TODAY'S NEWS

Delay Looming For Google Settlement Deadline?
By Andrew Albanese
With the opt-out deadline just a week away, and with resistance stiffening, it now seems likely that at least some kind of an extension may be in the offing in the Google Book Search settlement. Last week, a group of authors and their representatives filed a request to delay the May 5 deadline. The motion, filed April 24, by attorneys representing The Palladin Group for John Steinbeck and Thomas Myles Steinbeck, Catherine Ryan Hyde, The Philip K. Dick Testamentary Trust, Arlo Guthrie, Michael W. Perry, Eugene Linden, and James Rasenberger, asked the court for a four-month extension, with October 7 marking the new opt-out deadline, and with the hearing, now set for June 11, to follow at the court’s discretion. Read on »

Amazon Acquires Stanza iPhone e-Book App
By Calvin Reid
Despite the popularity of the Kindle digital reading device, Amazon.com appears to be hedging its bets and has acquired Lexcycle, the company that produces Stanza, the e-book reading app for the iPhone. Unlike the Kindle’s proprietary e-book format, Lexcycle’s Stanza app supports the e-pub format developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum and is generally accepted as the standard format for future e-book production. Read on »

Sales Fall at McGraw-Hill Education, but Loss Cut
by Jim Milliot
Revenue at Mc-Graw-Hill Education fell 5.3% in the first quarter ended March 31, to $312.6 million, but the company was able to cut its quarterly operating loss from $90.9 million to $76.6 million. Parent company McGraw-Hill Cos. credited the smaller loss to tight cost controls; the company eliminated several hundred positions in 2008.

The strong dollar reduced revenue at MHP, particularly in its higher education/professional/international group where revenue declined 0.7%, to $190 million. Higher enrollments led to solid gains in domestic college sales, but currency fluctuations hurt international sales and weak retail demand in the U.S. offset those gains. MHE reported double-digit increases for digital products in both the higher education and professional markets. Read on »

Plug Pulled on Christian Consumer Book Show
By Marcia Z. Nelson
The show won’t go on in Dallas. The Christian Book Expo, an innovative consumer-focused book show, won’t be repeated next year. The board of Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, show sponsor, decided not to stage another event in 2010. Attendance at this year’s show, held March 20-22 at the Dallas Convention Center, was 1,500; organizers had hoped for 10,000 to 15,000. The show left the organization with a $250,000 shortfall, according to ECPA president and CEO Mark Kuyper. “We want to clean up the debt before we consider future options,” Kuyper told PW in an e-mail.

Source Interlink Files Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy
by Judith Rosen
After trying to right itself financially at the start of the year by charging more for distributing magazines, then suing competitors and magazine publishers with collusion in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York when the increase was rejected, Source Interlink is trying a different tack. This morning, it filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware as part of a pre-packaged bankruptcy plan. According to Source, the bankruptcy is part of an agreement with lenders to eliminate $1 billion dollars of existing debt and to privatize the company. And Source said it expects to come out of the prepackaged bankruptcy in 35 days. Read on »

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MORE STORIES

William Morris-Endeavor Merger Goes Through
After months of speculation, two of the most powerful Hollywood talent agencies, William Morris and Endeavor, have made their plans to merge official. The new agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment or WME, will be overseen by a four-person team with William Morris's Jim Wiatt as chairman and Endeavor's Ari Emanuel, Patrick Whitesell and Dave Wirtschafter as co-CEOs.

The nine-member board of WME will include, along the aforementioned execs, John Fogelman, Peter Grosslight, Rick Rosen, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and Adam Venit. PW was unable to confirm by press time who will be heading up the new agency's literary division but, given the structure of the board, the obvious candidate looks to be Walsh. More to come on that.

The L.A. Times Festival of Books: Highlights
By Louisa Ermelino & Wendy Werris
More than 130,000 people wound their way around the UCLA campus this weekend for the 29th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in an atmosphere to make Disney envious. This is an event that makes you believe in publishing. It’s democratic and populist with something for everyone: children, literary snobs, mystery fans, environmentalists, history buffs, current affairs junkies, celebrity hounds, people trying to get published, flog their own books, touch flesh with the famous, but ultimately everyone is there because of books. Read on »

Bookslut Moving to Berlin
By Claire Kirch
Jessa Crispin, the founder and managing editor of Bookslut.com, the online literary magazine famous for its erudite yet irreverent reviews, author interviews and feature articles, announced on her blog today that she is moving from Chicago to Berlin July 1 for personal reasons. While Crispin will not give up ownership of Bookslut and will remain editor-in-chief, her assistant, Caroline Eick, will become the new managing editor, in charge of handling the books chosen for review by Bookslut's stable of writers, training new reviewers, and running Bookslut.com's Chicago reading series, held each month at the Hopleaf bar in the Andersonville neighborhood. Read on »

The PW Morning Report
A daily roundup of book and publishing news from across the Web: Amazon Buys Stanza App; PEN World Voices Fest Takes New York; The Book on Swine Flu; Portfolio Folds; Reviews Reviewed. Read on »

Deahl to Take Over PW's Deals Coverage
Moving forward Rachel Deahl will be handling the deals column in the magazine. Please contact her at rachel.deahl@reedbusiness.com with deal announcements and news. Matt Thornton, who had been handling this coverage, will continue to freelance for PW.

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Sam Haskell; How Sex Works; Darryl Strawberry
On this morning’s Today show: Hollywood talent agent Sam Haskell reveals Promises I Made My Mother (Ballantine, 978-0345506559, $24; RH Audio unabridged CD, $29.95), just out today. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Getting Bookish in L.A.
A shot of the crowd that gathered at the UCLA campus over the weekend for the L.A. Times Book Festival.
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JOB OF THE DAY

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