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October
1999
PROFIT
LOSS
Bertelsman:
Revenue
rose 13.2 percent to $14.7 billion in the latest year, and net
income 2.6 percent to $514 million.
McGraw-Hill:
Educational and professional publishing sales rose 5.6 percent
to $1.4 billion in the first nine months.
VarsityBooks.
com: Sales grew from $42,000 to $5.1 million in the first
eight months of the year. Losses increased from $615,000 to $13.8
million.
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of page for all news
R.I.P.
Martin Davis
Martin Davis,
former chairman of Paramount, which then included Simon & Schuster,
died October 3 in New York of a heart attack.
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of page for all news
Mattel
surprised at Learning Company returns
NEW YORK,
October 1, 1999
-- The toy company Mattel blamed a 30 percent drop in its stock
partly on stores returning an unexpected number of products from
its new Learning Company subsidiary. Learning Company losses for
the third quarter will be $50 million to $100 million, Mattel
said.
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of page for all news
TAA Utah
convention ended up in hole
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, October 1, 1999
-- Expenses for the 1999 Text and Academic Authors convention
in Park City, Utah, were almost double the income it generated,
according to TAA Treasurer Mike Sullivan. Expenses totaled $11,096.44,
income $5,983.
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Tasini
to publishers: Pay or face "war"
NEW YORK,
October 1, 1999
-- Author Jonathan Tasini, namesake of a law suit to forbid publishers
from recycling author works into digital products without permission,
called on publishers to pay retroactive royalties. Experts believe
that a federal court decision Sept. 24 in Tasini v. New York
Times, probably will require publishers to excise all work
recycled into digital formats -- or pay back-royalties to authors
whose work was recycled digitally without permission. Tasini,
president of the National Writers Union, said the union is ready
to negotiate settlements on behalf of the authors. If publishers
don't, Tasini predicted "an all-out war" in the courts.
Victorious
author Tasini: "The media industry faces the grim reality
of a tidal wave of law suits that will boggle their minds."
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of page for all news
NACS: New
ads aimed at on-line vendors only
OBERLIN,
OHIO, October 1, 1999
-- The National Association of College Stores is not aiming at
member companies like Follett in its new no-more-Mr.-Nice-Guy
ads against on-line textbook discounters. Jerry Buchs, a NACS
spokesperson, said the ads focus on companies like VarsityBooks
that sell only on-line. Barnes & Noble, Follett and Wallace sell
both at brick-and-mortar campus stores as well as on-line.
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With Tasini,
photographers press Geographic
ROCKVILLE,
Maryland, October 2, 1999
-- Thirty-two parties, freelance photographers and photo agencies,
plan to press National Geographic in court for using work
that was submitted for the magazine but then used in a CD-ROM
product without additional compensation. Jim Pickerell, who organized
the group, said that the recent Tasini decision will help
but that the Geographic now is arguing that the appellate
decision somehow doesn't apply. Earlier, when an initial court
decision went against authors, the magazine used the case as a
shield to defend what it did, Pickerell noted. "It's not going
to be a slam dunk," he said. "We will still have to fight and
fight hard."
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of page for all news
Newsletter
features geographer Sallie Marston
WINONA,
Minnesota, October 3, 1999
-- The October issue of the Academic Author, a digest of
the TAA on-line newsletter, was mailed to Text and Academic Authors
members. The issue features a profile on geography author Sallie
Marston.
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Med journal
author on drug firms' payroll
LOS ANGELES,
October 3, 1999
-- An analysis of a hair-loss treatment drug in the New England
Journal of Medicine was written by a clinical dermatologist
who had been on the payroll of the drug's manufacturers, the Los
Angeles Times reported. The journal made no mention of
the connection between Vera H. Price, of the University of California
at San Francisco, and Merck and Pharmacia & Upjohn in the upbeat
article. A journal editor, Alastair J.J. Wood, said he was aware
that Price earlier had been a paid consultant but that she wasn't
when the article was accepted.
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Bertelsman
wants more STM publishers
NEW YORK,
October 3, 1999
-- The German media conglomerate Bertelsmann is looking to acquire
U.S. scientific, medical and technical publishers, chief executive
Thomas Middelford said at a news conference. STM acquisitions
would be consolidated with Bertelsmann's Springer-Verlag, unit.
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of page for all news
McDonald's
launching early literacy campaign
CHICAGO,
October 4, 1999
-- The McDonald's fast-food chain plans to distribute 13 million
copies of A Parent's Guide to Raising Great Readers affixed
to Happy Meals.
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of page for all news
Med journal
to review its ethics practices
CAMBRIDGE,
Massachusetts, October 4, 1999
-- The New England Journal of Medicine will review its
conflict-of-interest policy, Editor Marcia Angell said. The review
follows criticism that an article on drugs in the Rogaine and
Propecia hair-loss treatments was written by a dermatologist who
had been a paid consultant to the manufacturers. Angell said she
stood behind how the Journal handled the article. Even
so, she said, there may have been "inconsistencies" between the
journal's conflict of interest policy and editorial practices.
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Comparison:
Web textbook sites no cheaper
WASHINGTON,
October 4, 1999
-- Internet bookstores are neither cheaper nor more convenient,
according to U.S. News Online, which compared the prices
of nine required textbooks for three courses at George Washington
University at five on-line bookstores with the university's own
campus bookstore prices. Efollett, VarsityBooks, Barnes & Noble,
Textbooks.com and BigWords.com were compared. "The sales tax charged
by the bookstore and the shipping charges at the web sites basically
negate each other, particularly if the site doesn't stock all
the necessary books," said U.S. News writer Kenneth Terrell.
"The results for the Internet stores were disappointing, if the
goal is to offer students an attractive match of lower prices
and convenient shopping."
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Houghton
sees school market as "hot"
BOSTON,
October 5, 1999
-- Houghton Mifflin projects significant growth for school books,
said Elizabeth Hacking, senior vice president for strategic development.
She described the el-hi market as "hot." Why? The adoption timelines,
enrollment growth and public enthusiasm to upgrade schools, Hacking
said.
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Author
attorney doubts Tasini text impact
CINCINNATI,
Ohio, October 6, 1999
-- The most recent ruling in Tasini v. New York Times,
which found that publishers cannot reuse authors' works in electronic
form without their permission, is unlikely to have an impact on
textbook authors, said authors attorney Steve Gillen. "The Tasini
case deals with rights that are specific to collective works and
with the custom of transferring only first-serial or one-time
rights," Gillen said. "In educational book publishing and academic
and professional journal publishing the custom has been to transfer
all rights to the publisher."
Gillen:
"The Tasini decision has implications beyond electronic rights
to technologies not yet invented -- a reminder to authors that,
as the electronic marketplace becomes more significant and as
the rate of technological advancement increases, it will be all
the more important to pay particular attention that to rights
transferred in publishing contracts -- to be certain that the
rights conveyed are very specifically described and that all other
rights are expressly reserved to the author, including rights
to exploit the work in forms not yet known or contemplated."
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Authors
asked about royalty check timing
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, October 6, 1999
-- Textbook authors are being polled on when they receive their
royalty checks for an analysis of industry practices. Questionnaires
went out to Text and Academic Authors members to determine whether
some publishers dally in sending out checks, said TAA editor John
Vivian. "If contracts say royalties will be paid in September,
and all the checks go out Sept. 30, the last legally possible
day, that's pushing the limits to authors' disadvantage," he said.
"We're trying to get a handle on the extent of such practices."
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Author
groups applaud Tasini reversal
NEW YORK,
October 8, 1999
-- The pro-author court reversal in the Tasini case has
turned the publishing world "rightside up," said the leaders of
two author groups. Freelancer Letty Cottin Peogrebin, president
of the Authors Guild, called the decision "wonderful news": "It
reaffirms our right to reap our fair share of the financial benefits
from electronic uses of our works." Said Samuel Greengard, president
of the American Society of Journalists and Authors: "For too long,
some publishers have been serial infringers. This Appeals Court
ruling is common sense recognition of the strict and explicit
requirements that govern the use of a freelance writer's work."
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Havas unifies
medical publishing units
PARIS,
October 7, 1999
-- French publisher giant Havas is merging four of its medical
textbook and journal companies into a new unit. To be called MediMedia
Group, the new unit will expand into customized magazines, customized
drug information systems, and other product lines, Havas said.
Being combined: Doyma, MediMedia, OVP-Vidal, Quotiden Sante.
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British
group lauds Tasini decision
LONDON,
October 8, 1999
-- The British Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society called
the latest ruling in favor of authors in the Tasini v. New
York Times copyright infringement lawsuit "a great opportunity
for authors." Dafydd Wyn Phillips, the society's chief executive,
said the U.S. decision confirms the ALCS view that electronic
rights should be licensed separately and paid for in addition
to print rights: "The Society is already operating on this basis."
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Granada
buys Black Cat reading firm
NEW YORK,
October 8, 1999 The
Granada Group, an educational and on-line company, Black Cat,
an early-learning software company. Price: $5 million. Granada
earlier got into textbooks by acquiring Letts.
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Opinion:
Journals editors need tenure
CAMBRIDGE,
Massachusetts, October 9, 1999
-- The former editor of the Journal of the American Medical
Association, fired during the Clinton impeachment trial for
an article on defining sex, has called for tenure for medical
journal editors. In an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education,
George Lundberg and his wife Patricia Lorimer Lundberg said credibility
for journals demands that editors have "complete editorial independence
from the commercial and political interests" of the publisher.
The essay cited the departure of Lundberg from JAMA, published
by the AMA, and the later firing of Jerome Kassirer, veteran editor
of the New England Journal of Medicine, published by the
Massachusetts Medical Society.
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University
presses launch study of monographs
ANN ARBOR,
Michigan, October 10, 1999
-- The Association of University Presses received $500,000 from
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a massive study on the state
of the academic monograph. Colin Day, of the University of Michigan
Press, said one question will be whether some fields are being
neglected. Another concern is whether scholars are being discouraged
from writing monographs. Day said interim reports will be issued
during the four-year study.
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Study finds
uneven journal pricing
MADISON,
Wisconsin, October 11, 1999
-- Academic journals from non-profit scholarly societies in some
fields are less expensive on average than commercial journals,
some drastically so, a University of Wisconsin study found. Librarian
Louis Pitschmann, who compiled data, said comparing journals by
citations found commercial neuroscience journals 13.6 times more
costly. Using the number of characters per dollar, the commercial
journals were 6.5 times more, Pitschmann said.
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Pearson
employees promised world-class site
BOSTON,
Massachusetts, October 11, 1999
-- Scattered offices of Pearson Education subsidiaries in the
Boston area will be consolidated in new downtown facilities. Spokesperson
Wendy Spiegal said the moves will help integrate the units, some
acquired from Simon & Schuster, into the overall Pearson structure.
Also, Spiegal said, the facility will provide for growth. Pearson's
secondary education groups will stay where they are, but employees
at Reading and Cambridge and some at Needham Heights will move
to connected downtown Boston offices, one a renovated building
at 75 Arlington Street and the other a newly constructed building
at 10 St. James. "A world-class site," Spiegal called them.
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Iran
moves against Second Lunatic
TEHRAN,
Iran, October 11, 1999
-- The government yanked all copies of The Second Lunatic
from bookstore inventories and shut down the publisher. Devout
Moslems had objected that the book blasphemed the revered Shiite
figure Imam.
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New Hedgehog
seeks cross-discipline depth
RICHMOND,
Virginia, October 12, 1999
-- A new journal, the Hedgehog Review, issued its first
thematic number, this one focusing on identity. Editor Jennifer
Geddes, at the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced
Studies in Culture, said the journal seeks viewpoints from the
social sciences and the humanities. Why the funny name? "Hedgehog"
alludes to literary references to hedgehogs seeing the Big Picture,
as opposed to fleeting, often disconnected glimpses, Geddes said.
Three issues a year are planned. Themes for future issues: democracy,
evil, the university, diversity, the body.
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VNU acquires
half of med web company
THE HAGUE,
Netherlands, October 13, 1999
--Half of the medical web publisher Medical Media, of The Hague,
was purchased by VNU, a Dutch-based publisher of textbooks, magazines
and newspapers. The Medical Media site www.ziekenhuis.nl records
650,000 hits a month, which makes it a gateway for web products
that VNU is developing.
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Reed Elsevier
continues cutbacks
AMSTERDAM,
October 13, 1999
-- Cutbacks at giant Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier are continuing,
Amsterdam papers reported. New chief executive Crispin Davis ordered
a 10 percent cut at a European trade journal divisions to save
$29 million. The cut is the latest installment in an evolving
reorganization plan.
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Pennsylvania
royalty recovery plan dies
HARRISBURG,
Pennsylvania, October 14, 1999
-- The Pennsylvania plan for professors to pay part of their royalty
income to the state is dead. State higher-ed negotiators agreed
to remove its proposed contract language that would have required
faculty authors to turn over major portions of their royalties
to the state. The proposal had drawn a strong negative response
from Ron Pynn, executive director of Text and Academic Authors,
and faculty union leaders said that professors were prepared to
strike over the issue. Said one union leader, Emlyn Jones: "Normally
universities don't take 50 percent of someone's book deal."
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Tasini:
Book publishers liable for digital re-use
NEW YORK,
October 14, 1999
-- Book publishers should heed the court decision in the freelancers
battle against the New York Times and other periodicals
for compensation for recycling works without author permission,
said Jonathan Tasini, the lead plaintiff in the case. Tasini said
publishers who recycle chapters into digital products must now
receive the authors' permission.
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Study:
Teachers and software not connecting
ROCKAWAY
PARK, New York, October 15, 1999
-- Educational software developer still have a long way to go
to get their products used in K-12 classrooms, a report by the
trade journal Education Week concluded. Sixty percent of
1,407 teachers in a survey said they find it difficult to find
software that meets their needs. Fifty percent said they have
the same problem finding useful web sites. How many teachers use
software? 53 percent. How many use the web? 61 percent.
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Penn negotiators:
Royalty plan only exploratory
HARRISBURG,
Pennsylvania, October 15, 1999
-- The Pennsylvania higher-ed system had viewed its proposed claim
to professor-author royalty income as a new initiative that might
or might not fly, said system spokesperson Ken Marshall. System
negotiators withdrew the proposal three days before the statewide
faculty was prepared to strike. The issue, Marshall said, was
never a top state priority in faculty contract negotiations but
a concept worth addressing. "We were just looking to begin to
address the issue as it related to the development of products
on university time using university resources," he said.
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Wolters
Kluwer buys trademark search firm
NEW YORK,
October 16, 1999
-- A major German academic and professional publisher, Wolters
Kluwer, bought Coursearch, of New York, a trademark research company.
Coursearch will be folded into Wolters' CCH legal publishing subsidiary.
Price: Undisclosed.
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Penn deal
heads off royalty claims everywhere
WEST CHESTER,
Pennsylvania, October 16, 1999
-- Professor-authors everywhere can breathe relief that Pennsylvania
faculty succeeded in removing proposal contract language to give
their royalty income to the state, said geology professor Richard
Busch at West Chester State University. Had the proposal been
successful, Busch said, then other states or institutions could
"smell money" and do exactly the same thing, putting an end to
virtually all royalty-generating scholarly work at U.S. universities.
"It is vital that faculty like me hear the wake-up call to separate
royalty generating work from their university workplace," he said.
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VarsityBooks.com
claims sales at 2,400 colleges
WASHINGTON,
October 17, 1999
-- On-line book discounter VarsityBooks.com reported textbook
sales to students at 2,400 colleges. In August, as students began
buying books, the company site registered 645,000 separate visitors.
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Ethicist:
TAA needs to review faculty authoring
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, October 17, 1999
-- Media ethicist Jay Black said it was only a matter of time
before a college tried laying claim to royalty income generated
by its faculty members. About the recently failed Pennsylvania
plan to take 50 to 75 percent of royalties, plus vaguely defined
expenses, Black said: "Naturally, I deplore the draconian and
short-sighted response of the Pennsylvania storm troopers, knowing
what a disincentive these proposals would be for scholarship of
all sorts." But the issue, he said, gives Text and Academic Authors
good cause to investigate the ethics of authoring: "Should we,
singularly and collectively, address the concerns about separating
subsidized scholarship from subsidized self-employment? I believe
we should." Black, of the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg
faculty, is a member of the TAA Council.
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McGraw
selling batch of trade magazines
NEW YORK,
October 18, 1999
-- Media conglomerate McGraw-Hill agreed to sell Chemical Engineering,
Modern Plastics and other trade journals to concentrate on
faster-growing businesses, the company announced. The purchaser,
Veronis Suhler & Associates, is expected to pass the titles on
Chemical Week Associates, which puts out competing journals. Transaction
details were not announced.
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TAA looks
to building campus chapters
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, October 19, 1999
-- The old get-to-know breakfasts, which Mike Keedy used to build
Text and Academic Authors member in the 1980s, are coming back.
Ron Pynn, executive director, invited campus members to consider
being host for a free breakfast for authors, both news and experienced,
at their campus. A follow-up would bean authoring workshop, a
speaker on campus issue, and continuing white papers and research
information for chapter meetings. Details were mailed to all TAA
members.
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CCC vice
president disappointed at TAA
AMSTERDAM,
October 19, 1999
-- A Copyright Clearance Center vice president told an international
meeting that the president of Text and Academic Authors had rejected
an invitation for her to sit on the CCC board of directors. Speaking
at the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations,
Dan Gervais said his CCC was disappointed at the decision of Karen
Morris, TAA president, especially considering TAA's long campaign
for greater author representation on the publisher-controlled
CCC board. The board makes policies on collecting reprography
fees in the United States and repatriating royalty collection
from abroad.
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TAA issues
call for New Orleans papers
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, October 20, 1999
--The annual call was issued for papers for Text and Academic
Authors national convention. Authors' deadline in the refereed
selection process is December 15, said Janet Tucker, who is coordinating
the call at TAA headquarters. The convention is June 22-24 at
La Pavillion Hotel in New Orleans.
What
topics?
"All aspects of textbooks, text materials and academic publishing,
including software, multimedia, web-publishing and other alternatives.
Additionally, we'd like to take a look at the changing nature
of publishing, privatization of book stores, used book markets,
and other factors that require the fine-tuning of traditional
topics, such as writing, negotiating contracts, royalty reviews,
and marketing strategies."
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TAA: CCC
exec misleading on representation
AMSTERDAM,
October 20, 1999
-- A Text and Academic Authors delegate to an international copyright
meeting said that Dan Gervais, a vice president at the Massachusetts-based
Copyright Clearance Center, was terribly misleading in saying
TAA President Karen Morris had snubbed a CCC offer to join its
board of directors. All the discussion on true author representation
on the CCC board, which occurred in June, involved TAA choosing
a member -- not CCC picking and choosing an individual, said Ron
Pynn, TAA executive director. TAA's position, he said, is that
a group with broad author membership, like the Authors Coalition,
should select author members for the board. Pynn saw Gervais'
account of what had happened, made in a general session of the
International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations,
as a midunderstanding of the events. TAA has criticized CCC policy-making
procedures for insufficient author input. Morris was never offered
a board position by CCC, although TAA was, Pynn said. "But we
felt CCC should not be selecting some author groups and neglecting
others for board seats," he said. "Authors should be able to select
their own reps."
After
the Copyright Clearance Center was criticized at an international
meeting for not having author-elected authors on its board of
directors, CCC's Dan Gervais tried to turn the tables by saying
TAA had turned down an invitation for its president, Karen Morris,
to join the board. Said Ron Pynn, executive director: "It just
didn't happen that way."
WHAT'S
WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE
CCC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
|
| Publishers
and users |
Authors |
1.Robert
D. Bovenschulte
American Chemical Society |
1
Janice Hopkins Tanne |
2.
Richard S. Rudick
John Wiley & Sons |
2.Grace
W. Weinstein |
3.Pieter
S.H. Bolman
Academic Press |
3.
Richard Weisgrau
American Society of Media Photographers |
4.
Ina A. Brown-Woodson
AT&T Labs |
|
5.
Stanley N. Katz
Princeton University |
|
6.
Elizabeth St. J. Loker
Washington Post |
|
7.
M. Stuart Lynn
University of California |
|
8.
Michael D. Majcher
Xerox Corporation |
|
9.Barbara
A. Munder
McGraw-Hill |
|
10.Ronald
H. Schlosser
Thomson Financial Services |
|
11.Sanford
G. Thatcher
Pennsylvania State University Press |
|
12.Paul
Warren
Warren Publishing |
|
13.Russell
C. White
Elsevier Science |
|
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Authors
can rest easy; return rate seem normal
OBERLIN,
Ohio, October 21, 1999
-- No signs have emerged that bookstores have a higher return
rate of unsold textbooks to publishers this fall. Some authors
had worried that bookstores had over-ordered, not realizing that
new on-line distributors were penetrating their traditional market
share. That would mean authors would have the returns deducted
from their royalties. Cynthia D'Angelo at the National Association
of College Stores said she's seen no sign of an unusual return
rate. At Pearson Education, Vice President Wendy Spiegal said
the same.
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STM sales
lead text, academic books
WASHINGTON,
October 22, 1999
-- Sales of technical, science, medical and technical books through
August ran 17.1 percent ahead of a year earlier, the Association
of American Publishers reported based on a sample 101 publishers
reporting. Only juvenile books and adult paperbacks did better.
TEXTBOOK
AND ACADEMIC BOOK SALES
THROUGH AUGUST 1999
From Association of American Publishers compilations
|
| STM
and business |
17.1
percent |
| University
press (hardback) |
8.7
percent |
| University
press (paperback) |
1.1
percent |
| College |
6.3
percent |
| El-hi
adoptions |
1.8
percent |
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Wiley InterScience
posting journals quicker
NEW YORK,
October 23, 1999
-- By January, all 300 journals on the Wiley InterScience site
will be available on or before the print editions come out, said
William Pesce, president. InterScience, which began in 1997 as
a company project, is now "a way of doing business," Pesce said.
Links between the 300 sites journals are now being negotiated
with other publishers, he said.
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Veteran
Feminist Press editor retiring
NEW YORK,
October 24, 1999
-- A founder of the non-profit Femninist Press, Florence Howe,
plans to retire after 30 years as editor. A search for a successor
was launched.
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New sociology
journal due on human conformity
FULLERTON,
California, October 25, 1999
-- Two University of California at Fullerton sociologists announced
a peer-reviewed journal on mundane behavior soon will be on-line.
Myron Orleans and Scott Schaffer said the emphasis of their Journal
of Mundane Behavior will avoid the field's preoccupation with
deviance. The goal, said Orleans, is to examine conformity. The
site is scheduled to go live in February.
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50 authors
review TAA tips monograph draft
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, October 26, 1999
--More than 50 experienced authors contributed to a forthcoming
monograph for new text and academic authors, said Ron Pynn, who
compiled the material. Pynn's 42-page single-space draft went
out to contributors for final approval. The monograph is divided
into 12 sections:
- Getting
started in publishing.
- Choosing
a publisher.
- Book proposals.
- Working
with co-authors.
- Contract
negotiations.
- The writing
process.
- Dealing
with editors and publishers.
- Marketing
your book.
- Royalties/finances
and business aspects.
- Colleagues,
tenure and promotion.
- Using your
book in class.
- Revisions
and subsequent editions.
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Stores
target VarsityBooks.com in fraud suit
OBERLIN,
Ohio, October 27, 1999
-- Charging fraud, the National Association of College Stores
sued on-line textbook discounter VarsityBooks.com. The association
claims its member stores are suffering irreparable harm from Varsity's
claim it offers 40 percent discounts. Only a few titles might
be considered 40 percent off, according to the stores' association.
And, NACS asked, 40 percent off what? Textbook publishers don't
suggest retail prices, the association noted.
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E-journal
cost not as low as you may think
NEW YORK,
October 29, 1999
-- University presses are discovering that on-line journals aren't
as inexpensive to produce as originally anticipated, the executive
director of the American Association of University Presses said.
"Everyone expected the Internet to save money, eliminating the
costs of printing, binding, warehousing and shipping, but those
costs haven't decreased, they've increased," said Peter Givler.
"We're just beginning to discover the costs of preparation, training,
hardware and software. A move into electronic publishing can eliminate
the costs of ink and paper but can pick up all kinds of new costs."
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