UK trade bookstore results worst March since 2005

The Bookseller: "Spending in March has hit a six-year low, with sales slumping by 8.7% year on year."

Digital Subscribers Way Up for News Corp. in UK, But Print Readers Steadily Down

Zacks: "News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation, which began charging readers for online content for The Times of London and Sunday Times of London, in early July 2010, witnessed a surge in the number of digital subscribers -- up approximately 60% during a four-month period, Bloomberg reports." BUT: Print subscriber numbers are down, a 12.1% fall in the past year. Digital readers pay considerably less than print readers. Digital subscribers pay 8.67 pounds per month, while newsstand buyers pay 8.70 pounds per week. FURTHER NOTE: The paywall in question is non-porous, as opposed to the one just launched by The New York Times. Very different animal. Much easier for would-be readers to "game" the latter without paying.

Waterstone's Managing Director: Academic bookselling at "crisis point"

The Bookseller: "Waterstone's has called for academic publishers to 'significantly' increase their support for the chain, warning bricks and mortar academic bookselling could vanish from the high street within a few years. The retailer's m.d. Dominic Myers told delegates at the Bookseller Association’s annual Academic, Professional and Specialist Bookselling Group conference last week that the academic bookselling industry was at a “crisis point,” in which 2011 would be a defining year. ... "

re: Borders UK meltdown

The Bookseller: "Waterstone's could be best placed to capitalise from a loss in market share by Borders, according to an influential retail analyst. In a wide-ranging note on entertainment retail, Paul Smiddy at HSBC said this week that between space re-allocation and store closures, Borders would lose market share over the next year, with Waterstone's in the best position to gain from this. ... "

EU anger over ebook deal suggests hard times ahead for publishers

What'd I just say? Check the guardian.co.uk: "The perception that selling ebooks by the agency model is unfair (consumers) and illegal (EU) is a big worry for publishing firms ... "

Rumor: Random House UK considering agency pricing switch

EBOOK MAGAZINE: "Random House UK could follow their US counterpart in adopting agency pricing for ebooks according to internet rumours which also suggest an announcement confirming the move could come as early as this week. ... "

UK Research: Consumers expect lower prices for ebooks

Internet Retailing: "... research also revealed a strong consumer expectation to pay less for e-books than their printed equivalent, with nearly half (48%) of consumers saying they expect to pay less, and just one in five (19%) saying they expect to pay the same. Some 7% of Brits say they expect to pay less than 3 pounds, with 28% thinking it should be between 3 pounds and 5.99 pounds. Younger readers were the most likely to expect to pay less—reflecting, according to Mintel, their general experience of being able to procure digital product for less or free on the internet."

Borders demise signals end for chain bookstores

Retail Gazette (UK):

High street book shops are becoming increasingly rare, with many of the biggest names in the sector pushed into oblivion by buying online and the increasing popularity of reading devices such as the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad. ...

Just over a year ago Borders closed the doors of all of its UK stores, marking the start of a disastrous down-turn for the industry.

The next to go was British Bookshops which announced its move into administration in January, and more recently Waterstones closed of 11 stores in the UK and Ireland following disappointing December sales trading.

So the question is whether there is still space for a large chain bookstore on high streets around the world?

Consulting Director of Verdict Research Neil Saunders argures that because bookstores require an extensive amount of space in order to offer a wide selection of books, a combination of low sales and high rents can be lethal. ...

UK: eBook agency pricing investigation begins

TechRadar UK: "The Office of Fair Trading is investigating how ebooks are priced after receiving 'a significant number of complaints'. The complaints pertain to pricing arrangements between book publishers and retailers which could breach competition rules. ... "

The VAT Rise and the Idiotic eBook Inconsistency

Shane Richmond, The Telegraph, UK: "As you might know, this year’s VAT rise does not apply to printed books. It does, however, apply to eBooks, for reasons that don’t entirely make sense. ... "

Publishers Shoot Selves in Feet with High eBook Prices

Arielle Ford @ Huffpost: "Recently Amazon.co.uk eliminated their discounts on ebooks within 24 hours of being notified by big publishers (Penguin, Hachette and HarperCollins) that retailers would no longer set the selling price of books; publishers would now dictate the terms. As a result, the pricing of many ebooks were marked up to equal or even higher than the printed versions. This led to a revolt by readers ..."

UK Trade Booksellers Confront their Worst Xmas Since 2005

The Bookseller: "Poor weather, a sluggish economy and higher levels of discounting than in 2009 could lead to this Christmas being the worst festive period for [UK] booksellers since the middle of the last decade, short of a last-minute flurry of sales. ... According to projected figures, this poor year could see the trade shrink to its 2005 size, about £1.65bn. Currently, the market is down 3.8% year on year, while sales last week were down 4.5% year on year. If sales over the coming fortnight were to perform at a similar rate, sales at year-end could total around £1.68bn, down 4% or £70.1m year on year. Volume sales would be down 5% year on year to £223.9m and the average selling price will be down 0.6% to £7.39."

Waterstone's Looks to Cloud for Digital Growth

The Bookseller: "Waterstone's managing director Dominic Myers has revealed the bookseller is working on its own cloud-based system for reading e-books ... He said Waterstone's would follow Google and Amazon's lead by developing a cloud-based solution for reading e-books across different devices. He said: 'Cloud-based content will become a reality and we are conscious about how we get there ourselves.'"

UK: Agency Pricing Questioned by Waterstone's

The Bookseller:

Waterstone's has publicly queried the agency model, saying its adoption in the UK has 'not been great for anyone' and pricing has not always been fair on consumers.

E-books buyer Alex Ingram was speaking at FutureBook 2010, The Bookseller's digital conference. ...

Ingram said: "No one can judge the success or failure of the agency model just yet, but in the short term it has not been great for anyone. . . What matters most is getting a fair price onto the market, and I don't think that every agency price is fair."

Kieron Smith, managing director of The Book Depository, which has declined to accept agency terms, said: "We do a lot of 'couponing' and the agency model makes it very difficult to do any general discounting. We have a strong customer position that we do not want to change." ...

Survey: UK Booksellers Feel at Risk as Digital Market Expands

The Bookseller: "The UK book trade has embraced digital, but expectations of growth are racing ahead of the reality. Booksellers are also at risk of being left behind as publishers chase this digital firecracker. These are the standout conclusions of the second FutureBook survey of digital publishing, hosted by The Bookseller. ..."

Google in 'Notional' Talks with UK Publishers After French Deal

The Bookseller: "Google is in 'notional' talks with UK publishers about a digitisation deal, the internet company has said. Speaking at the press conference to announce its agreement with Hachette Livre over book digitisation, the business also reiterated its view that its e-book platform would launch 'shortly' with hopes it would be up and running across Europe by Easter. Google said Hachette had already signed up with Google Editions for the US."

Amazon UK Makes Switch to Agency Terms with Three Publishers

Seems the big boys continue to insist on shooting themselves in the digital feet. theBookseller.com: "Amazon.co.uk has moved on to the agency model in the UK with publishers Hachette, HarperCollins and Penguin now setting their own e-book prices. Customers buying an e-book from the Kindle store from any of the three publishers are told: 'This price was set by the publisher.' A Penguin spokesperson said: 'I can confirm we are now on the agency model with Amazon as of today.' Penguin and HarperCollins have followed Hachette, which switched to agency pricing in September. Amazon is the first online e-bookseller to make the switch, with no Penguin or Hachette e-books yet available for sale on either Waterstones.com or W H Smith's website. ... "

Amazon.co.uk Says it will Fight Agency Pricing

theBookseller.com: "Amazon.co.uk has hit out over agency pricing telling Kindle customers that it 'will continue to fight against higher prices for e-books', and has urged publishers 'not to needlessly impose price increases on consumers'. It has also revealed that for those publishers who have adopted the agency model in the US the rate of growth in e-book 'unit sales' is now 'half the rate of growth of the rest of Kindle book sales'."

Amazon Extends 70% Kindle Royalties to UK

paidContent:UK: "UK authors and publishers can now choose to get a 70 percent royalty from ebooks sold via Amazon.co.uk’s Kindle Digital Text Platform. ... This higher tier has been available to U.S. authors and publishers since June, after being announced in January."

Amazon UK Kindle Store Now Live

You'll find it here.