A few hours after Steve Case tweeted that Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) CEO Don Graham told a hometown crowd Tuesday the paper wouldn’t charge for online news, the company told paidContent it was launching its first paid iPhone app today. With that, the Washington Post joins a small but…

Weeks after Macmillan CEO John Sargent told Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) the publisher was switching to the agency model for e-book sales—prompting the e-tailer to black out its e-books for several days, he is still trying to explain what the change means for publishers and consumers. After Amazon pulled Macmillan’s books…

Someone at Macmillan has a sense of humor. When I landed on the site Saturday night to check on e-book pricing and availability following Amazon’s one-week banishment, the book being promoted at the top of the front page was Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage…

Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group is joining fellow iPad launch publisher Macmillan in plans to demand higher prices for its e-books, the WSJ reports. Macmillan’s titles in all formats initially were pulled from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) after it said it would set its own prices—preferably in the $12.99-$14.99 range—instead of…

That’s according to updated estimates from Doug Anmuth, analyst at Barclays Capital, in light of Amazon’s Q4 results and recent accounting change. Anmuth says he estimates 3.1 million Kindles will be sold this year (62 percent growth Y/Y) and Kindle-related revenue will be $1.6 billion, or 5 percent of AMZN’s…

Is Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) acquiring a touchscreen startup? The NYT reports that Amazon is picking up Touchco, a very small startup incubated at NYU Media Research Lab. No response from Amazon but acquiring a company that claims to have less expensive touchscreen tech—even though it never went commercial—and could fit…

When Mark Cuban (image, left) thinks of newspapers, he thinks of vampires. Newspapers getting their blood sucked by Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and content aggregators, said Cuban, the chairman of HDNet & Owner, Dallas Mavericks, speaking at the OnMedia conference in New York. While Cuban’s vampire lore might be off, he…

It was a surprising weekend for those of us who had naively imagined that after crossing the River iPad, we might actually get some Elysian rest. But, alas, the fates conspired against us and handed us the curious case of Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) vs. Macmillan. Or Macmillan vs. Amazon? For…

Five major publishers were highlighted by Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) at Wednesday’s unveiling of the iPad and the iBookstore. Two days later, one of them was starring in a different e-reader drama when reports emerged that Macmillan titles were no longer being sold directly by Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN). Macmillan wants to…

When we did the first version of this chart heading into the 2009 holiday sales season, four contenders—including the unexpected Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) Nook—were set to crowd the instant-download e-reader field that Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) had to itself for the last two years. Within weeks it already had…

For some critics, the lack of participation from content companies at yesterday’s iPad launch threw some cold water on predictions for how the new device could help the media business regain revenues lost to the web. But if you looked hard enough, publishers were there and, more importantly, some have…

Jeff Bezos doesn’t mind telling analysts and investors millions of people own Kindles. How many have been sold? That’s another question. Despite a Q4 earnings report top heavy with Kindle factoids, the e-reader is still too small a part of the company’s sales to break out as a separate number.…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q408	Net Inc. vs Q408
Amazon	Release		42%	71%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Only if you were flying transatlantic the whole day, could you have missed the brilliant lights of reality distortion field hovering over the privileged earth yesterday. Oh wait, I was. Someone who tried to avoid it while being on terra firma—an admirable task—was Douglas Anmuth, analyst at Barclays Capital. In…

Arnon Mishkin is a partner with Mitchell Madison Group, where he consults for media companies on improving legacy businesses as well as making the internet profitable. Prior to MMG, he was a partner at the Boston Consulting Group, where he did some of the firm’s earliest work on the web.…

One of the biggest knocks toward Amazon’s Kindle has been the closed nature of the Internet-capable device. That starts to dissipate today with word from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) that “later this year” the Kindle Store will start featuring “active content” produced by developers who can suggest their own prices and…

As word spreads of book publishers talking to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) about a possible deal for its anticipated tablet device, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is taking a preemptive strike by offering a plan that gives content owners a greater share of the royalties for e-books sold through the Kindle. The new…

Upendra Shardanand is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Daylife, which helps publishers add content and inventory without additional staff or engineering. He also co-founded Firefly Network, a spinoff from his work at the MIT Media Lab, that he sold to Microsoft. Plenty of holiday shoppers spent hours puzzling…

»  Wonder how Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) gets away without charging most customers sales tax? Randall Stross explains—and argues that it’s time for the e-tailer to start. [NYT] »  Matt Buchanan collects all the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Tablet details/rumors/wishful thinking so we don’t have to. [Gizmodo] »  When the head of…

The Nook can’t be bought to go in stores or ordered for December delivery any more but at least Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) is fulfilling orders. Sony (NYSE: SNE) promises the wireless Daily Edition will be shipping for Christmas. PlasticLogic never promised Que for the 2009 holiday season. But…