Amazon has introduced a "new Kindle family member," the Kindle with Special Offers, which retails for $114, or $25 less than the company's lowest-priced e-reader. Customers who opt for this version will see advertising on the screensaver and on the bottom of the home screen. Currently available for pre-order, Kindle with Special Offers is scheduled to ship on May 3.
During the initial weeks, the deals will include a $10-for-$20 Amazon.com gift card; $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 store; and a $100 gift card with a new Amazon Rewards Visa card. Buick, Olay (Procter & Gamble), Visa and Amazon.com Reward Visa Card (Chase) are sponsoring the first series of screensavers. Amazon also introduced AdMash, a Kindle app and website where customers can preview and offer feedback on advertisements.
Kindle director Jay Marine told the Associated Press "that the release of a cheaper, ad-studded Kindle is Amazon's way of getting the device into the hands of more people." The AP noted, however, that "it also shows Amazon is getting more aggressive in its efforts to lure consumers tempted by competing e-readers and bombarded by ads for Apple Inc.'s latest iPad and a growing number of competing tablet computers."
"We think customers are going to love it," said Marine, adding that the advertisements will change frequently and there will not be any ads in the Kindle books themselves. "It was very important that we didn't interfere with the reading experience."
Cnet News wondered "why $114 and not some other number, say $99? Apparently, Amazon isn't willing to go quite that low quite yet... Obviously, if the new ad-supported version works well for Amazon and attracts enough sponsorship deals, you can expect the price of the Kindle to continue to drop. Naturally, plenty of folks will feel that if they're being served ads, the Kindle should cost less than $100--or even be free." Judging by early reaction on Twitter, many people think the price break isn't enough to put up with the ads.
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Rich Freese is leaving National Book Network, where he has been president for nearly two years (Shelf Awareness,
June 16, 2009). In an announcement, CEO Jed Lyons said that the
decision came following the distributor's move in January to reduce its
client list "in order to have the time and resources to devote to a
smaller stable of publishers." At the time, NBN let go seven people,
many longtimers and mostly in the sales force, including Spencer Gale, Gail
Kump, Ed Lyons, Chris Cassel, Ray Wittrup, Dina Fullerton and Tressa Helvey.
Now that NBN has the "new business model
in place," Lyons continued, Freese and the company "have mutually agreed that now is a
good time for Rich to step down as president of the company to explore
new opportunities." Lyons thanked Freese for his "leadership of NBN."
This
was Freese's second stint at NBN. He had worked at the company for nine
years until 2001, leaving as senior v-p of sales. He then was president
of MotorBooks International, president of PGW and president of
BookMasters Distribution Services.
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The challenges facing Canadian chain Indigo Books & Music and company CEO Heather Reisman were examined by the Globe & Mail, which noted that the "wave of digital adoption that swept through music and video retailing, decimating them, is now hitting booksellers, forcing them to redefine their business model." With half of the book retailing business in Canada, Indigo "remains healthier than its U.S. counterparts, but sales growth is sluggish and Reisman is setting in motion a new plan."
"In the book industry, when you are in a situation where you know that 40% of your business is going to go digital--you need to change," she said. In addition to having a "toehold in the digital books business," Reisman's vision of Indigo as a "cultural department store" means "betting more than ever on other categories. Indigo is stepping up its offerings of tableware, toys and tote bags--even putting comfy chairs back in the stores, in the hope of stemming the tide of consumers abandoning the retailer for Web-based alternatives."
Her goal over the next two or three years is to increase non-book sales from 15% to 40% of the company’s business to replace lost book revenues. "The only way to stay in the book business is to find the ability to marry our book offerings with other products that our customer would value," she said. "I think of that as affordable items with intrinsic value."
Reisman also observed that this is "a defining moment in physical book retailing, just as I think we’re in some ways in a defining period for physical retailing. If you don’t do something, you’re not going to be in business."
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The Indiana Retail Council and the Alliance for Main Street Fairness held a news conference in the Indiana Statehouse yesterday, urging legislators to compel online retailers like Amazon to pay sales tax "beginning the next budget cycle, netting the state somewhere near $300 million per year," the Associated Press (via the Chicago Tribune) reported.
"The failure of internet retailers to collect sales tax puts Indiana retailers at a 7% disadvantage that is costing the state revenue and brick-and-mortar retailers the chance to grow," said council president Grant Monahan.
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In a post headlined "Local businesses can learn from the Tattered Cover," DenverLocal offered some love to its favorite community bookstore, calling it "the perfect example of what a local business should be.... The Tattered Cover isn't just about books. It's about people who love books; people who write them, people who read them."
Citing a preference for experience over low prices, DenverLocal observed: "I'm not saying that buying things should be life-changing, but buying something from a business that loves that thing can be quite enjoyable. That's what local businesses can offer. Passion."
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Cool idea of the day: Excerpts from Roald Dahl's books will appear on millions of cereal boxes during the next few weeks, to help encourage British children to read. The Telegraph reported that the promotion resulted from a deal struck among Puffin, Dahl's estate and the supermarket chain Asda. Excerpts from The Witches, The Twits, The BFG, Danny: The Champion of the World and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will be printed on the back of the supermarket's own-brand children's cereals.
"The great thing about a cereal box, is that it potentially is reaching millions of households that just don't read any literature outside of school," said Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin's children books. "There could be an enormous number of children discovering Roald Dahl for the first time, bleary eyed over the breakfast table."
Dow added, "There is a real awareness in the publishing world that there is an increasingly tight competition for children's time, especially from digital activities such as games consoles, as they grow up. And combine that with anxieties about school budgets being cut and libraries closing and we need to find different ways to get books in front of children, especially children growing up in households that don't read."
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A 500-year-old book was discovered recently at an "Antiques Roadshow-style fundraiser" in Sandy, Utah. KSTU-TV reported that the man who donated $2 to find out how much a book he had inherited was worth learned the answer is more than $100,000.
"Usually at these kind of things you are mostly being polite to people and disappointing them," said appraiser Ken Sanders. "A gentleman walked in and said I've got a really important book here and I'm sitting there rolling my eyes and thinking, 'yeah, sure you do.' And then he opens it up and it's a Nuremberg Chronicle from 1494.... Outside of museums I've never seen one before in my life and I most assuredly didn't expect to find this book in Sandy, Utah today." The owner said he wanted to sell the book to a museum or library.
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"What do you get for the book nerd who has everything--or at least all of the paperbacks that their apartment can hold?" asked Flavorwire before helpfully offering a few irresistible suggestions in a post headlined "Design Porn: Accessories for Bookworms."
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A title by any other name. The Paris Review featured "a glimpse of what James Salter’s process was like with his novel Light Years... Salter seems so close at points, circling back to light and years, sometimes on the same page but not always the same line, ranking his favorites and weighing the opinions of others. "
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Book trailer of the day: Enclave by Ann Aguirre (Feiwel & Friends), the first book in the Razorland series and the author's first YA novel, appearing today.