Newspaper: School book costs out of line

Reed chief: More el-hi sales declines

NEW YORK, December 13, 2002 -- The chief executive of Reed Elsevier, whose properties include the U.S. puiblishing company Harcourt, told an investors conference that the el-hi market is hard to read right now. Crispin Davis admitted surprise at how the market has faltered over the last several months. This year, Davis said, el-hi sales will be off 5 percent. Although more state adoptions are scheduled next year than this year, state budgets will remain lean he said. He does not expect that federal moneys through the No Child Left Behind legislation will offset the budget pressures that states are feeling. Does Davis see the future as all gloom? No, long-term prospects are solid, he said.

EL-HI REED ELSEVIER HARCOURT

Pearson: 2003 another down el-hi year

NEW YORK, December 13, 2002 -- The year ahead will see more declines in el-hi book sales, said President Peter Jovanovich of Pearson Education at the UBS Wartburg media financier conference. How much decline? Probably 5 percent, Jovanocich predicted. This year el-hi sales are off 6 percent. A slow adoption schedule has hurt sales this year, he said, and even open territories have been soft. Federal monies to fund the No Child Left Behind Act and more adoption opportunities will help offset softness in state spending, he said. Jovanovich noted that educational spending traditionally lags the economic cycle, and that the decline in state tax revenue that hurt spending in 2002 will temper the rebound next year by 1to 2 percent. He sees 3 to 5 percent growth for Pearson's el-hi unit in 2003. There will be modest growth in 2004 and maybe 6 to 8 percent in 2005.

EL-HI JOVANOVICH

McGraw crystal ball: Better el-hi year ahead

NEW YORK, December 13, 2002 -- The chief executive at McGraw-Hill, Terry McGraw, sees a 2 to 4 percent increase in national el-hi spending in 2003, fueled partly by federal money from the No Child Left Behind Act. McGraw was cautious, however, saying that tight state budgets and adoption timing scheudles make predictions difficult. McGraw, addressing a media financial conference, said that McGraw-Hill's el-hi group will do better than industry averages. About the long term, McGraw said he is bullish about el-hi propects on the basisnference, said that McGraw-Hill's el-hi group will do better than industry averages. The long term? McGraw said he is bullish about el-hi propects. New federal standards and testing will drive school-book sales into the future, he said.

EL-HI MCGRAW

Australia claims global libel jurisdiction

Venerable Boston law firm dissolves

BOSTON, December 9, 2002 -- The Boston law firm Hill & Barlow, whose 130 lawyers include many with expertise in entertainment and copyright law, voted to dissolve their partnership. The 44 partners who comprise the firm made the decision after its real estate group decided en masse to leave the firm. The real estate group generated roughly one-third of the partnership's revenue. The decision sent other law firms scrambling to pick up displaced Hill & Bar low talent. Among them: Elaine Rogers: Represents numerous authors, publishers, screenwriters, producers, directors, talent, independent filmmakers and production companies. She specializes in all aspects of entertainment law, including film financing,contract negotiations and as an agent in the packaging and placement of film and television projects, foreign, audio and electronic rights. Zick Rubin: Specializes in copyright, trademark, Internet, and publishing advice and litigation, and insurance coverage for intellectual property claims. He represents publishing and media companies, educational and cultural institutions, and a wide range of textbook and trade book authors. His books include Liking and Loving: An Invitation to Social Psychology (Holt, Rinehart), Children's Friendships (Harvard University), and (Houghton Mifflin). Ike Williams: Concentrates on First Amendment and intellectual property litigation and the creation, production, and licensing of intellectual property, particularly in publishing, film, television and new media. He is the co-author with E. Gabriel Perle of the widely used Perle & Williams Publishing Law. Hee specializes in biography, history, politics, natural science and anthropology.

CON- TRACTS

U-press hard sales recovering

WASHINGTON, December 9, 2002 -- University presses are doing better with their hardbound sales, according to the latest figures released by the Association of American Publishers. Through October, sales were running 7.3 percent ahead of a year earlier. Sales of college texts were not statistically significant for October due to returns, which were greater then sales during the month, so AAP didn't report them. Here are the year-to-date AAP data through October, extrapolated from 74 member-publishers, for genres in which academic authors write: University press (hard) STM, professional University press (soft) El-hi 7.3 percent 1.9 percent -2.1 percent -4.9 percent

EARLIER DATA

National Geographic images for sale

Rosetta settlement sidesteps key issue

NEW YORK, December 7, 2003 -- The settlement of a closely watched e-book case, Random House v. Rosetta, makes the companies partners for three years, perhaps six. Rosetta gets three year electronic licenses to a list of mutually agreed upon titles comprising, many of them by major authors but backlisted, for three years. Rosetta has an option for another three-year renewal. Rosetta, which specializes in e-publishing, will pay an advance against royalties to Random House and the authors. The settlement calls for no financial payment regarding eight print titles by Robert B. Parker, William Styron, and Kurt Vonnegut that Random originally issued in the days before anybody even thought about e-editions. With contracts silent on e-editions, Rosetta proceeded to issue them as e-books, which promoted Random to sue. The first wave of expert observations on the settlement is that the jury is still out on whether print editions and e-editions are distinct works or simply variations of the same work. Rosetta chief executive Arthur Klebanoff acknowledged the remaining loose ends on the core issue: "It opens negotiating room for agents on the use-it-or-lose it idea." Klebanoff predicted horse trading on electronic rights to both new and backlist titles as part of the natural negotiating mix.

RANDOM HOUSE EARLIER ARTICLE Rosetta e-edition suit settled

Bert L. Bohmont (agriculture), Colorado State University, wrote the sixth edition of The Standard Pesticide User's Guide (Prentice Hall). James Nye, in publishing more than 30 years, was named president and chief executive at Carnegie Learning, whose products include Cognitive Tutor K-12 and college programs. James F. McKenzie (health), Ball State University, Robert R. Pinger (health), Ball State University, and Jerome E. Kotecki (health), Ball State University wrote the fourth edition of An Introduction to Community Health (Jones and Bartlett).

Please tell us about your latest project: EDITOR More academic authoring people

Vietnam raids black-market print shops

Rosetta e-edition suit settled

NEW YORK, December 5, 2003 -- A pivotal copyright case on e-editions of older print books, Random House v. Rosetta, was settled with Random agreeing to issue electronic licenses to Rosetta, the companies announced. Rosetta proclaimed the arrangement a model for the industry and invited other publishers to review it and consider letting Rosetta issue their books in e-form. What this means for authors: Until terms of the settlement are announced, we're unsure of the implications for academic authors. Most academic works, including textbooks, lose their currency as the body of knowledge evolves, which makes them less likely candidates for other publishers to pick up as they age and issue in either print or electronic form. A key issue in the case, with possible broad ramifications, is whether print and electronic versions are variations of the same work or distinct works. Stay tuned.

RANDOM HOUSE EARLIER ARTICLE Court: Let Rosetta proceed

DIVERSIONS FROM YOUR KEYBOARD 1. ________ 2. ________ 3. ________ To win a free 2004 SA2 membership, guess the celebrities in these "Caught Reading" literacy promotion ads from the Association of American Publishers and the American Magazine Association. Send your entry to: SA2

Houghton to control Kingfisher

BOSTON, December 5, 2003 -- One of the loose ends in the sale of Houghton Mifflin is whether the company would include Vivendi's Kingfisher children's publishing unit. The trade journal Bookseller reported that the decision has been made for Kingfisher to be a separate subsidiary with Houghton's trade and reference division.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN

Survey: Many schools have outdated textbooks

Texas OKs LeapFrog pre-K program

AUSTIN, Texas, December 3, 2002 -- The Texas State Board of Education approved the LeapFrog SchoolHouse pre-K curriculum program for state reimbursement for 8,000 schools in the state. The program, Ready, Set, Leap!, covers language, early literacy, math, social studies, fine arts, health and safety, personal and social development, and physical development. Texas is the first state to adopt a formal pre-K curriculum.

EL-HI LEAPFROG

Authors endorse SA2 news site

Attorney: Harper deal "real value"

NEW YORK, December 2, 2002 -- The lead attorney in an authors' class-action suit against HarperCollins over deep-discount interdivision sales, Rob Lax, said the preliminary settlement represents "real value for authors." Harper had sold books in-house at discounts of 72.5 to 75 percent, which severely cut author royalties. The agreement, still subject to court approval, recalculates royalties on a more author-friendly discount scale of 65 to 67.5 percent for a six-year period up to mid-1999. The total financial adjustment has not been announced, but thousands of authors, including some textbook authors, will be eligible for the back-royalties. Lax said the suit has put all publishers on notice about the discounted in-house deals that hurt authors.

CON- TRACTS HARPER COLLINS EARLIER ARTICLE Harper: We want authors' good will

Harold Hart (chemistry), Michigan State University, James R. Andrews (chemistry), Central Connecticut State University, and David J. Hart (chemistry), Ohio State University, wrote the 11th edition of Organic Chemistry: A Short Course (Houghton Mifflin). David Schaffer president and chief executive at Thomson Learning, was named chief executive at Thomson Financial. Richard Spinell (computer science), Boston College, wrote the second edition of CyberEthics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace (Jones and Bartlett).

Please tell us about your latest project: EDITOR More academic authoring people

Vivendi: Mum is the word

PARIS, December 2, 2002 -- The mess that accompanied Vivendi's sale of textbook company Houghton Mifflin to two Boston investment companies in October prompted the company to declare it will not comment about possible asset disposals. In a statement issued in Paris, the company said: "Following the many rumors about possible asset disposals, Vivendi Universal would like to again emphasize that no statement or comments will be made on disposals before their completion." The confused Houghton sale even included a charge that a Vivendi executive was favoring one bidder over another in the preliminaries.

EARLIER ARTICLES Houghton buyers likely paid 1.5x earnings Houghton buyers: Now there are two

Harper: We want authors' good will

NEW YORK, December 1, 2002 -- To authors who felt cheated by a HarperCollins practice of heavily discounted in-house sales of books, Harper said it will pay back-royalties. In a letter that Harper authors began receiving this week, the company defended its in-house dealings and claimed that it would have prevailed in court against a class-action suit but decided to settle. Harper said "a lengthy dispute with our authors" in court was "not an appealing prospect." The settlement, the letter said, is in "the interests of maintaining good relations with our authors." It is believed that a settlement, still subject to court approval, involves millions of dollars to authors whose books were sold at discounts of as much as 75 percent to Harper's foreign affiliates between November 5, 1993, and June 30, 1999. The Harper affiliates were in Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand. Rather than continue to fight the suit, Harper said it chose "to make some adjustment in royalties paid on sales to our foreign affiliates." The letter asserted that during the disputed period, authors benefited by being paid on gross copies shipped, recorded at the time the copies were shipped. What this means for authors: Harper is putting the best face on its sleazy former practice of paying authors royalties on only the discounted prices it charged other Harper units for their books. The out-of-court settlement was a victory for authors. The further good news, thanks to the authors who brought the suit, is that similar practices by other publishers have been changed because they recognized their vulnerability. The bad news is that the statute of limitations in New York precludes authors cheated before November 5, 1993, from a legal remedy.

CON- TRACTS HARPER COLLINS EARLIER ARTICLE Report: Authors prevail in Harper suit

Allegiance to reading basals slipping

Tox journal gigged for "opinion" pieces"