According to an Associated Press report that was filed less than three hours ago today, the travel publishing pioneer Arthur Frommer "said Wednesday that he has reacquired rights to his travel guidebook brand from Google, and that he intends to resume publishing Frommer guidebooks." Back on the 22nd of March, we reported on the news that Google had decided to cease publishing all print editions of the Frommer's travel guidebooks, which it had acquired just seven months earlier from Wiley, the previous owner of the brand. Now, it appears as if Arthur Frommer himself—a true trailblazer in the travel guidebook industry—has somehow...

I about wet myself after opening up the February 18 issue of New York magazine, after which I immediately flipped to the often imitated (but never duplicated) Approval Matrix. There it was, right down in the furthest corner of the Brilliant/Lowbrow axis: Liberal-arts rockers Vampire Weekend show their allegiance to print by announcing their new album title in the N.Y. Times classifieds. Don't get me wrong: I realize we're all media-savvy enough to recognize this sort of thing as a clever marketing ploy, and nothing more. But therein lies the basis of my excitement ... and the overarching point of this post. Let me...

That's the title of an article in the [e-reads] blog: Despite the gloomy talk about the death of the book it’s pretty clear that printed books serve an essential function in our culture and will always be with us. For those who greet this statement skepticism, we reiterate that there is nothing wrong with printed books – just the way they are distributed. The big difference between the past and the present is that for the first time in history, printed books are optional. The implications of this fact are profound. Until very recently the only mode for publishers to introduce content was...

On iMediaConnection, analyst Rebecca Lieb of the Altimeter Group posts a thoughtful look at what the “decline of print” might mean for media. She points to some of the same reports that we have covered over the last few weeks, such as surveys showing that tablet owners are buying less physical media, and projections that on-line advertising spending will this year surpass that for print advertising for the first time. She also notes that a market is growing for “enhanced” books with multimedia features (though plain text versions of the classics will always be with us). ...

On News & Tech, Douglas Page posts a diatribe against “the newspaper cognoscenti who see a terminal disease in every printed newspaper.” He declaims against papers turning digital because a digital newspaper is “just another website” and less attractive to advertisers than a printed publication. He suggests a number of possible ways to keep printed papers relevant in an increasingly electronic world where free news is only a laptop, tablet, or smartphone click away. For example: Adopt a hybrid circulation model. Turn your newspaper into a TMC product and deliver it to the doorsteps...

Joseph Esposito of Scholarly Kitchen has a post looking at the demise of Borders and what it means for the publishing industry. Yes, I know, we’ve posted plenty of those looks before, closer to the time the demise actually happened, but this one brings a perspective I hadn’t thought so much about before. When we think of Borders going away, a lot of people tend just to think of 10% of the print book market evaporating, as if the number of books sold is all that matters. But Esposito points out that the closure points to a matter...

Is the youngest generation going to grow up thinking of books as digital objects first, and print relics a distant second? That's what Shane Richmond, the Head of Technology (Editorial) at the Telegraph, thinks. In an editorial published today he argues that print can't compete with digital when it comes to search, annotation and portability: My daughter’s generation will probably have ebook textbooks. They will never experience dog-eared, vandalised, outdated school books, shared one-between-two. They will enjoy books that are enhanced with video, interactive graphics and picture galleries. And they will see these things are the norm. Printed books will be...

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reports that ebook sales rose 146.9% in May, which is even more dramatic when compared to the drops that all major adult print segments experienced. This continues the trend from April, when ebook sales rose by 157.5% while print segments declined. I'd be curious to see sales numbers for self-published ebooks, which I don't think are included in these monthly reports put out by the AAP. Although all I have to go on right now are anecdotes, Joe Konrath admitted that he and at least a few other self-pubbed authors saw sales of their ebooks...

You forgot to record Monday night's premiere of the new C-SPAN documentary on the Library of Congress, didn't you? Well, you can watch it online for free at C-SPAN's LOC minisite. The 90 minute film takes a holistic approach to its subject, covering everything from the library's founding to its architecture to its vast collection (including a Braille copy of "Mein Kampf"). If you just want to watch the section about how the library uses technology to preserve and study manuscripts, jump to 1:15:45 and watch the part about the Preservation Division. If you're even more impatient, jump straight to 1:20:45, which...

The New York Times reports that Borders has called off tomorrow's auction and will move forward with submitting the liquidation plan it has worked out with Hilco and the Gordon Brothers Group. If the federal judge approves the plan on Thursday as expected, the company will start closing stores this Friday, and continue liquidation through September. Borders has 399 stores still open, and employees 10,700 people. The Times also points out that Borders' death may have ripple effects in the publishing industry: Publishers said with Borders gone, they would plan for smaller print runs and shipments. Employees at major publishing houses worried...

The Scholarly Kitchen has a well thought out article by Kent Anderson with this title today.  I recommend reading the whole thing - he makes a lot of sense.  Here is the beginning and the end: While in many ways I celebrate the introduction of e-books — for instance, they don’t take up space after I’m done reading them, I can buy them whenever and wherever I like, they’ve allowed a new breed of authors to succeed, and they tend to be cheaper than paper books — there is something deep down that makes me sad about the decline of paper books. ... So what is...

From the press release.  BISG is the Book Industry Study Group which is a research group funded by membership - primarily from the publishing industry: Results from the most recent survey in VOLUME TWO show: Fiction continues to dominate downloads, with literary fiction, science fiction, and romance each comprising over 20% of all format purchases. The most influential factors leading to an e-book purchase are free samples and low prices. “Power Buyers” (respondents who indicated that they acquired e-books at least weekly) have moved away from computers to dedicated e-readers and tablets much faster than the overall pool of respondents.   “While this unprecedented rate of...