BTW News Briefs

Five Magazine Publishers to Create Online Storefront

Conde Nast Publications, Hearst Corporation, Meredith Corporation, News Corporation and Time Inc. are joining forces to develop an online storefront for their content "to rival Amazon.com," according to the Los Angeles Times.

The new venture will sell newspapers and magazines, but may also be used to sell digital comics and books. The companies envision a website that will sell full-color, interactive digital versions of their newspapers and magazines, which would be available on next-generation touch-screen reading devices, John Squires, the group's interim managing director, told the Times. He hopes the website will open for business late next year. However, apps for smart phones, such as Apple's iPhone, could be available sooner.

The Times noted the new online storefront promises readers "the ability to buy content once and then be able to read it on multiple devices." Currently, newspapers purchased on the Amazon Kindle reading device cannot be read on Sony Corporation's eReader, but under the new venture, "once purchased, this content will be 'unlocked' for consumers to enjoy anywhere, any time, on any platform," Squires told the paper.

Fensterman and Muller Promoted by Reed Expositions

Reed Exhibitions has announced the promotion of Lance Fensterman from vice president and show manager for BookExpo America to group vice president in charge of running and growing Reed's pop culture business. Courtney Muller, who was group vice president at Reed Exhibitions, has been promoted to senior vice president.

A former bookseller, Fensterman joined Reed Exhibitions in 2006 as BEA show manager. Since then he has taken on responsibility for many of Reed's pop culture events while managing BEA. In his new role, Fensterman will focus exclusively on Reed's pop culture portfolio; however, he will remain on BEA through the transition of his replacement.

Muller will oversee BEA, as well as Global Gaming Expo and Global Gaming Expo Asia; the International Vision Expo events; INTERPHEX; and the Food/Restaurant shows.

Books Are Great Gifts Campaign Gears Up For Second Year

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has launched the second annual BooksAreGreatGifts campaign, an effort to persuade holiday shoppers that the most entertaining, loving, and thoughtful gift is a good book. The industry-wide initiative features three promotional videos with some of the country's most popular authors sharing their reasons why books make great gifts.

Among the authors appearing in this year's campaign are Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, Alec Baldwin, Dan Brown, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, A.J. Jacobs, Emeril Lagasse, Elmore Leonard, John Lithgow, Howie Mandel, Al Roker, Jeff Smith, Danielle Steel, Mo Willems, and Peter Yarrow.

The videos are available for online viewing at BooksAreGreatGifts.com, IndieBound.org, and on YouTube: Books Make Great Gifts #1; Books Make Great Gifts #2; and Books Make Great Gifts #3 .

Baker & Taylor Acquires Blackwell North America and James Bennett

On December 7, Baker & Taylor announced its acquisition of Blackwell Book Services North America (BNA) and Blackwell's Australia-based James Bennett bookseller. As part of the deal, Blackwell U.K. will acquire Baker & Taylor's Lindsay and Croft business in the U.K.

Baker & Taylor's YBP Library Services and Blackwell U.K. have entered into a strategic sourcing agreement under which YBP Library Services will source all U.K.-published academic material from Blackwell U.K., and Blackwell U.K. will source all U.S.-published academic material from YBP Library Services.

Final Large-Scale Disbursement of Visa/MasterCard Antitrust Settlement Underway

Retailers across the country will begin to receive checks this week totaling approximately $1.1 billion as part of an antitrust settlement over Visa and MasterCard-branded signature debit cards, according to Constantine Cannon LLP, the lead counsel in the case. The payments, which began mailing this week to approximately 634,000 merchants, represent the final large-scale disbursement of the $3.4 billion settlement.

The class-action lawsuit was brought in 1996 by U.S. merchants who argued that Visa and MasterCard's "honor all cards" practice -- requiring retailers to accept both credit cards and the Visa/MasterCard debit cards -- was a violation of federal antitrust law. Plaintiffs included the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, and about 20 of the nation's largest retailers, including Wal-Mart and Sears. The lawsuit was also a class action representing any merchant that had accepted Visa or MasterCard debit cards since October 1992, or approximately five million large and small retailers. The suit was settled in April 2003, and merchants received payments during prior distributions in December 2005, June 2006, December 2006, December 2007 and December 2008.

In addition to the monetary compensation to merchants, the settlement stopped Visa and MasterCard from forcing merchants to accept exorbitantly priced Visa and MasterCard-branded signature debit card products as a condition of accepting Visa and MasterCard credit cards. The settlement also ensured Visa and MasterCard debit cards were clearly marked as debit cards so that they could be easily distinguished from Visa and MasterCard credit cards.