Friday roundup: DOJ and Apple, John Green’s commencement speech
John Green, bestselling and prize-winning author of young adult novels including “The Fault In Our Stars” and “Looking for Alaska,” gave the commencement address at Butler University on May 11. It’s witty, smart, thoughtful, and going viral; if you start hearing people in your life saying “happy birthday, sir,” you can thank him. There’s a YouTube video of the entire graudation ceremony -- Green begins speaking about an hour in -- and he’s put the text of the speech online on his Tumblr.
In publishing biz news, Cary Goldstein will join Simon & Schuster in June as vice president, executive director of publicity, and senior editor. Goldstein helped rack up a number of successes at Twelve, where he worked with Johnathan Karp and took over the reins after Karp’s departure -- for Simon & Schuster. Goldstein left Twelve in April.
In other publishing biz news, loads of documents relating to the Depart of Justice’s e-book pricing suit against Apple were released this week The suit alleges that Apple and five of the six major U.S. publishers colluded to set prices on e-books; the trail is slated to begin June 3. What do the recelently-released documents show? That the government will claim it has evidence proving collusion. Here’s a sampling of the headlines: Apple Worked to Fix E-Book Prices, U.S. Says in Filing (Bloomberg), In court filing, Justice Dept. accuses Apple of e-book price fixing (Washington Post), DOJ Filing Calls Apple ‘Ringmaster’ of E-Book Pricing Rise (AllThingsD), US DoJ calls Apple’s ebook antitrust defense ‘unconvincing,’ presents Steve Jobs email as evidence (Verge), Apple Fights Back in Antitrust Case Over E-Book Prices (New York Times). All five publishers that were named in the suit have already agreed to settle. Not so for Apple, which can better afford to take the case to court. “Apple injected much-needed competition and innovation into the e-book business,” an attorney representing the company told the New York Times. “The DOJ’s case is based on fictions and incomplete quotations. The actual evidence proves that Apple did not conspire to fix prices in the e-book business. We look forward to trial.”
Like many newspapers, iconic alt-weekly the Village Voice has taken many hits, but it may have reached a critical stage. Said to have been pink-slipped Friday: high profile gossip colmnist Michael Musto, food critic Robert Sietsma, theater critic Michael Feingold, as well as staffers on the business side. Last week, editors resigned rather than make the layoffs being pushed by the Voice’s parent company, New Times Media.
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James Franco’s ‘As I Lay Dying’ [Video]
Jaron Lanier takes a hard look at the wired world
John le Carre’s ‘A Delicate Truth’ isn’t gentle with war on terror
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