BTW News Briefs

Judge Rejects Amazon Request to Reconsider Google Settlement

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that U.S. District Judge Denny Chin has turned down Amazon's request that he reconsider his preliminary approval of the revised Google Settlement. Chin said that the "many nuances" of the revised settlement will be considered at a fairness hearing, scheduled for February 18.

Amazon.com contends that the settlement "purports to release Google and others from liability for actions they may take in the future." The Justice Department has until February 4 to weigh in on the proposed settlement, WSJ noted.

Senate Health Care Debate Kicks Off With Partisan Bickering

This week, the Senate debate on health care reform kicked off and then quickly stalled due to partisan bickering.

According to the Washington Post's Capitol Briefing blog, Democrats are blaming Republicans for blocking votes on the first two offered amendments. One amendment is a bipartisan proposal to increase preventive health care for women and a Republican bid to strip out the significant Medicare cuts currently proposed in the Senate healthcare bill.

However, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) argued that a number of Republican senators are waiting for a chance to address the Medicare amendment and that they are crafting their own version of the preventive care measure, the Post reported. And while Democrats believe Republicans are unduly slowing the pace of the debate, Republicans said their pace was reasonable, considering the vast scope of the legislation, much of which will not go into effect until 2014, the Post noted.

Ingram Launches Ingram Wire

This week, Ingram Content Group announced the launch of the Ingram Wire, a downloadable desktop application for the bookselling community. The Ingram Wire desktop application is compatible with Macs and PCs and is built on Adobe® AIR™.

"Many booksellers are interested in receiving stock status and news on important titles in a real-time stream, and the Ingram Wire desktop application is a simple and convenient solution," said Phil Ollila, chief content officer of Ingram Content Group, in a statement.

Through the downloadable desktop app, booksellers can receive stock news on fast-moving titles specific to their assigned distribution center, alerts on top awards and breaking events, as well as "backorder now" messages. From the desktop, users can click directly to ipage® to place orders.

The application can be downloaded at www.ingramwire.com.

Random House Expands Books = Gifts Program

Random House has expanded its Books = Gifts program this year to include new interactive elements that highlight books as perfect gifts for people of all ages and interests. The campaign features a redesigned logo, which does not include any RH-specific branding and is available free of charge to all book publishers, book retailers, book bloggers, and book lovers, to help promote books as gifts.

Also new this year, Random House offers free Personal Shopper services during the holiday season, as part of its expanded online marketing campaign. Aimed at both booksellers and consumers, Random House will provide personalized gift suggestions from all of its major imprints and myriad genres. On Fridays through December 18, Books = Gifts personal shoppers will be available to make free customized gift recommendations to individual consumers via Twitter and via e-mail to personalshopper@randomhouse.com. The Friday program is being promoted as "PSFriday" through online and e-mail messaging. On Facebook, a "What's My Type of Book?" quiz application and widget will also give consumers book recommendations, which can be posted to their own websites and social networking sites.

BEA Global Market Forum to Focus on Spanish Publishing

On December 3, BookExpo America (BEA) in partnership with the Ministry of Culture of Spain, the Federation of Spanish Publishers (Federacion De Gremios De Editores De Espana), and the Spanish Trade Commission announced that Spain and Spanish Publishing would be the focus of the BEA Global Market Forum program. The Global Market Forum will be a highlighted feature at BookExpo America 2010. BEA will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, May 25 through May 27, 2010.

Presentations under the Global Market Forum include a one-day series of educational conference programs at BEA on May 25, 2010. BEA is also seeking cooperation with numerous literary and cultural institutions in New York to provide programming that extends beyond the convention center and will be open to the public. Discussions are currently underway with the 92 St. Y, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and other venues.

Legislation Introduced to Make Small Business Tax Deduction Permanent

This week, U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA.) and ranking Member Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) introduced legislation to make permanent enhanced Section 179 expensing limits enacted in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Specifically, the bill would aid small businesses by allowing them to deduct up to $250,000 of the cost of qualifying property in the year it is purchased, rather than to recover such outlays through depreciation deductions over a number of years.

The ARRA signed into law in February set the maximum amount that a taxpayer may expense in 2009 at $250,000. However, under current law, the maximum amount that may be expensed in 2010 will be approximately $133,000, and in 2011 that drops to $25,000. The Snowe-Landrieu bill would permanently set the maximum amount at $250,000.

Books Among Most Popular Purchases on Black Friday Weekend

A National Retail Federation survey conducted over the past weekend confirms the expected: more people spent less. According to NRF's Black Friday shopping survey, conducted by BIGresearch, 195 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 172 million last year. However, the average spending over the weekend dropped to $343.31 per person from $372.57 a year ago. Total spending reached an estimated $41.2 billion. The most popular purchases were of clothing and books, which remained nearly unchanged over last year.

Shoppers' destination of choice over the past weekend appears to be department stores, with nearly half of holiday shoppers visiting at least one, a 12.9 percent increase from last year. Discount retailers took an uncharacteristic back seat, with 43.2 percent of holiday shoppers heading to discount stores over the weekend and another 7.8 percent heading to outlet stores. Shoppers also visited electronics stores, clothing stores, and grocery stores. One-fourth of Americans shopping over the weekend were shopping online.

According to the survey, nearly one-third of shoppers purchased toys, an increase of 12.9 percent from last year. Additionally, more people purchased sporting goods, personal care, or beauty items and gift cards. The most popular purchases were of clothing and books (40.3 percent), which remained nearly unchanged over last year.