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Scholastic Releases Statement on Coal Foundation Curriculum
Children's advocacy groups sharply reprimanded Scholastic last week for distributing to schools a poster on energy sources sponsored by the American Coal Foundation. An editorial in the New York Times criticized the poster for "giving a one-sided view of coal usage." Friday, Scholastic released a statement acknowledging "that the mere fact of sponsorship may call into question the authenticity of the information, and therefore conclude that we were not vigilant enough as to the effect of sponsorship in this instance." The statement also says Scholastic will not distribute the poster any more and plans to reevaluate its editorial procedures concerning sponsored content.
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Audible Creates Audio Rights Exchange, ACX
Audible, Inc. has launched ACX (ACX.com), an online audiobook rights marketplace, production platform and online sales system.
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IPG Rebrands Itself with New Logo
Independent Publishers Group [IPG], which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this spring, is officially rolling out a new logo today, to better reflect the company’s more complex dynamic in an evolving industry.
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Deals: Week of 5/9/2011
Penguin Nabs O’Hara Debut
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News Briefs: Week of 5/9/11
RH Buys Smashing Ideas and more.
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MacAdam Cage Fighting To Stay in Business
Financially troubled San Francisco independent publisher MacAdam Cage continues to struggle to stay in business. But in a recent phone interview with MacAdam Cage publisher David Poindexter, he said that after years of layoffs, a distribution change, the departure of editor-in-chief Pat Walsh and mounting complaints of nonpayment from its authors, the cash strapped house is now generating revenue and he claims to be making delayed royalty payments to MacAdam Cage authors.
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Zondervan Launches 'Story' Campaign with Lucado
Building on what it calls a "movement" in churches started by the 2005 edition of The Story, a chronological retelling of the Bible, Zondervan this month launches a campaign to promote the new edition and the line it has given birth to--more than 30 different products aimed at all ages.
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S&S, Penguin, Hachette Back Bookish, Online Book Site
Three major publishers are backing a new online effort that its creators said is aimed at engaging and informing readers about authors and books. With the financial backing of Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Group, Bookish (www.bookish.com) is being headed by Paulo Lemgruber who previously had run digital businesses at Comcast and Reed Elsevier and who told PW he was recruited about one year ago by publishers to start Bookish. Other members of the team include Charlie Rogers, who has worked at The Paris Review, NBC Universal and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, who is Bookish editor-in-chief.
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Opens D.C. Office for Social Responsibility, HMH Foundation
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will open a Washington, D.C., office devoted to its global corporate social responsibility efforts and the HMH Foundation. The company has appointed education leader Samuel Casey as senior v-p of global CSR for HMH, as well as executive director of the HMH Foundation.
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RedBone Press: Black and Gay Together
Originally launched as a self-publishing project for a single book, RedBone Press, a black gay/lesbian-focused independent publisher, is celebrating its 15th year in the book business. And RedBone is an independent publisher in the literal sense: since day one, the founder and publisher Lisa C. Moore has been the house’s sole staff member.
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Montlake Romance Marks Tip of Amazon's Expansion Into Publishing
With the news that Amazon is expanding its publishing arm, launching in the fall Montlake Romance (with plans to deepen its category-publishing to mystery, science fiction and thrillers), many in the publishing business have been talking about the company’s hiring strategies. And agents have been eyeing the unfolding process closely, trying to gauge whether the retailer will become as viable a place for their books as the traditional houses.
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Worthy Inks Audio Deal with Oasis
Worthy Publishing has signed a deal with Oasis Audio to release Worthy’s inaugural list as audiobooks. Worthy, the new publishing venture of Byron Williamson’s Worthy Media, debuts this fall with nine titles; Oasis has opted to produce eight of them for simultaneous release.
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St. Martin's Prepares for Run on Book by Seals
Three weeks shy of a year ago, St. Martin's Press signed up a book by a Navy SEAL Team Six sniper, chronicling how he became an elite warrior and the battle that nearly cost him his life. Today, with news of Osama Bin Laden's death reverberating around the world, SMP is getting ready for a rush of interest in the book, SEAL Team Six, because Team Six is the group that actually killed Bin Laden.
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BOA Editions: Recognizing Literary Forms in Need for 35 Years
When poet/editor/translator A. Poulin Jr. founded BOA Editions in 1976, the publishing landscape had little room for poetry.
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News Briefs: Week of 5/2/11
Digital Drives Amazon and More.
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Tuttle Publishing Donates to Relief Efforts in Japan
When the tsunami struck Japan on March 11, Tuttle Publishing, in Rutland, Vt., and Tokyo wanted to help. Not only are many of the press' authors and publishing colleagues in Japan, but the history of the company is interconnected with the revival of Japanese publishing by founder Charles E. Tuttle, Jr. at the end of World War II. "None of the Tuttle Tokyo staff suffered from the direct effects of the disaster, but this unfolding tragedy is on the hearts and minds of all employees, both in the U.S. and overseas," says Tuttle publicist Rowan Muelling-Auer.
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Distribution: S&S Adds Hooked on Phonics
Beginning July 1, Simon & Schuster will handle all sales, distribution and fulfillment in the U. S., Canada and open markets for Hooked on Phonics. The company had previously handled sales in-house.
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Hachette Forms New Imprint, Jericho Books
Hachette Book Group is launching a new faith-based imprint, Jericho Books, that will be part of HBG's Nashville division. Wendy Grisham, who has served as director of publishing for Hodder Faith, a Hachette U.K. company, has been named publisher and vice president.
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F+W Buys Tyrus Books, Launches Crime Vertical
F+W Media is adding to its family of vertical segments and in the process getting in the fiction market with the launch of F+W Crime. F+W has acquired Tyrus Books and hired its founder, Ben LeRoy, as publisher and community leader, F+W Crime.
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Crown Launches Deepak Chopra Books Imprint
Bestselling author Deepak Chopra is teaming with the Crown Publishing Group to create a new imprint, Deepak Chopra Books. In addition to continuing to write for Crown, Chopra will initiate and submit to Crown six nonfiction book projects each year. According to Crown, the mission of the new imprint will be to "publish important, innovative nonfiction books by visionary authors who are committed to enhancing people's lives. The ultimate goal is an expanded science that bridges spirituality." The first list is scheduled for 2012.
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