Authors Guild Opposes Random House E-rights Claim, Scribd Offerings Expand, and More

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:

The senior editor of Publishers Weekly has apologized after the cover of the trade magazine’s latest issue drew complaints (Associated Press [2]).

The French government has pledged nearly $1.1 billion toward a public-private partnership that will oversee the digitization of the country’s literary heritage (New York Times [3]).

In a letter [4]released yesterday, the Authors Guild took issue with what it calls “Random House’s retroactive rights grab” (New York Times [5]).

Richard Vezza, president of the Penn Jersey Advance publishing group, has been named publisher of the Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey (Star-Ledger [6]).

Unless a buyer can be found for bankrupt bookseller Borders UK, the chain will close its doors on Tuesday, December 22 (Bookseller [7]).

The Scribd Store got a little more crowded yesterday, with Chronicle Books, John Wiley & Sons, Barnes & Noble imprint Sterling, and the University of Chicago Press all announcing that they will sell their titles through the online document-sharing service (TechCrunch [8]). 

The owner of Left Bank Books [9]—which, until last week, was scheduled to close after the expiration of its lease—has announced that his store will instead move to a new, larger location in New York City’s West Village neighborhood (New York Times [10]).

Citing a lack of jurisdiction, Britain’s High Court has dismissed an appeal by “A,” a former MI5 agent, for a review of the publication ban placed on a book about his work with the intelligence service (Times [11]).