Innovation Diary: Literary crowdfunding: How to create value in a demanding industry October 27, 2013 DEMOCRATIC publishing has arrived. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing allows authors to upload e-books, earn royalties from sales, while bypassing traditional publishing industry gatekeepers. Createspace does the same for physical books. Gumroad, meanwhile, lets designers, game developers, and musicians join writers in uploading digital files for sale. But it’s hard to make money. Taleist found in [...]
The Long View: Why brief can be beautiful when you’re trying to make your first billion October 3, 2013 SIZE isn’t everything. Some of the best ideas are short. But formal publication, beyond social media’s throwaway pithiness, is hopelessly garrulous. There should be more to judging the intellectual pastry than seeing how thin it can be rolled. Yet to be taken seriously, it seems thoughts today must first be eked out into essays and [...]
Amazon’s UK sales revealed by committee November 26, 2012 AMAZON made £3.351bn in revenues in the UK last year, private letters published by the government’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) revealed yesterday. Information shared by the web retailer with the committee, intended to be confidential, revealed a 23 per cent rise in sales on Amazon.co.uk last year. The UK’s website, which channels revenue to Amazon’s [...]
New York Report: Shares close higher despite Nasdaq outage August 22, 2013 US STOCKS closed higher yesterday in a trading session marred by a historic trading halt of roughly three hours on the Nasdaq stock exchange as a result of technical problems. All traffic through Nasdaq OMX Group, the second-largest US stock exchange stopped at 12:14pm Eastern Time, the exchange said on its website. Shares in Nasdaq [...]
New York Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger sells some of his shares August 13, 2013 NEW YORK Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr has sold some of his shares in the company. Sulzberger sold 50,000 Class A shares last Thursday for $600,000 (£388,020), or $12 each, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. A New York Times spokeswoman said the sale was part of Sulzberger’s normal estate-planning and represented [...]
The end of the rental shop October 30, 2013 As Blockbuster goes into administration again, Alex Dymoke looks to the future of online TV and film rentals BLINKBOX WHAT IS IT? Founded in 2006, Blinkbox is now owned by Tesco. It allows you to rent or buy films and TV shows online, which expire after 30 days. WHAT’S ON IT? The latest film and [...]
Amazon tops web endings complaints list November 21, 2012 INTERNET retailer Amazon has received more complaints than any other party over applications for a new range of web address endings. The US company has applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for dozens of web suffixes, such as .app and .book. But as a list of complaints from a 50-strong [...]
A beginners’ guide to sitting pretty October 8, 2013 Spending hours on end at your desk staring at a screen is notoriously bad for your health. Leading nutritionist Jess Scott gives her top food tips for staying healthy and energetic while stuck in the office. STASH Keep a healthy stash of mixed nuts and seeds at your desk – the key to healthy snacking [...]
Internet firms warn of online sales tax risk July 21, 2013 A GROUP of leading online retailers has hit out against calls from some bricks and mortar retailers for a new online tax to level the playing field, condemning such a move as “nonsense” and a risk to jobs and growth of small businesses. In a letter sent to the chancellor George Osborne, the chief executives [...]
eBay markets a solid report but sees headwinds July 17, 2013 E-COMMERCE giant eBay reported solid second-quarter results yesterday but chief executive John Donahoe warned of economic “headwinds” in the second half of the year from Europe and Korea. Those comments, and weaker-than-expected third-quarter forecasts, sent shares down six per cent in after-hours trading. “It’s not a quarter in which they absolutely crushed it,” said Ron [...]