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Driving from the Hudson Valley down through Westchester County to the Bronx, listeners of WSPK-FM, known as K104.7, a Top 40 radio station known for its weekday “Woodman in the Morning†show, often find their speakers crackling with an altogether different kind of hit.
Follow the Race
Driving from the Hudson Valley down through Westchester County to the Bronx, listeners of WSPK-FM, known as K104.7, a Top 40 radio station known for its weekday “Woodman in the Morning†show, often find their speakers crackling with an altogether different kind of hit.
Follow the Race
Jim Hollock’s first book, a true-crime tale set in Pennsylvania, got strong reviews and decent sales when it appeared in 2011. Now “Born to Lose†is losing momentum â€" yet Amazon, to the writer’s intense frustration, has pushed up the price by nearly a third.
Jim Hollock in the room where he wrote "Born To Lose." Amazon has raised the book's price by nearly a third.
“At this point, people need an inducement,†said Mr. Hollock, a retired corrections official. “But instead of lowering the price, Amazon is raising it.â€
Other writers and publishers have the same complaint. They say Amazon, which became the biggest force in bookselling by discounting so heavily it often lost money, has been cutting back on its deals for scholarly and small press books. That creates the uneasy prospect of a two-tier system where some books are priced beyond the reach of an audience.
There is no way to track the movement of prices on Amazon, so the evidence is anecdotal and fragmentary. But books are one of the few consumer items that still have a price printed on them. Any Amazon customer who uses the retailer’s “Saved for Later†basket has noticed its prices have all the permanence of plane fares. No explanation is ever given for why a price has changed.
Bruce Joshua Miller, president of Miller Trade Book Marketing, a Chicago firm representing university and independent presses, said he recently surveyed 18 publishers. “Fourteen responded and said that Amazon had over the last few years either lowered discounts on scholarly books or, in the case of older or slow-selling titles, completely eliminated them,†he said.
When the University of Nebraska Press brought out a bibliography of the novelist Jim Harrison four years ago, Amazon charged $43.87. The price this week: $59.87.
Rob Buchanan, a sales coordinator for the press, said the $65 list price of the book had not changed, nor had the price the publisher billed Amazon. “I can’t think of a reason on our end why they’d be charging more,†he said.
Amazon says it is not belatedly trying to improve its anemic profit margins.
“We are actually lowering prices,†said Sarah Gelman, an Amazon spokeswoman. “We pay for these price decreases with relentless focus on improving our execution â€" and this commitment to low prices is one of the reasons our print books business continues to grow.â€
Offered a list of random titles whose discounts had dropped, she said she would not talk about specific books. They included David Foster Wallace’s essay on John McCain, which went from 20 percent off to 10 percent. Ellen Galinsky’s “Mind in the Making†went from 32 percent off to 24 percent. Jim Harrison’s “Songs of Unreason†dropped from 32 percent off to 16 percent.
Higher prices have implications beyond annoyed authors. For all the hoopla around e-books, old-fashioned printed volumes are still a bigger business. Amazon sells about one in four printed books, according to industry estimates, a level of market domination with little precedent in the book trade.
It is an achievement built on superior customer service, a vast range of titles and, most of all, rock-bottom prices that no physical store could hope to match. Even as Amazon became one of the largest retailers in the country, it never seemed interested in charging enough to make a profit. Customers celebrated and the competition languished.
Now, with Borders dead, Barnes & Noble struggling and independent booksellers greatly diminished, for many consumers there is simply no other way to get many books than through Amazon. And for some books, Amazon is, in effect, beginning to raise prices.
Stephen Blake Mettee, chairman of the board of the Independent Book Publishers Association, said that Amazon was simply following in the tradition of any large company that gains control of a market. “You lower your prices until the competition is out of the picture, and then you raise your prices and get your money back,†he said.
Authors like Mr. Hollock and their publishers say they feel helpless about Amazon’s control over their fate. Mr. Hollock says he has called Amazon several times to ask why the price of his book was going up, and never received an answer that made sense.
“Amazon is doing something vitally important for book culture by making books readily available in places they might not otherwise exist,†said Ted Striphas, an associate professor at Indiana University. “But culture is best when it is robust and decentralized, not when there is a single authority that controls the bulk of every transaction.â€
When Mr. Striphas’s book, “The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control,†first appeared in paperback in 2011, Amazon sold it for $17.50, the author said. Now it is $19.
“There’s not much competition to sell my book,†Mr. Striphas said. “The conspiracy theorist would say Amazon understands this.â€
A LEADING agency is promoting an executive to a new, senior-level post where his responsibilities will include considering expansion through adding offices in more American cities.
Michael Houston
The executive is Michael Houston, who since last year has been chief operating officer of Grey New York, part of the Grey North America division of Grey. (Grey, in turn, is a unit of the Grey Group, which is owned by WPP.) Mr. Houston, who turned 41 on Wednesday, is being promoted to chief executive of Grey North America while continuing to share the leadership duties at Grey New York with Tor Myhren, who is president and chief creative officer there.
Mr. Houston’s promotion makes him one of four regional chief executives at Grey, all reporting to James R. Heekin, chairman and chief executive of the Grey Group. Mr. Heekin most recently handled the Grey North America duties with his other responsibilities.
Mr. Houston, in assuming his new post, becomes one of the few African-Americans in the executive suites of the large, mainstream Madison Avenue agencies â€" even, perhaps, the most senior. No black person has been chief executive of such an agency since 2006, when Ann Fudge, chairwoman and chief executive at the Young & Rubicam Brands division of WPP, retired. “By no means do I define myself only by that,†Mr. Houston said in a telephone interview. Still, “I do think it’s unfortunate that my appointment potentially makes me the highest-ranking African-American,†he added. “It sends a signal there aren’t a lot of African-American people in the industry in the highest ranks.â€
That is problematic, Mr. Houston said, because “we’re meant to appeal to, tap into, popular culture†on behalf of marketer clients, “and it’s hard to do that without diversity.â€
“I do applaud the industry for trying to diversify,†he added, but “in our industry ‘diversity’ ought to mean diversity of thought, diversity of background, different ages, different approaches, different sexual orientations. We need to ensure we’re taking the broadest definition of diversity, really being able to appreciate, respect and value others’ points of view.â€
Mr. Houston joined Grey New York in 2007 as executive vice president and director for marketing after working at agencies that included Chiat/Day, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners and Y&R as well as at firms like And Partners, Elias Arts and Landor Associates. He was named global chief marketing officer of Grey in 2010 and managing director of Grey New York in 2011.
“I think a lot of Michael,†said Catherine Bension, chief executive at SelectResources International in Santa Monica, Calif., which helps marketers with agency searches.
“He’s a terrific person,†she added, “and one of the young new leaders of our industry.†(Last year, Mr. Houston was named one of the “40 Under 40†by Crain’s New York Business.)
“Michael has been at Grey New York since the start of its transformation or metamorphosis into a more future-facing, more contemporary agency,†Ms. Bension said, referring to Grey New York’s winning a skein of new accounts with billings estimated at more than $3 billion, among them DirecTV, E*Trade Financial, Gillette, Marriott Hotels and Resorts, RadioShack and Sargento Foods (although one, E*Trade, recently departed.) She praised Mr. Houston for being “a great partner to the creatives†at the agency.
Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world’s largest agency holding group in billings, also had nice words about Mr. Houston.
“I’m delighted for Michael,†Mr. Sorrell wrote in an e-mail, describing him as “a key member of the Grey management team.â€
Mr. Houston has “done an outstanding job,†Mr. Sorrell said, “and thoroughly deserves this recognition for his success, which is based on an exceptional track record.â€
Mr. Heekin, in a phone interview, said he would be turning to Mr. Houston for three primary tasks: prospecting for new business, expanding services like digital and working on “a smart, strategic approach to expanding our footprint in the U.S.â€
Grey North America has, in addition to Grey New York, offices in San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. It has no presence in other prominent American markets after closing offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles and other cities.
Among the markets Mr. Heekin listed as having potential were the Southwest and the Midwest, “whether it’s Chicago or Kansas City,†because “our footprint in the middle of the country is nonexistent.â€
He said he would consider both starting offices and making acquisitions, and added that the latter was more likely, as he and Mr. Houston had already been talking to agencies that Grey might buy. In the meantime, Mr. Houston and Mr. Heekin are making changes in San Francisco, hiring Milan Martin as president of Grey San Francisco, succeeding Brad Fogel, who is leaving to pursue other interests, a spokesman said. Mr. Martin, 39, most recently was managing director and chief strategist at Anthem Worldwide in San Francisco, part of Schawk Inc.
“We’re getting things moving in San Francisco,†Mr. Houston said. “We’re excited about what we could do with the office if we can build on the history there and bring in some of the fervor we have in New York.†Clients of Grey San Francisco include Purolator, Reliant Energy and Symantec.
Mr. Houston’s new post includes other duties, among them overseeing Grey Activation and Public Relations. He will share the oversight of Wing, a multicultural agency with offices in New York and Miami, with Alain Groenendaal, who is president and chief executive of Wing and Grey Latin America.
LONDON â€" Embroiled in inquiries into the behavior of journalists and executives working for his newspapers here, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch faced new questions on Thursday after a television channel broadcast what appeared to be a clandestine recording of him criticizing the police investigation of Britain’s phone-hacking scandal as “totally incompetent.â€
Since July 2011, Mr. Murdoch’s newspaper outpost in Britain has been under close scrutiny by Parliament, by a separate judicial inquiry and by the police investigating accusations of illicit phone tapping, corruption and other misbehavior, particularly at The News of the World, a now-shuttered Sunday tabloid. Scores of former Murdoch employees have been arrested as the scandal raised questions about hidden ties between the press, the police and the political elite
In the recording, apparently made in March during a meeting with journalists at Mr. Murdoch’s tabloid The Sun, Mr. Murdoch is heard saying: “Still, I mean, it’s a disgrace. Here we are, two years later, and the cops are totally incompetent.â€
“The idea that the cops then started coming after you, kick you out of bed, and your families, at six in the morning, is unbelievable,†he said.
Channel 4 News said the recording had been obtained by an investigative Web site called Exaro. The channel said the tone of the remarks seemed markedly at odds with Mr. Murdoch’s public insistence that he felt “humbled†by the hacking scandal.
Mr. Murdoch also referred to a decision by his company’s management and standards committee â€" referred to in the recording as the MSC â€" to hand over a trove of e-mails and other material to investigators, a move he described as a mistake.
“Because â€" it was a mistake, I think. But, in that atmosphere, at that time, we said, ‘Look, we are an open book, we will show you everything.’ And the lawyers just got rich going through millions of e-mails,†he said, promising to support journalists caught up in the investigation.
“I will do everything in my power to give you total support, even if you’re convicted and get six months or whatever,†he said.
“You’re all innocent until proven guilty. What you’re asking is: what happens if some of you are proven guilty? What afterward? I’m not allowed to promise you â€" I will promise you continued health support â€" but your jobs. I’ve got to be careful what comes out â€" but, frankly, I won’t say it, but just trust me.â€
Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation, based in New York, said in a statement: “No other company has done as much to identify what went wrong, compensate the victims, and ensure the same mistakes do not happen again.â€
“The unprecedented cooperation granted by News Corp. was agreed unanimously by senior management and the board, and the MSC continues to cooperate under the supervision of the courts. Rupert Murdoch has shown understandable empathy with the staff and families affected and will assume they are innocent until and unless proven guilty.â€
Tom Watson, an opposition Labour Party legislator who has taken a lead in criticizing of Mr. Murdoch, said he hoped the police would now investigate Mr. Murdoch “about what he did know about criminality in his organization.â€
HONG KONG â€" Malaysian authorities have denied entry to a leading opposition journalist who is the sister-in-law of Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister, sending her back to Singapore.
Clare Rewcastle Brown is the founder of Sarawak Report and Radio Free Sarawak, two news outlets that have taken on the Malaysian government on issues like deforestation and corruption in the state of Sarawak. A native of Sarawak, she has been in increasingly contentious battles with local power brokers and officials in the state since setting up the two news outlets in 2010.
Ms. Rewcastle Brown said she arrived Wednesday at Kuching Airport on an Air Asia flight from Singapore but was denied entry by immigration officials, who detained her and put her on the next flight back to Singapore.
Malaysia recently held democratic elections in which its prime minister, Najib Razak, was re-elected, but he failed to get more than 50 percent of the vote. Critics said the government used its strong hand over the nation’s media to help assure that Mr. Najib remained in power. During the campaign, the Sarawak Report blog was often inaccessible because of what it said were cyberattacks.
Officials in Sarawak state did not comment on the matter. Malaysian officials have said that Radio Free Sarawak is operating illegally because it does not have a license.
Ms. Rewcastle Brown’s news outlets have focused on the leadership of Sarawak’s chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, and the wealth he has accumulated while in power, suggesting his control over permitting of logging operations that have led to deforestation has contributed to his family’s wealth, much of it in overseas holdings.
Ms. Rewcastle Brown drew headlines in Britain in 2009 when her husband, Andrew, was accused of benefiting from payments for a cleaner through Prime Minister Brown’s expense accounts. Ms. Rewcastle Brown wrote a letter to The Guardian saying that her husband and the prime minister were sharing the cleaner and the expenses, and the prime minister was cleared of any wrongdoing.