Free Republic

Bloomberg is taking another step from the trading floor into the corner office. The company said Tuesday that it was the winning bidder for BusinessWeek, the troubled 80-year-old title that McGraw-Hill had put on sale this summer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the price was said to be near $5 million, plus assumption of liabilities, which were $31.9 million as of April. The magazine will continue to be a weekly print publication, rechristened Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Decisions have not been made about BusinessWeek’s staff of more than 400 people; Bloomberg will select which of those employees it wants...

Conde Nast CEO Charles Townsend said Monday he was shutting down four magazines, including the awarding winning Gourmet, parenthood title Cookie and two of the company’s bridal magazines, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride. It was the biggest one-day bloodbath in the publishing company’s 100-year history. Hundreds of people will be tossed out of work. The company said it would keep the Gourmet cookbooks and television programming but shut the monthly magazine. Bride’s, the last surviving bridal book, will move to monthly from six times a year. Industry sources had estimated that Conde Nast could lose $200 million this year.

Yellow Springs company embraces niche and club publications YELLOW SPRINGS — In the summer of 2008, Benjamin Smith and Vicki McClellan spotted a small magazine out of Fort Myers, Fla., calling itself Patriots of the American Revolution. After seeing it, they knew two things. First, they liked the magazine, its exploration of a certain corner of history, its direction and feel. Second, they knew their company, Yellow Springs custom publisher Ertel Publishing, could make it better. The magazine’s owner, Three Patriots LLC, has hired Ertel Publishing to design and produce the magazine. But Three Patriots and Ertel Publishing aren’t exactly...

Last week, a group of Yale alumni (myself included) released an open letter protesting Yale University Press' decision not to publish the infamous Muhammed cartoons in a book about those very illustrations. "The Cartoons That Shook the World," by Brandeis Prof. Jytte Klausen - set for publication within weeks - details the 2005 events in which Muslim preachers seized upon 12 drawings in a Danish newspaper to orchestrate a global campaign of violence that led to the deaths of 200 people. Citing fears of further hostility, the Press, under the advisement of top university officials and unnamed outside "experts," chose...

A homosexual man is suing a third national Bible publisher for "mental anguish" after he says the company published Bibles with a negative connotation toward homosexuals. Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Mich., alleges Tyndale House Publishers manipulated Scripture when it published Tyndale's New Living Translation Holy Bible and the New Life Application Study Bible by using the term "homosexuals" in a New Testament passage, 1 Corinthians 6:9. "One Bible dictates homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God, while the other is completely void on the issue altogether," Fowler wrote in a statement on his blog.

A homosexual man is suing a third national Bible publisher for "mental anguish" after he says the company published Bibles with a negative connotation toward homosexuals. Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Mich., alleges William Tyndale Publishing manipulated Scripture when it published Tyndale’s New Living Translation Holy Bible and the New Life Application Study Bible by using the term "homosexuals" in a New Testament passage, 1 Corinthians 6:9. "One Bible dictates homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God, while the other is completely void on the issue altogether," Fowler wrote in a statement on his blog.

$10 million sought for 'negative connotation' toward homosexuals A homosexual man is suing a third national Bible publisher for "mental anguish" after he says the company published Bibles with a negative connotation toward homosexuals. Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Mich., alleges William Tyndale Publishing manipulated Scripture when it published Tyndale’s New Living Translation Holy Bible and the New Life Application Study Bible by using the term "homosexuals" in a New Testament passage, 1 Corinthians 6:9. "One Bible dictates homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God, while the other is completely void on the issue altogether," Fowler wrote in a...

The New International Version of the Bible is by far the most preferred translation of the Scripture, according to a new survey of U.S. evangelical leaders. More than 65 percent of the participating leaders named the NIV as their preferred Bible in a survey conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in light of the NIV’s 30th anniversary this year. “New Bible translations face large competition to gain a foothold in churches and homes but once established they have long staying power,” commented Leith Anderson, president of the NAE, which claims to represent 30 million evangelicals. “And, the NIV...

The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011. "We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers...

With annual revenue of more than $2 billion, the Reader’s Digest Association may be the largest magazine publisher to ever file for bankruptcy. But it probably won’t be the last this year. The private-equity frenzy of the past decade, combined with the unprecedented downturn, has caught up with the industry. So far in recent months, supplier companies including distributor Source Interlink and printer Quebecor World filed for protection, and publishers including the newspaper giant (and owner of Connecticut magazine) Journal Register Co. and Cygnus Business Media have as well. Summit Business Media is said to be in the process of...

The New York Times is generally loathe to dignify conservative-leaning books with an official review. That stance is getting dicier these days, especially since the newspaper’s own nonfiction bestseller chart is chockablock with conservatives luminaries like Michelle Malkin, Dick Morris and Mark Levin. President Barack Obama has only been in office for roughly eight months, but he’s already inspired multiple conservative bestsellers. Malkin’s Culture of Corruption sits atop the list, followed by Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny in the two slot and Catastrophe by Morris and Eileen McGann at number four. Marji Ross, president and publisher of Regnery Publishing, isn’t surprised...

According to a Facebook status update on behalf of the restaurant, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is here in New York and dined at Michael's last night. She's in town to visit with her publisher, HarperCollins, and has been doing "fun kids things" during her stay here with her family. It all sounds innocent enough, except for the Michael's part. Michael's is not only a Northeastern elite power-lunching spot, it is the very epicenter of the liberal media — the very men, women, and reporters who are out to get her.

In George Orwell’s “1984,” government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the “memory hole.” On Friday, it was “1984” and another Orwell book, “Animal Farm,” that were dropped down the memory hole — by Amazon.com. In a move that angered customers and generated waves of online pique, Amazon remotely deleted some digital editions of the books from the Kindle devices of readers who had bought them. An Amazon spokesman, Drew Herdener, said in an e-mail message that the books were added to the Kindle store by a...

If the publishers force Amazon to raise prices on e-books, that's what will happen. The book publishers are in the process of picking a fight with Amazon and other sellers over the pricing of e-books. If the publishers are lucky, they'll lose. Here's why. Publishers generally sell e-books to Amazon and its competitors for the same price they sell paper books to retailers—about half the list price of the paper version. Amazon and the others insist on selling most e-books for about $9.99, which pleases the publishers when the e-book retail price is close to that of the paper edition:...

<p>Last week, an auction for a book by Capt. Richard Phillips, the merchant-ship hero who saved his crew from pirates, drew top bids of around $500,000—half the seven-figure advance it had been expected to fetch.</p> <p>At least that book had bidders. In February, the William Morris Agency failed to find any takers for a Britney Spears memoir.</p>

Does James Frey have embarrassing audiotapes of Oprah Winfrey? The upcoming paperback version of his best-selling novel, "Bright Shiny Morning," includes two passages omitted from the hard cover, which came out last year. The first passage is a triple X-rated story of an affair between a lawyer for the ACLU and the wife of a Republican senator who meet in a bar and proceed to have raunchy sex in bathrooms, alleys, seedy motels and the backseats of the cars. The sex scenes — deemed too racy for some readers — are included in the paperback. The second passage is more...

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - A dissertation written by President Barack Obama's late mother is being published. Duke University Press said Monday that an edited version of Ann Dunham's anthropological study about rural craftsmen in Indonesia is scheduled to reach stores this fall. Dunham completed the study three years before she died in 1995. Duke marketing manager Emily Young said the foreword was written by the president's half-sister and Dunham's daughter, Maya Soetoro-Ng (so-TOR'-oh ING). The book is based on Ann Dunham's 14 years of research among village workers on the Indonesian island of Java.

A New Pro Al-Qaeda Magazine for Extremists is Offering Fitness Tips to JihadistsA new pro al-Qaeda magazine for extremists is offering fitness tips to jihadists planning attacks against Americans in countries such as Afghanistan. The first edition out this month offers workout tips to get buff with the aim "to train as hard as possible in order to damage the enemies of Allah as much as possible." The English language e-zine, Jihad Recollections, is about 70 pages long and is thought to be produced by an American living in North Carolina. It claims to have articles written by Osama bin...

Yes, Sony and Google have teamed up to offer 500,000 free e-books on the Sony Reader. Free is nice, and half a million is an impressive number, but lots of free and cheap e-books can wreak havoc on your database and best-seller lists--just ask Amazon.com, which found itself with Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" briefly sitting atop its best-seller list for legal thrillers in the Kindle Store, experienced earlier Thursday. The Kindle Edition of "Mein Kampf" isn't free on Amazon. What's interesting is that there are actually two versions: one costs $1.58, and the other costs $1.60. Both are fairly popular,...

Gay magazine Genre will be suspended due to the ongoing recession, it has been announced. The monthly lifestyle magazine is taking a respite, according to CEO David Unger. Unger said in a statement posted on their official website, "We thank all of our readers, advertisers and editorial staff for their support throughout our 16-year history and hope that we can re-establish our relationship when times are better." He also clears that the suspension of Genre magazine, a is part of the Window Media publication, does not affect the other magazines held by the gay press publisher, including the Washington Blade,...

What makes “Dreams From My Father” unique is that so few of those praising the book for its supposed merits seem to have actually bothered to read it. Numerous copies have been sold to Obama’s liberal camp followers, but, unlike Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book,” no one was actually expected to memorize it cover to cover or to become familiar with its contents. Lord knows, I tried, but, time and time again, I had to put it aside. Based upon those chapters that I managed to slog through, I was reminded of Oscar Wilde’s comment upon reading about the death...

President Obama, the merchandising phenomenon, has been a boon to sidewalk T-shirt vendors everywhere, the Washington Times reports. Less conspicuous, perhaps, is the equally robust success of the children's book industry in marketing Obama's hopeful aura and personal history to parents of young children. Are children's book publishers seeking to indoctrinate impressionable young readers -- or are they simply obeying the laws of supply and demand? When the country elects a new president, publishers characteristically issue a biography or two geared toward young readers. But in the case of Obama, publishers are tapping into unusual levels of excitement and curiosity....

Oprah Winfrey called it the "greatest love story" she'd ever had on her show. The love story was so touching, that Hollywood is even making a movie about it. Herman Rosenblat received international attention for his tale about being a hungry little boy in a Nazi concentration camp who was thrown apples every day by a little girl named Roma, on the other side of the fence. Years later, according to the story, Rosenblat met that same girl on a blind date in New York City and proposed to her on the spot. The only problem was, Rosenblat's story, which...

Yesterday Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) re-introduced the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act.  This year it's H.R. 801 (last year it was H.R. 6845), and co-sponsored by Steve Cohen (D-TN), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Robert Wexler (D-FL).  The language has not changed.  The Fair Copyright Act is to fair copyright what the Patriot Act was to patriotism.  It would repeal the OA policy at the NIH and prevent similar OA policies at any federal agency.  The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where Conyers is Chairman, and where he has consolidated his power...

Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400 million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46 million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good.

AN EMERGING nation looks increasingly confident as a player on the world stage... China in the 21st century, contemplating the pros and cons of the internet? No, Tudor England, at the time when a gifted, impulsive young man called William Tyndale arrived in London..

Dr. Waltzer is the Director, Jewish Studies, at Michigan State University. It was as a result of his research that the Penguin Group decided last week not to publish the now-discredited Holocaust memoir by Herman Rosenblat. Waltzer began raising questions about the book in November. In response the producer of the movie that was to be based on the memoir complained to Waltzer's dean. After Rosenblat admitted he had lied the producer said: "It’s unfortunate he told a lie .... The man is tragically flawed, but his story had value." Waltzer was joined in his doubts about the book by...

U.S. book publishers and booksellers are full of foreboding - even more than usual for an industry that has been anticipating its demise since the advent of television. The holiday season that just ended is likely to have been one of the worst in decades. Publishers have been cutting back and laying off. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that it would not acquire any new manuscripts, a move akin to a butcher shop proclaiming it had stopped ordering fresh meat. American bookstores, both new and secondhand, are faltering as well.

Journal to require authors to post in the free online encyclopaedia.Wikipedia, meet RNA. Anyone submitting to a section of the journal RNA Biology will, in the future, be required to also submit a Wikipedia page that summarizes the work. The journal will then peer review the page before publishing it in Wikipedia. The initiative is a collaboration between the journal and the RNA family database (Rfam) consortium led by the UK Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton. "The novelty is that for the first time it creates a link between Wikipedia and traditional journal publishing, with its peer-review element," says...

The economy has crashed down on an industry once believed immune from the worst—book publishing—with consolidation at Random House Inc., and layoffs at Simon & Schuster and Thomas Nelson Publishers. "Yes, Virginia, book publishing is NOT recession proof," said Patricia Schroeder, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Publishers. "It's sad day." At Random House, the country's largest general trade publisher, the man who helped give the world "The Da Vinci Code" is in talks for a new position, while the publisher of Danielle Steel and other brand-name authors is leaving altogether. Stephen Rubin, who released Dan...

The publishing industry is betting on Barack Obama like no president in decades. Since Election Day alone, more than half a dozen book deals have been signed to exploit Obamania. Two dozen books in the works range from the serious to the silly. There are retrospective ticktocks on how Obama won office and prospective looks at his first year in the White House. There is a biography on Obama’s father, a compilation of essays on Obama and race, and others tilting toward the celebratory with photographic montages. There are children’s books, of course, and a style guide on Michelle Obama,...

-snip- McCain made his first million the old-fashioned way: he married the daughter of a wealthy businessman. But Barack Obama, the son of an absent African father and a mother who relied on government-issued food stamps to feed her children, became a millionaire in a more modern manner – on the back of a book deal. It happened circuitously. In 1990, Obama was already enough of a celebrity – the first black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review – for the New York publishers Simon & Schuster to offer a “six-figure contract” for a proposed autobiography. The only problem...

For those of you who may not know, the publishing industry is almost completely run by liberals. Any debate on this should be ended by an August survey from Publishing Trends which showed a whopping 86% of respondents plan to vote for Barack Obama in November. Yes, 86%. Here's the real stunner, though. A survey in Publishers Weekly released in July of 2008, found the following:The salary divide between men and women actually increased in 2007—men received an average salary increase of 4.5% last year, compared to 4.2% for women. Men earned an average salary of $103,822 last year, compared...

Three men have been charged with plotting to attack the publisher of a controversial novel dealing with the Prophet Muhammad, British police said Thursday. The three - salesman Abrar Mizra, 22; cab driver Abbas Taj, 30; and Ali Beheshti, 40 - were arrested Saturday near the north London home and office of Martin Rynja, who plans to publish "The Jewel of Medina," police said. They were arrested after a fire broke out at Rynja's building, but police have refused to disclose any details. The men were charged with plotting to endanger life and damage property. Beheshti was also charged with...

Amid all the false media hubub about Sarah Palin being an alleged "book banner" comes much more serious news about the British publisher of "Jewel of Medina," a book about the child-bride of Islamic prophet Mohammed has been set afire: Three men arrested in north London on suspicion of terrorism continue to be questioned by police. They are suspected of attempting to set fire to a publisher's office in Lonsdale Square, Islington. The publisher, Gibson House, is due to release a controversial novel about the Prophet Muhammad and his child bride, entitled "The Jewel of the Medina."

It’s Only The End of Rose-Colored Glasses September 17th, 2008 by Kassia Krozser If you examine it on the whole, the publishing industry is an unsustainable mess. Think about it: bad economic theory, out-of-touch decision making, Peter paying Paul or the piper or someone, deregulated approach to the market. Hmm, sounds like another entity we know, doesn’t it? It’s no wonder that we endure a never-ending succession of “it’s the end of the world as we know it” articles about the publishing industry. New York Magazine has given us the latest, a gloomy piece chock full of quotes from gloomy...

This article appeared in USA Today but linking from that paper is a no-no... In this high season for political books, two evangelical publishers are leading the race to capitalize on fascination with Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Tyndale House Publishers of Carol Stream, Ill., has begun distributing a paperback edition of Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Alaska Political Establishment Upside Down, by Alaska freelance writer Kaylene Johnson. Best known as publishers of the bestselling Left Behind series, Tyndale is printing a whopping 250,000 copies of the book, which first came out in April...

16-Sep-08 Eddie Van Halen Reaches Out To Sammy Hagar Over The GOP's Use Of Their Song "Right Now" Rolling Stone magazine reports that days before Heart served the GOP campaign with a cease-and-desist letter for playing their 1977 hit "Barracuda" to introduce VP pick Sarah Palin (high school alias: “Sarah Barracuda”) at the August 31st Republican convention, Van Halen sounded off against McCain and Co. for blasting their tune "Right Now" at a rally in Dayton, Ohio. “Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given [to use the song]," Alex and Eddie Van Halen said in...

In recent years, scientific publishing has changed profoundly as the Internet simplified access to the scientific journals that once required a trip to a university library. That ease of access has caused many to question why commercial publishers are able to dictate the terms by which publicly funded research is made available to the public that paid for it. Open access proponents won a big victory when Congress voted to compel the National Institutes of Health to set a policy of hosting copies of the text of all publications produced by research it funds, a policy that has taken effect...

Tyndale House has ordered a second printing of 100,000 copies for Sarah: How A Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down, which will bring the Tyndale trade paperback edition to 350,000 copies.

The Christian book publisher Zondervan is coming out with a biography of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The Grand Rapids-area company says the book about Alaska's 44-year-old governor goes on sale Oct. 10 and is called "Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader." Zondervan chief executive Moe Girkins says in a news release that "regardless of your political persuasion, it is clear that Sarah Palin has quickly electrified the 2008 election." The Grand Rapids Press says author Joe Hilley is a lawyer and writer of Christian novels. Zondervan is based in Kent County's Cascade Township.

Gibson Square, known for having sold other controversial books, such as Alexander Litvinenko's "Blowing Up Russia", said it was "imperative" that "The Jewel of Medina" by American author Sherry Jones be available to the public. Random House Publishing Group, which is owned by German media company Bertelsmann AG, has admitted pulling the novel about Mohammed and his wife Aisha. The book was supposed to have been published last month, but the company said at the time that "credible and unrelated sources" had warned that the book "could incite acts of violence." Washington-based Ms Jones criticised the initial decision not to...

Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammad's child bride, fearing it could "incite acts of violence." "The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on August 12 by Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, and an eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled, Jones told Reuters on Thursday. The novel traces the life of A'isha from her engagement to Mohammad, when she was six, until the prophet's death. Jones said that she was shocked to learn in May, that publication would be postponed indefinitely. "I have deliberately...

Imagine yourself going to a news stand and picking up Esquire’s September issue. Its cover isn’t made out of paper as usual, actually, it’s electronic! The cover, which comes with its own battery pack, will flash “the 21st Century Begins Now.” A moving cover? That’s something new.

Barnes & Noble has substantially reduced its 10,000-copy order of “Obama’s Challenge,” by Robert Kuttner, after Chelsea Green, the book’s publisher, announced it would initially be sold exclusively on Amazon.com. Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, said in a statement on Monday evening that the initial order “was based on the book being available to all booksellers simultaneously — an even playing field — which is common practice in book publishing.” She declined to say how many copies the retailer ordered. Katharine Walton, a spokeswoman for Chelsea Green, said Barnes & Noble was angry at being excluded...

A US publisher has cancelled the publication of a novel about the youngest wife of the Muslim prophet Mohammed amid a growing controversy over the book. "The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones about Mohammed's child bride A'isha had been due for release in the United States last week. But publisher Random House released her from the contract amid the controversy and her agent said Jones is now looking for a publisher in another country to pick up the rights. "Random House made the decision to cancel its US publication of the novel 'The Jewel of...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammed's child bride, fearing it could "incite acts of violence." "The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on August 12 by Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann, and an eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled, Jones told Reuters . The novel traces the life of A'isha from her engagement to Mohammed, when she was six, until the prophet's death. Jones said that she was shocked to learn in May, that publication would be postponed indefinitely. "I...

My first post. The Jewel of Medina, a debut historical novel by Sherry Jones, a journalist who spent years studying Arab history, focuses on the life of A'isha, one of the prophet's wives to whome he is said to have become engaged when she was six. It was due for release next week, but in May was pulled after the publisher was told the book could be seen as "offensive to some in the Muslim community". The Wall Street Journal reported that Denise Spellberg, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas, who saw proofs of the book,...

Censorship is when the government prevents you from publishing something. When the subject is Islam, the government does not have to do anything to block publication. Our publishers decide on their own that it would be best for them not to publish anything that could possibly offend Muslims. Random House is leading the way. Random House pulls novel on Islam, fears violence Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammed's child bride, fearing it could "incite acts of violence." "The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on...

...the company has decided not to publish Sherry Jones’ historical novel “The Jewel of Medina” about Mohammed’s child bride Aisha. The book was part of a $100,000 two-book contract with the author. Shame on Random House! This act of abject cowardice and de facto censorship is one of the most disgraceful incidents I can think of in the history of American publishing. As Asra Q. Nomani writes in the WSJ: Random House feared the book would become a new “Satanic Verses,” the Salman Rushdie novel of 1988 that led to death threats, riots and the murder of the book’s Japanese...