Venture is latest stage in online retailer’s growing expansion into publishing its own titles Amazon.com has announced plans to move further into publishing with the launch of a new romance imprint, Montlake Romance, “bringing readers the freshest, most innovative and compelling love stories possible”. Montlake, named after a neighbourhood in central Seattle, is the online retailer’s fourth imprint, following its flagship venture Amazon Encore, literature in translation imprint Amazon Crossing and bestselling author Seth Godin’s The Domino Project, “a series of manifestos by thought leaders”. Launching in November with the award-winning writer Connie Brockway’s The Other Guy’s Bride – in which a budding archaeologist in turn-of-the-century Egypt poses as another man’s fiancée – Montlake will publish across the romantic fiction spectrum, from romantic suspense to paranormal romance and fantasy. The “broad range” of new titles will be available to readers in North America in print, Kindle and audio formats from Amazon’s website and from bookshops in the US. “Romance is one of our biggest and fastest-growing categories, particularly among Kindle customers, so we can’t wait to make The Other Guy’s Bride and other compelling titles available to romance fans around the world,” said Amazon Publishing vice president Jeff Belle, announcing the news. Brockway said the new imprint was giving her “the opportunity to write romances that capture the imagination as well as the heart and I’m thrilled to invite readers to join me on this exhilarating journey. There are so many stories I’ve been dying to tell you, and people you simply have to meet.” Amazon.com is also looking into launching imprints focusing on other fiction genres, including mystery, science fiction and thrillers, according to US books magazine Publishers Weekly , and is recruiting staff to increase its publishing presence. “We also know our customers enjoy genre fiction of all kinds, so we are busy building publishing businesses that will focus on additional genres as well,” said Belle. The Bookseller’s news editor Graeme Neill said that Amazon was “definitely becoming more aggressive in its publishing business”, pointing to the news last month that the online retailer “came close to winning a multi-million dollar auction for self-published author Amanda Hocking , the first time it has bid on a frontlist title”, and to its new hiring strategy. “If you go onto Amazon’s website, they are currently hiring acquisition editors, publicists, marketing staff. This is something they weren’t looking at several years ago,” he said. The move into romance is a good one for Amazon, he added, particularly digitally, as “romance and crime readers were the first to really buy into ebooks, so Amazon having its own romance imprint makes a lot of sense as it will only sell its romance ebooks through its own Kindle e-reader”. Publishers, however, will be eyeing the retailer’s increased publishing presence uneasily. “Publishers will be concerned Amazon is increasingly encroaching on what they see as ‘their’ business,” said Neill. Publishing Amazon.com Internet E-commerce Alison Flood guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Internet phone service in negotiations over link-ups that could delay Wall Street flotation, according to reports The internet phone service Skype is entertaining partnership talks with both Facebook and Google – delaying its $100m (£60m) Wall Street flotation – according to reports . A deal to buy Skype outright is not thought to be in the pipeline, although one source “with direct knowledge of the discussion” told Reuters that billionaire Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg had “been involved in internal discussions” about snapping up the video chat service. Such a deal could be worth between $3bn and $4bn, according to the Reuters source – which, if plausible, is illuminating about how much cash the social network has in the bank. More likely is a joint venture between Skype and Facebook/Google. The Luxembourg-based company has longstanding partnerships with TV manufacturers including LG, Panasonic and Samsung to embed Skype into their products. It is not hard to imagine Skype calling integrated into Facebook, for when the likes, wall posts and private messages just won’t do. Both firms, too, have sizeable communities of engaged users: Facebook has more than 600 million registered accounts; Skype has 560 million, of whom about 124 million make calls in the average month. Most troubling for Skype is its low conversion rate – only about 6% of its users actually pay for the service, something the company explicitly vowed to boost in its initial public offering prospectus last year. However, we shouldn’t expect tie-ups with Facebook and Google to involve paid-for premium services – that’s not how those companies operate. A tie-up with Google is slightly less obvious. The Mountain View company already has GChat video-and-voice calling embedded into Gmail, though the feature is a little hidden behind regular instant messaging. Then again, Skype would slot nicely into the so-far-underwhelming Google TV and already has a place on Android smartphones . Skype declared its intention to go public way back in August last year , since when a slew of new generation internet firms – including Facebook, Zynga, and Twitter – have worked up investor appetite for social media firms. China’s answer to Facebook, Renren, yesterday raised $743m with its flotation on the New York Stock Exchange, with shares immediately rocketing in the loss-making social network. Unlike Renren, which has the added allure of a booming Chinese internet market, Skype is hoping to raise $100m with its initial public offering in the second half of this year. The IPO will value the eight-year-old firm at $1bn, according to reports . The Canadian pension fund, Silver Lake and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz own a 56% stake in Skype, with 14% belonging to its original inventors, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Still in Skype’s rear-view mirror is its fruitless $3.1bn acquisition by eBay in 2005 – and sale in 2009 – which will make the internet telephony firm wary of a wholesale buyout. eBay maintains a 30% stake in Skype. Digital media Skype Facebook Google Internet Telecoms Social networking Technology sector Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Internet phone service in negotiations over link-ups that could delay Wall Street flotation, according to reports The internet phone service Skype is entertaining partnership talks with both Facebook and Google – delaying its $100m (£60m) Wall Street flotation – according to reports . A deal to buy Skype outright is not thought to be in the pipeline, although one source “with direct knowledge of the discussion” told Reuters that billionaire Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg had “been involved in internal discussions” about snapping up the video chat service. Such a deal could be worth between $3bn and $4bn, according to the Reuters source – which, if plausible, is illuminating about how much cash the social network has in the bank. More likely is a joint venture between Skype and Facebook/Google. The Luxembourg-based company has longstanding partnerships with TV manufacturers including LG, Panasonic and Samsung to embed Skype into their products. It is not hard to imagine Skype calling integrated into Facebook, for when the likes, wall posts and private messages just won’t do. Both firms, too, have sizeable communities of engaged users: Facebook has more than 600 million registered accounts; Skype has 560 million, of whom about 124 million make calls in the average month. Most troubling for Skype is its low conversion rate – only about 6% of its users actually pay for the service, something the company explicitly vowed to boost in its initial public offering prospectus last year. However, we shouldn’t expect tie-ups with Facebook and Google to involve paid-for premium services – that’s not how those companies operate. A tie-up with Google is slightly less obvious. The Mountain View company already has GChat video-and-voice calling embedded into Gmail, though the feature is a little hidden behind regular instant messaging. Then again, Skype would slot nicely into the so-far-underwhelming Google TV and already has a place on Android smartphones . Skype declared its intention to go public way back in August last year , since when a slew of new generation internet firms – including Facebook, Zynga, and Twitter – have worked up investor appetite for social media firms. China’s answer to Facebook, Renren, yesterday raised $743m with its flotation on the New York Stock Exchange, with shares immediately rocketing in the loss-making social network. Unlike Renren, which has the added allure of a booming Chinese internet market, Skype is hoping to raise $100m with its initial public offering in the second half of this year. The IPO will value the eight-year-old firm at $1bn, according to reports . The Canadian pension fund, Silver Lake and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz own a 56% stake in Skype, with 14% belonging to its original inventors, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Still in Skype’s rear-view mirror is its fruitless $3.1bn acquisition by eBay in 2005 – and sale in 2009 – which will make the internet telephony firm wary of a wholesale buyout. eBay maintains a 30% stake in Skype. Digital media Skype Facebook Google Internet Telecoms Social networking Technology sector Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Frontman Gerard Way responds to conservative broadcaster’s claim that song used in Glee episode is propaganda My Chemical Romance have waded into a spat with conservative US pundit Glenn Beck. The Fox News talkshow host chose the New Jersey band as his latest target on his programme last week. Claiming that “our whole culture right now is set up for you and the values that we grew up on to lose”, he discussed the hit TV series Glee – and, in particular, the use of My Chemical Romance’s Sing on an episode that aired in the US in February. Beck accused the band of propaganda, urging parents to remain vigilant against the song, which has just been re-released as a charity single for Japanese earthquake and tsunami relief: “Pay attention to the lyrics,” Beck said. “It’s an anthem saying ‘Join us’. How can you and I possibly win against that?” The track features the lyrics: “Cleaned-up corporation progress/ Dying in the process/ Children that can talk about it/ Living on the railways/ People moving sideways/ Sell it till your last days.” Beck appeared to take lyrics from the song, which is set in a post-apocalyptic California, literally. My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way has responded to Beck’s comments via a blog on the band’s website . “I think the word Glenn Beck was looking for was ‘subversion’ not ‘propaganda’, because I don’t know what it would be considered propaganda for – Truth? Sentiment? And I can’t tell what he’s angrier about – the fact that it’s how I feel about the persistent sterilisation of our culture or the fact that it’s on network television for everyone to hear. And railways? Is it 1863? Seen any children living on these lately instead of the internet? “I’m actually shocked that no fact-checking was done on the lyrics,” Way wrote. “I mean Fox is a major news channel, covering factual topics in an unbiased and intelligent – oh wait – to quote the man himself – ‘You don’t have to live by the standards that society has set’. I couldn’t agree more.” The band has had previous run-ins with the rightwing media. In 2006, they were forced to respond to an article in the Daily Mail by Sarah Sands that portrayed them as part of a “cult of suicide” . My Chemical Romance headline the Reading and Leeds festivals in August. My Chemical Romance Pop and rock Glenn Beck US politics United States Glee US television Dan Martin guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak pleads guilty to manslaughter but denies murder The neighbour of landscape architect Joanna Yeates has admitted killing her. Yeates’s parents, David and Theresa, were at the Old Bailey in London as the Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak pleaded guilty to her manslaughter, but denied murder. The charge states that Tabak “unlawfully killed” the 25-year-old between 16 and 19 December. But the 33-year-old pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder and was remanded in custody to face trial at Bristol crown court on 4 October. Yeates, who lived in Clifton, Bristol, disappeared on 17 December after going for Christmas drinks with colleagues. Her frozen body was found dumped on a verge in a lane in Failand, north Somerset, on Christmas Day. Tabak appeared in court via a videolink from Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire. He spoke to confirm his name and to say he was content for proceedings to continue in English without an interpreter before entering his pleas. During the hearing he sat at a desk, occasionally using a piece of paper to make notes and sipping from a drink. His trial is expected to last four weeks. Joanna Yeates Crime guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
While in Italy, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about the Libyan opposition, the future of the US Relationship with Pakistan, and the now-famous photo of the White House Situation Room during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. (May 5)
Continue reading …
Little hope remained that nine miners survived a blast at a coal mine in northern Mexico early Tuesday. Anxious relatives were demanding information, as others grieved at a funeral for one of the five already found dead. (May 5)
Continue reading …
Meet Stanley. Stanley seems pretty normal. Just your ordinary mildly overweight (being polite) bachelor who lives in a crib at his Mom’s house, right? Wrong. Very wrong. So wrong, in fact, that I almost don’t have anything else to say about this video of Stanley the Adult Baby because I am now rocking back and forth in a crib made out of the broken dreams of my future. Please watch this clip from National… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : VH1′s Today In Music Discovery Date : 03/05/2011 21:52 Number of articles : 5
Continue reading …Aerial video shows the extent of devastation of flooding in Memphis, Tennessee. (May 5)
Continue reading …Aerial video shows the extent of devastation of flooding in Memphis, Tennessee. (May 5)
Continue reading …