Random Adopts Agency Model
Random House, the last of the big six houses still using the wholesale model for
e-book sales, moved to the agency model on March 1. With its adoption of the agency model, Random House began offering all 17,000 of its e-books directly through the iBookstore. Random's titles had not been available in the iBookstore under the wholesale model.

Librarians Upset by HC Lending Program
The decision by HarperCollins to limit library loans of e-books to 26 per e-title has outraged librarians, some of whom have called for a boycott of all HC books. Once the 26-loan limit has been reached, librarians must buy a new license, although the new fee would be lower if the book was moved from hardcover to paperback. Josh Marwell, Harper president of sales, released an open letter to librarians detailing HarperCollins's reasons for the change of policy, which read in part: "We have serious concerns that our previous e-book policy, selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity, if left unchanged, would undermine the emerging e-book eco-system, hurt the growing e-book channel, place additional pressure on physical bookstores, and in the end lead to a decrease in book sales and royalties paid to authors."

B&N Settles With Spring Design
Barnes & Noble has reached a settlement in a 2009 lawsuit filed by Spring Design, developer of the Alex Reader, a dual-screen digital reading device, charging that B&N stole the design of the Alex Reader and used it for its own Nook e-reading device. Spring Design also announced it is discontinuing sales of the Alex Reader. According to the terms of the settlement, Spring Design will grant B&N "a non-exclusive, paid-up royalty free license for the entire portfolio of Spring Design patents and patent applications," which will settle all claims.

Ruckus Raises $3.5 Million
Rick Richter's Ruckus Media Group received $3.5 million in new funding last week led by Alsop Louie Partners along with private investors. Ruckus released its first five apps on iTunes in mid-October and now has 15 apps. The new funding will let Ruckus broaden its product offerings across all major mobile devices in the coming months by expanding distribution beyond Apple's iTunes to include Google's Android Market, Research In Motion's Blackberry App World, Amazon's App Store, and the Barnes and Noble Nook.

Quarto Buys Cool Springs
Quarto Group has acquired Cool Springs Press, headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn. Cool Springs, with more than 300 titles in print, will become an imprint of Quayside Publishing Group, Quarto's American subsidiary, headquartered in Minneapolis. The press's editing, marketing, and sales operations will remain in Tennessee, while Quayside will take over back-office functions. Cool Spring's founding publisher, Roger Waynick, will report to Ken Fund, Quayside's president and CEO.

Crown Revamps Religion
The Crown Publishing Group reorganized its religion publishing program, moving all of its Catholic books under the Image Books imprint and in the process doing away with the Doubleday Religion imprint. Under the reorganization, all Catholic-interest titles, regardless of format, will be overseen by Trace Murphy, editor-in-chief of Image. Murphy will now report to Steve Cobb, who adds the title of president and publisher of Image Books to his duties overseeing WaterBrook Multnomah, which is based in Colorado Springs, Colo. Marketing, publicity, and sales administration for Image Books will move to Colorado under the direction of Carie Freimuth, v-p, association publisher, for WaterBrook Multnomah and Image.

Bookseller Warren Cassell Dies at 80
Warren Cassell, who owned and operated the 600-sq.-ft. Just Books in Greenwich, Conn., for nearly 25 years, died on February 25 of heart failure. He was 80. Cassell attended New York University and taught in Manhattan and Yorktown Heights, N.Y., before purchasing the store in 1978. He sold it in 2002 before moving to Portland, Ore. In Portland he took a job working part-time at Broadway Books and recommended books on Goodreads.com. Recently, Cassell became involved with Operation Paperback, which collects used books to send to American troops overseas. He is survived by his wife, Melissa Cassell, and three children.