Apple adds two iPad book publishers
Two of the deals that Apple needed to get the iPad off the starting blocks quickly have just come through with the signing of two new book deals, one with the biggest of the independent publishers.
As we have been saying in this space, Apple needs deals with some big-time content publishers in order to make good on their promises for the iPad as a media powerhouse. There has been no big news during the last few days about newspapers, magazines, films, or television, but Apple did sign two book deals for iPad content, one of them of truly major importance. Perseus Books Group, a large independent publisher that distributes works from 330 other smaller presses plus its own mark has inked a deal with Apple to provide content to the iPad, according to the New York Times. Perseus publishes for such large independent houses as Grove/Atlantic, Harvard Business School Press and Zagat. Apple has already signed iBookstore deals with five of the big six publishers.
Apple has also signed a deal with Workman Publishing Company, one of the major independent publishing labels. Workman is the publisher of the What to Expect series and Page-A-Day Calendars and the iconic 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, and also handles publishing chores for Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Artisan, HighBridge Audio, Storey Publishing and Timber Press. They bill themselves as a “medium-sized independent publisher” or items such as “calendars, cookbooks, parenting/pregnancy guides, and fun, educational children’s titles, as well as gardening, humor, self-help, and business books.”
Apple promised a great deal of content when they announced the iPad, but signing deals with content providing companies has proved more difficult than expected. There has been a bit of a war going on with Amazon on book pricing, but that seems to have settled down with Apple in a good position. There has been some movement with publishers of magazines, but no big announcements since the one regarding Conde Nast. The newspaper business seems to be in total disarray. On the film and television front, the big content producers still seem afraid to sign big iPad deals because that might anger the networks and cable companies that are their major customers. Still, these two new book deals bring the iPad one step closer to fulfilling its media promise.
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