Bookspan clubs being shut down

BMG/Columbia House has decided to shut down a number of their book clubs (formerly part of Bookspan), including the conservative-themed American Compass. The club's editor Brad Miner broke the news in a blog post yesterday.

I'm saddened to hear this news, both because American Compass serves a valuable role in the industry, and working with Brad is a joy. I hope that the brass at BMG/Columbia reconsider this move, but if not, I wish Brad all the luck in the world.

Blurring lines between movies and books

The WSJ describes an interesting relationship between Random House and GE's Focus Features in which 2-3 years from the publisher's massive backlist will be adapted into films each year.

PayPal Wars cited in The Economist

This week's print edition of The Economist chronicles the ongoing clash between PayPal and Google's Checkout. I have to admit that I was truly humbled by the article's first paragraph:

IN HIS celebrated book, “The PayPal Wars”, Eric Jackson described how in its early years the internet firm had to battle crotchety regulators, identity thieves, volatile markets, scrappy rivals and even scheming Mafiosi. It has since gone on to become the undisputed master of online-payments processing. Now, however, to stay on top, it must leap from being merely big to ubiquitous. And it will have to do so while fending off new competitors—especially Google.

The piece goes on to document how much eBay Inc. now depends on PayPal as a primary growth driver (which I previously noted), and how Google is subsidizing Checkout with the hope of gaining traction on the market leader.