Amazon’s Second Quarter Losses, Concern Over Apple’s Proposed Settlement, and More

by
Staff
7.25.14

Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories:

While Amazon reported an increase of 23 percent in sales during the second financial quarter, it also announced a net loss of $126 million—far greater than analysts had anticipated. After releasing the information, the company’s stocks plummeted in after-hours trading. (Forbes)

Meanwhile, U.K. Publisher Pearson reported a profit of £227 million (approximately $385.6 million) despite a decrease in sales during the first half of the year. (Wall Street Journal)

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote has taken issue with the terms of Apple’s deal to recompense customers if an appeals court reverses her verdict that the company conspired with five publishers to fix e-book prices. What was “most troubling” to the judge was a clause that would require only $70 million in compensation from Apple if Cote’s decision is reversed. (Reuters)

Northwestern University has filed a lawsuit against author and bookseller Nina Barrett, who was hired by the university and its library to write a book about the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder in Chicago. After Barrett resigned from her position earlier this year, the university discovered that she had taken the unfinished manuscript and related files with her, and she has since refused the university's demands that the files be returned. (Chicago Tribune)

Elizabeth E. Barker has been appointed as the director of the Boston Athenæum. Founded in 1807, the athenæum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. (Fine Books & Collections)

When he's not busy debating fracking issues or hosting visitors at the Baseball Hall of Fame, Jeff Katz, author and mayor of Cooperstown, New York, is at work Split Season, his second book about the relationship between the Kansas City A’s and the New York Yankees. (New York Times)

Artist John Vernon Lord has created an illustrated version of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake for the Folio Society. (Melville House)

This weekend, the forth-annual New York City Poetry Festival will by held on Governor’s Island. (Time Out New York)