Is Apple’s iBooks app broken?
1 July 2022 (Phone World)
The app now has an average rating of three stars on the App Store. Almost all of the negative reviews claim that, after a recent update, Apple Books no longer opens any books.
Library Futures Releases Policy Statement and Draft US eBook Legislative Language
30 June 2022 (Library Journal – Info Docket)
Mitigating the Library eBook Conundrum Through Legislative Action in the States. “We have developed model legislative language that avoids the problematic Maryland language and that we therefore believe will hold up against legal challenges. In short, we propose model legislation grounded in state consumer protection, state contract law, state procurement law, and contract preemption.”
Educopia to Create a Community-Governed OA Book Analytics Service for Publishers
30 June 2022 (Info Docket)
“Designed to inform and empower small-to-medium book publishers worldwide, the Book Analytics Dashboard Project will serve the diverse array of presses that serve scholarly communication and academic authors and audiences.”
New report on global digital book sales
28 June 2022 (Books+Publishing)
Across all markets, there was a spike in audiobook sales and subscriptions in 2020 before a slight decline in 2021 and first quarter 2022. Sales and subscriptions levels remain significantly higher than during the pre-pandemic period.
Manchester entrepreneur building ‘Netflix for education’
20 June 2022 (Business Cloud)
“At the moment, education is a very dispersed, segmented market,” Chloe Barrett, CEO of Immersify Education, tells BusinessCloud. “There isn’t a platform allowing you to access everything in one place: information, workshops, lectures, revision sessions, feedback. We want to bring all those resources into one platform. We’re building towards becoming the go-to platform for educational resources: the ‘Netflix of educational content’.”
A Chat with James Gray, Founder and CEO of EdTech: Kortext
20 June 2022 (TechRound)
“What excites me most about our developments in this area is that we can find a way to actually harness a student’s digital behaviour, and utilise this to empower institutions and educators to support a student in real time. This means recognising a student may be struggling early and help them before the issues they are facing become overwhelming. It has the potential to change the world…”
Future 50: Edtech start-up adds four new faces to its team
20 June 2022 (Eastern Daily Press)
Readingmate, an edtech company based in Norwich, has recruited four new people and moved into larger offices as it prepares to launch a new reading app for schools in September. Established in January 2021 by James Rix and his wife Hannah, a former English teacher, Readingmate aims to address the “inequity of opportunity” for children – with only one in 11 having a book of their own.
Spotify comes for audiobooks
9 June 2022 (The Verge)
Spotify wants to make audiobooks the next pillar of its business. On Wednesday, company executives pitched the audiobooks business to investors as their next target for industry domination. When they launch the audiobooks vertical (which is TBD), it could have huge ramifications not only for Spotify’s own business, but for the publishing industry as well.
Judge in Maryland strikes down library e-book law
13 June 2022 (Washington Post)
“…the law’s “practical impact” would force publishers “to offer their products to libraries — whether they want to or not — lest they face a civil enforcement action or criminal prosecution … While the goal of this bill is laudable, unfortunately, copyright protection provides the author of the work with the exclusive right to their works.”
New York’s Cambridge Information Group Acquires the UK’s Emerald Group
10 June 2022 (Publishing Perspectives)
England’s Emerald Group and its Emerald Publishing now are part of CIG, an investment firm in New York City and Bethesda, Maryland. Cambridge Information (CIG) is a family-owned investment firm, often working in education, information, and software. It has owned ProQuest in the past [and acquired eBooks.com’s academic library service, EBL, in 2013.]
More Ebook Industry News (back to Aug 2017)
