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BTW News Briefs
Printer-friendly versionHere’s what’s happening this week in the book industry:
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block Quad’s proposed acquisition of LSC Communications, which would have united the country’s two largest printers. According to the suit filed on June 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the reason is, “to preserve competition in the markets for magazine, catalog, and book printing services in the United States.”
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has filed a 12-page document in connection with the Federal Trade Commission hearings on “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century” urging the FTC “to more closely scrutinize the behavior of dominant online platforms that pervade every aspect of the economy.” The suit specifically mentioned Amazon and Google.
Bustle reported on the lack of diversity in publishing in a June 20 article titled “7 Stats About Diversity in Book Publishing That Reveal the Magnitude of the Problem,” which states, “There has been a growth in diverse representation in almost every area of the publishing industry, especially since the We Need Diverse Books campaign was launched in 2014…that being said, the industry is still falling short in a number of ways.”
The New York Times reported on June 23 that Amazon’s enforcement of laws preventing the sale of counterfeit books is lax, and Amazon responded to the story on the company’s blog.
David Cully will retire as the president of Baker & Taylor at the end of August, the company announced. Cully had served as president since 2017, a year after Follett bought the company. Amandeep Kochar has been named executive vice president of B&T.
In response to Baker & Taylor’s announcement it would be ending its services to retailers, the sales team at Free Spirit Publishing has put together some information for indie bookstores that would like to work directly with the company, whose tagline is, “Meeting kids’ social, emotional, and educational needs since 1983.”
DC Comics has announced it will be reorganizing its existing imprints into three divisions by age group: DC Kids, DC, and DC Black Label. DC will also be dissolving its Vertigo publishing imprint at the end of the year.