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☆ Biden administration unveils draft changes to US merger review guidelines
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Vertical mergers have historically received less attention from regulators and the courts, but Wednesday’s draft guidelines explicitly say that the US government may consider certain kinds of vertical mergers to be harmful to competition. Spurred by an executive order signed by President Joe Biden in 2021, Wednesday’s draft updates are the result of more than a year of development. (The new draft guidelines, a copy of which CNN reviewed, do not directly reference the consumer welfare standard.) And the Justice Department lost its appeal to block a multimillion-dollar merger between two major sugar producers in another closely watched case. “Unfortunately, things don’t always go our way,” Khan said in response to questions about whether the FTC has exceeded its authority.

Persons: —, ”, General Merrick Garland, Lina Khan, Jonathan Kanter, Joe Biden, Khan, Meta, Simon, Simon & Schuster, Kanter, “, don’t, ” Khan, Biden, Zillow Organizations: CNN, The Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, Wednesday, Justice Department, Activision Blizzard, FTC, “, DOJ, Microsoft, Activision, Department, Facebook, Nvidia, ARM, American Airlines, JetBlue, Penguin Random, Simon &, Agriculture

☆ TikTok Sells A Lot of Books. Now, Its Owner Wants to Publish Them, Too.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Elizabeth A. Harris | Alexandra Alter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Many of TikTok’s users — more than 150 million in the United States alone — are interested in books. In the past year, videos with the #BookTok hashtag have been viewed more than 91 billion times, up from nearly 60 billion views the year before, according to the company. Posts tagged #ColleenHoover have been viewed more than 4.2 billion times, and her books have sold more than 24 million copies. “To say it’s hugely important is an understatement at this point,” said Bess Braswell, a senior publishing director at Harlequin. According to the description, it would create an ecosystem where people could find, buy, read, review and discuss books.

Persons: — Colleen Hoover, Circana, “, ”, Bess Braswell, ByteDance Organizations: Harlequin, Press Locations: United States

☆ Ukraine's Zelenskiy signs law banning import of books from Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KYIV, June 22 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed into law a ban on the commercial import of books from Russia on Thursday, the latest move to reduce cultural ties between the two countries following Moscow's invasion. "I believe the law is right," Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app, announcing he had signed a bill which also bans the commercial import of books printed in Belarus or in occupied Ukrainian territory. The bill, adopted by parliament a year ago, also makes its a requirement to obtain special permission to import books in the Russian language from third countries. Zelenskiy's office said on Twitter that the law would "strengthen the protection of the Ukrainian cultural and information space from anti-Ukrainian Russian propaganda". Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka and Kyiv newsroom, Editing by Timothy HeirtageOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Zelenskiy, Oleksandr Tkachenko, Anna Pruchnicka, Timothy Heirtage Organizations: Twitter, Culture, Thomson Locations: Russia, Belarus, Ukrainian, Ukraine, Kyiv

☆ EU antitrust regulators approve Vivendi, Lagardere deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, June 9 (Reuters) - Vivendi (VIV.PA), the French media conglomerate controlled by billionaire Vincent Bollore, on Friday won conditional EU antitrust approval for its acquisition of France's largest publisher Lagardere (LAGA.PA). Vivendi last year announced the deal which would give it control of Lagardere's flagship weekly publications Journal du Dimanche (JDD) and Paris Match. Vivendi said in a statement that it was confident it would finalise those two transactions by the end of October. "The remedies proposed by Vivendi will allow for the preservation of existing competition in those markets, to the benefit of consumers." Reuters reported in April that the remedies were sufficient to help Vivendi gain EU antitrust clearance for the acquisition.

Persons: Vincent Bollore, Margrethe Vestager, Daniel Kretinsky, Yannick Bollore, Foo Yun Chee, Bart Meijer, Sudip Kar, Gupta, Louise Organizations: Vivendi, Paris Match, European Commission, Reuters, Le Monde, TF1, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, EU, Czech, Le

☆ TikTok has influenced nearly every aspect of book publishing and helped push sales to record highs. 25 insiders describe how it's changed their industry.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The BookTok phenomenon helped send book sales to an all-time high and reignite a love for reading. From authors to stores, the book world is turning to TikTok to drive sales and build community. Still, while authors might feel pressure to try TikTok, industry experts say it's better to focus on craft than marketing. Aster is one of the hundreds of authors who are benefitting from the success of TikTok and its book-related hashtag #BookTok. But TikTok's influence on publishing has also dialed up the pressure on authors to be marketers, as well as writers.

☆ New York Is Full of Empty Offices After Covid. Make Way for the Playground City. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Edward L. Glaeser | Carlo Ratti | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +20 min

We are witnessing the dawn of a new kind of urban area: the Playground City. The transformation toward the Playground City will not happen on its own. To draw people into the Playground City, we need to show, not tell. 6.Engage citizensGovernments should empower citizens to participate directly in making the Playground City. The Playground City sees people as both a means and an end, and it should involve them in the process of its creation.

☆ Paramount Shares Drop 28% as Streaming Costs Mount
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Will Feuer | Jessica Toonkel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Paramount and other streaming companies have been working to rein in costs. Photo: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg NewsParamount Global shares fell nearly 30% Thursday after the media company reported a steep first quarter loss and said it would cut its dividend, the latest sign of the challenges Hollywood’s titans face as they pivot to streaming. Paramount’s results were dragged down by major charges related to its cancellation of certain programming, a soft ad market that weighed on its TV business, and rising costs for its flagship streaming service. Paramount said it has restarted its sales process to unload its book publishing unit, Simon & Schuster, and has received interest.

☆ Paramount Shares Drop Nearly 30% as Streaming Costs Mount
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Will Feuer | Jessica Toonkel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ TikTok's owner is laying the groundwork to launch a book publisher called '8th Note Press'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Dan Whateley | Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

TikTok owner ByteDance applied for a trademark for a book publishing entity called 8th Note Press. The company is also hiring staff to "discover and sign authors" and ensure "novel completion." TikTok has become a popular destination for readers to discover new books, driving up publishing sales and sparking a thriving community on the app dubbed #BookTok. Now its parent company ByteDance may be building out its own publishing arm. The company in April filed a US trademark application for a new book-publishing entity that would be called 8th Note Press.

☆ Dawn Davis Resigns as Bon Appétit Editor to Rejoin Simon & Schuster
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Julia Moskin | Elizabeth A. Harris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dawn Davis, a veteran book editor who was hired in 2020 to put Bon Appétit magazine back on track after mass resignations and allegations of racism at its parent company, Condé Nast, resigned on Tuesday. She will return to Simon & Schuster as the publisher of 37 Ink, an imprint she founded in 2013, and as executive editor of the Simon & Schuster trade imprint. “I’ve made the difficult decision to return to book publishing,” Ms. Davis wrote in a note to her staff at Bon Appétit and Epicurious, the company’s recipe website. She said that she would remain in the job until September, and cited successes like “helping build Bon Appétit and Epicurious’ authority in the culinary industry, developing delicious and thought-provoking content, growing our audiences across channels, and diversifying our team and the audiences that we reach.”But, she said in a public statement, “being away from books has only made me realize how much I love working on manuscripts.” She did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In her first editor’s letter at Bon Appétit, in February 2021, Ms. Davis wrote that “when the call came to leave book publishing to take the helm at this storied magazine as it reckoned with racial and cultural equity, it was impossible to resist.”

☆ I make $7,000 a month writing children’s books and teaching others how to self-publish. Here’s how I got started.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Perri Ormont Blumberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Ren Lowe is an author, the CEO of Brown Unicorn Publishing, and a self-publishing coach. While on maternity leave in 2021, I wrote seven children's books with my daughter, Kameryn, which was the start of my self-publishing business. I started my sister company, Brown Unicorn Publishing, in October 2021, which offers "done for you" publishing services that range in price from $3,000 to $4,500, and my monthly income increased. From November 2021 through August, I earned a little more than $30,000 from the publishing services alone. In my first children's book, the illustrator created the images in the wrong sizing dimensions, and I panicked.

March 29 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) has laid off Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter as part of a cost-cutting campaign, a source confirmed Wednesday. Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Entertainment, will remain and report to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, the second source said. Perlmutter, who outmaneuvered billionaire Carl Icahn for control of the comic book publisher in the late 1990s, sold Marvel to Disney for $4 billion in 2009. Disney CEO Bob Iger later restructured Marvel in 2015, placing Marvel Studios under Walt Disney Studios. Perlmutter retained the title of chairman of Marvel Entertainment, a unit responsible for publishing, games, digital media and some consumer products.

☆ Disney Lays Off Marvel Entertainment Chairman Ike Perlmutter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Robbie Whelan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Walt Disney Co. has laid off Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, chairman of Marvel Entertainment LLC, and plans to fold the comic-book publishing business into Disney Entertainment, the company’s content-production division. Mr. Perlmutter, who remains one of Disney’s largest individual shareholders, has long had a rocky relationship with Chief Executive Robert Iger . In 2015, Mr. Iger removed him as head of Marvel Studios after a power struggle with current studio chief Kevin Feige . Those layoffs began this week, and included the elimination of Disney’s metaverse unit. The moves represent reversals of the agenda championed by former Disney CEO Bob Chapek , who was close with Mr. Perlmutter and who championed the metaverse initiative.

☆ Chip and Joanna Gaines Sued by Literary Agent for Breach of Contract
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Ginger Adams Otis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A New York literary agent is seeking millions in damages in a lawsuit against Chip and Joanna Gaines , the home renovation couple who made farmhouse chic a major trend. The breach-of-contract lawsuit, filed Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court, alleges the Gaineses amended the terms of a five-book publishing deal with a $12.5 million advance brokered for them by Vigliano Associates without the consent of their then-literary agent, David Vigliano .

☆ Penguin Random House scraps $2.2 bln deal to merge with Simon & Schuster
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Gabriel Araujo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Penguin Random House, the world's largest book publisher, and rival Simon & Schuster have scrapped a $2.2 billion deal to merge, Penguin owner Bertelsmann (BTGGg.F) said in a statement. But Bertelsmann said in a statement on Monday that it "will advance the growth of its global book publishing business without the previously planned merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster." Paramount said on Monday that Simon & Schuster was a "non-core asset" to Paramount. Penguin writers include cookbook author Ina Garten and novelists Zadie Smith and Danielle Steele, while Simon & Schuster publishes Stephen King, Jennifer Weiner and Hillary Rodham Clinton, among others. The top five publishers are Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Hachette, with Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) also in the market.

☆ Forget about making money. Here’s what it takes to write a book
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

If you want an idea of how ridiculous the book publishing industry is, look no further than the proposed Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster merger. Penguin Random House has said it would appeal. A 2018 survey of 5,067 authors conducted by the Authors Guild found that the median income of the authors surveyed had fallen to $6,080 in 2017. Earnings from book income alone was a paltry $3,100, indicating that authors were supplementing their incomes through speaking engagements, book reviewing, or teaching. The Authors Guild report notes the explosive growth of alternative ways for consumers to spend their time (video and streaming).

☆ Trump Media documents suggest Parler, Rumble as possible merger partners
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Jack Stebbins | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Rumble video platform logo on a laptop computer arranged in Hastings on Hudson, New York, on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. Trump Media and Technology Group executives named Parler and Rumble as theoretical acquisitions or partners, according to documents provided by co-founder and whistleblower, William Wilkerson, through his counsel. Wilkerson was one of the early executives at Trump Media and its Twitter-esque social media platform Truth Social. DWAC and Trump Media are also the subject of a criminal probe into possible securities violations relating to conversations that occurred between the two parties prior to the merger announcement. While the photo names these possible acquisition targets, it also names a number of other ventures for Trump Media that have yet to come to fruition, including "Trump Faith/Classic Films," "Trump Book Publishing" and "Trump Documentaries."

☆ Stephen King makes for unlikely antitrust hero
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A U.S. judge blocked Penguin Random House’s $2.2 billion acquisition of rival Simon & Schuster on Monday after the Department of Justice argued it would unfairly limit pay for top authors such as Stephen King. Adding Simon & Schuster would give it 70% of the literary nonfiction market, according to NPD Book Scan. The Department of Justice drew a line in its challenge to Penguin, distinguishing highly paid writers from the rest. Follow @jennifersaba on TwitterloadingCONTEXT NEWSA U.S. judge on Oct. 31 ruled that a planned $2.2 billion merger of Penguin Random House and rival Simon & Schuster cannot go forward. German media group Bertelsmann, the owner of Penguin, agreed to buy Simon & Schuster from Paramount Global in 2020.

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