Tags

Columbia Journalism Review content tagged books

1. April 11, 2012 07:56 PM

   Ebooks and Antitrust

   The Justice Department sues Apple and five book publishers for fighting Amazon

   By Ryan Chittum

   Back in 2010, a giant retailer had 90 percent of a market—a near total monopoly (monopsony, if you want to be precise). This company tried to dictate pricing in the industry via its dominant position (aided significantly, to be sure, by its early innovation in the market) and by the fact that it can use its profits elsewhere to subsidize...

   Continue reading
2. April 11, 2012 02:24 PM

   Mike Wallace, Reluctant Newsman

   A new biography of the late "60 Minutes" reporter reveals how he changed broadcasting while besting inner demons

   By Kira Goldenberg

   Screenwriter and director Peter Rader’s first book, "Mike Wallace: A Life" was already slated for release on April 13 when Wallace died last weekend at age 93. Rader spoke to CJR about Wallace’s insecurities, the origins of his famed interview techniques, and the tragedy that spurred his journalism career. Rader’s answers have been condensed and edited. Why did you select...

   Continue reading
3. February 29, 2012 01:46 PM

   Revisiting Henry Luce’s “American Century”

   Andrew Bacevich and others examine the influential essay

   By Jordan Michael Smith

   The Short American Century: A Postmortem | Edited by Andrew J. Bacevich | Harvard University Press | 296 pages, $25.95 In 1904, Canadian prime minister Wilfred Wilfrid Laurier declared that “The 20th Century Will Be the Century of Canada.”* In January 1940, a writer in Japan asserted that the century needed to be characterized by Japanese dominance. Whatever the defects...

   Continue reading
4. July 20, 2011 02:11 PM

   Summer Reading Club

   Recommend a book for a journalist this summer

   By The Editors

   The days are long, the dogs are panting, and the sun is still prime for shining on the pages of a good summer read. So whether your reading preferences involve snuggling your feet into the hot sand or nestling in next to your air conditioner, the time is upon us to ask our readers once again: What summer reading do...

   Continue reading
5. March 8, 2012 07:10 PM

   The Justice Department and the Price of Books

   By Ryan Chittum

   The Wall Street Journal reports that the Justice Department is going after Apple and book publishers for colluding to fix prices in the e-book market, a big development in that fast-growing industry. Back when Apple launched its iBooks store, Steve Jobs got publishers to switch how they sold e-books to retailers. Publishers had been selling them for half the list...

   Continue reading
6. May 16, 2012 11:00 AM

   What’s the right price for ebooks? (updated)

   It's probably not 99 cents

   By Ryan Chittum

   Author Chuck Windig, GigaOm's Mathew Ingram, and TechDirt's Mike Masnick all took on the question of ebook pricing recently, arguing that production costs (you know, minor details like advances, editors, etc.) don't or shouldn't factor into the end price. Ingram writes that "It doesn't matter what e-books cost to make," and Masnick follows with "Nobody Cares About the Fixed Costs...

   Continue reading
7. October 26, 2012 06:50 AM

   When McGovern met Mailer

   Revisiting an unjustly forgotten account of the 1972 political conventions

   By Jordan Michael Smith

   When former U.S. Senator George McGovern died in late October, he was valorized as the rare decent man working in a business of crooks, liars, and frauds. But this wasn’t just the usual whitewashing process that accompanies eulogies of a once-hated figure. Even while he was alive, indeed at the height of his prominence in American politics as Democratic presidential...

   Continue reading
8. December 13, 2011 12:44 PM

   Winter Reading Club

   What are some books that journalists should read this winter?

   By The Editors

   Every year around this time, we ask our readers to recommend some books that journalists might enjoy reading during the holiday season and the subsequent months. After all, the prospect of new reading material makes sitting inside for the next four months under blankets and sun lamps sound much more appealing. Any genre goes, so what do you recommend, and...

   Continue reading