methods pays off. A good read.

RIM's CEO doesn't see the need for a drastic change. TAKEAWAY: RIM is still in massive trouble.

Nimble plans to go after Salesforce with an integrated social contact tool. TAKEAWAY: Send 'em a resume.

Barnes and Noble is ambitious enough about the book they see it as a family device. TAKEAWAY: That's a pretty smart move – and gives them a focus.

The holiday saw a surge of tablet and eBook overship TAKEAWAY: Duh.

– Steven Savage