About two months after Macmillan agreed to settle with the Department of Justice, retailers have begun discounting its ebooks. In general, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the iBookstore appear to be matching each other’s prices, while Google and Kobo aren’t yet discounting in most cases. Read more »
Arthur Frommer, the founder of Frommer’s Travel Guides, has bought his brand back from Google after the search giant reportedly decided to stop publishing the guides in print. Google had acquired Frommer’s from Wiley in 2012 for $22 million. Read more »
Web discovery engine Trapit is launching a set of tools for publishers. Publishing clients can use the tools to create their own white-label iPad and web apps that surface content around given topics. Here Media is the first client. Read more »
The Digital Public Library of America, an initiative to make the collections of research libraries, museums and archives freely available to the U.S. public online, will launch on April 18 with an initial collection of two to three million items. Read more »
Kobo is now selling its e-readers directly through its website in the U.S. and Canada. Previously, customers had to go to third-party retailers to buy the devices. Read more »
iOS RSS app Reeder is going free on Mac and iPad while it gets some updates. The app will live on after Google Reader dies, creator Silvio Rizzi says. Read more »
In this podcast, we talk with Wool author Hugh Howey about his self-publishing success and how he arrived at a seven-figure, print-only deal with traditional publisher Simon & Schuster. Read more »
RSS service Feedly announced Monday that it’s picked up 3 million new users in the two weeks since Google announced it’s killing off Google Reader. The company is also planning to launch a paid premium version. Read more »
In an interview Thursday, Goodreads CEO Otis Chandler and Amazon’s VP of Kindle content Russ Grandinetti stressed that Goodreads will not change for the worse following its acquisition by Amazon. Read more »
Amazon is acquiring Goodreads, a book-focused social network with 16 million members. The acquisition is likely to decrease Goodreads’ reputation as a neutral hub for authors and publishers. Read more »
Cooking website Food52 closed a $2 million funding round, bringing the total amount of money it’s raised to $2.75 million. The round was led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, and Food52 plans to launch a publishing partnership with Random House. Read more »
In a lawsuit over the ebook rights to Jean Craighead George’s Julie of the Wolves, HarperCollins argues that its 1971 contract with George included the right to publish ebooks, while Open Road argues that isn’t possible. Read more »
Penguin will make new ebooks available to libraries once again, after ending the practice in 2011. Prices will be comparable to retail, and the library will have to buy a new copy of the ebook after a year. Read more »
Longform journalism site Byliner has hired Jeff Gomez, who worked at Penguin, as its new head of writer marketing. Read more »
The EU will reportedly approve Random House and Penguin’s proposed merger without qualifications. The U.S. Department of Justice approved it in February. Read more »
What can a book look like in the digital age and how will people pay for it? This is one of the themes we’ll be exploring at paidContent Live on April 17 in New York Read more »
Pocket, a service that lets users save content for later, is launching a new publisher program. Publishers can add a Pocket button to their websites and can then track how and when their content is consumed over time. Read more »
Andrew Sullivan added a new payment option for The Dish Monday: Users will now be able to pay by the month. Previously, they were only offered a yearly subscription option. Read more »
The San Francisco Chronicle has launched a subscription-only site that puts much of the paper’s content behind a paywall. The site is free to print subscribers, and a digital-only package is $12 a month. Read more »
Yahoo has acquired news-reading iOS app Summly, which was created by London teenager Nick D’Aloisio. Summly will no longer exist as a standalone app and will be removed from the iTunes Store today. Read more »
Barnes & Noble is running a weeklong promotion: Customers who buy a Nook HD+ tablet (starting at $269) will get a Nook Simple Touch e-reader ($79) for free. Read more »
Storytelling website Storybird has added a poetry web app designed to let users quickly create illustrated digital poems. Read more »
Simon & Schuster will give authors direct access to information on how their books are being pirated online, the company announced Thursday. Read more »
Children’s ebook iPad app Bookboard is adding more content, like the Berenstain Bears and the Boxcar Children, to its streaming model. It also announced subscription pricing. Read more »
Google’s new Android and web app, Keep, lets users jot down ideas and make lists. The app will soon be fully integrated with Google Drive. Read more »
Amazon launched a “Send to Kindle” button that publishers can add to their websites. The Washington Post and Time are among the first to sign up. “Send to Kindle” is Amazon’s answer to read-it-later services like Pocket and Instapaper. Read more »
Evernote updated the Evernote Food app with Foursquare and OpenTable integration, recipe sharing and some other new features. Read more at GigaOM »
Airport bookstore chain Hudson Booksellers has launched an online bookstore where it sells both print and ebooks. The site focuses on hand-picked titles and has an “ask a bookseller” feature. Read more »
Amazon Publishing is speeding up its royalty payments to authors, the company said in a letter to literary agents Monday. The full letter is printed below. Read more »
Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish is tightening its paywall. Users will now be able to access 5 free “read-on” stories every 60 days, down from seven stories every 30 days. Read more »
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter fan site Pottermore is launching on Sony’s PlayStation Home. Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne said the partnership provides the “most immersive experience possible within that space.” Read more »
Sony is ending a price promotion that it had been running in its U.K. store since last July. The promotion sold select ebooks for just 20 pence, and Amazon matched the discounts on Kindle books in the U.K. Read more »
For a week, readers can download free copies of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. The giveaway is intended to promote Brown’s upcoming book Inferno. Read more »
If Buzzfeed had a business section (and soon it will) this is what it might look like. Read more »
Google’s startup division, Niantic Labs, is launching a line of ebooks that tie into its augmented-reality mobile game Ingress. Read more »
Amazon Publishing is launching a New York-based literary fiction imprint that will publish novels, short stories and memoir. Read more »
Ricky Gervais, creator of British hit “The Office,” is bringing David Brent back to life on his new YouTube channel. Read more »
Samsung and self-publishing company Blurb are partnering to let Galaxy S 4 users create and order physical photo albums directly from their phones. Read more at GigaOM »
NowThis News, the video news app from former HuffPo execs Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau, just launched on Android. Read more »
CBS’s new iOS app lets viewers stream episodes of some shows a week after they air. But full episodes from popular shows like “The Mentalist” and “The Big Bang Theory” are missing. Read more »
