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In 2007 the JISC national e-books observatory project was set up to undertake market research to help e-book publishers, aggregators, libraries and funding bodies understand the behaviours of e-book users and to assess the impact of free at-the-point of use course text e-books on traditional print sales to students

Interesting report on adopting e-textbooks.  Important to remember how early we are in the development of e-readers and that we have few texts developed explicitly for e-readers.

Read the original article by Darnton first and then also see the full text of Courant reply on his blog at http://paulcourant.net/2009/02/04/google-robert-darnton-and-the-digital-republic-of-letters/

£50 a year plan seen as precursor to online charging"/>FT.com / Media - Times and Sunday Times unveil membership schemes

News Corp. CEO Murdoch said traditional newspaper and television advertising markets are picking up, but they still must devise new strategies to compete with Internet ads and free online news." />

Barnes & Noble plans to introduce its own brand of electronic-book reader, jumping in among challengers to Amazon.com's Kindle device." />

USA Today, long the country's largest newspaper by weekday circulation, said it had experienced a circulation decline, which is likely to knock it down to No. 2." />

Dow Jones announced an online venture that combines The Wall Street Journal's Web site with Dow Jones's business-to-business news service and databases." />

Possible generation-gap-type issues for digital educational publishing for colleges: "Today, the college assumes all students not only have computer skills but a plethora of high-tech devices and services. The class schedule and registration procedure is entirely online-even if you're in the registrar's office....In the first class, the professor handed out her e-mail address and the URL where the syllabus could be found--instead of her office phone number and a copy of the syllabus. Unfortunately, the college sites are full of graphics and animations and download very slowly on my dial-up connection. (Even if I could afford a broadband connection, my ISP doesn't provide it in my area.)" "At least one exercise in each chapter requires accessing the publisher's textbook Web site. Many of these exercises could just as easily be put on the computer disk also sold-at an increased profit (I used to work for a textbook-preparation company)-with the text....Again, a dial-up connection won't download the videos. The audio files are .mp3; I can't open them, don't have the skill to know what program I need, and have no access to free technical support....So once every chapter I head for either the heavily used public library or the equally heavily used computer lab in the college's suburban learning center (branch campus)--and hope that a computer is available."

Fortune magazine will publish just 18 issues a year, down from 25, as it looks to cut costs in the ad slump. Cuts at other Time Inc. publications are expected." />

In many fields, amateurs are rivaling professionals in opportunity, talent and the ability to produce quality work online." />

Hearst's Esquire magazine will pepper its December issue with markers that trigger interactive video segments featuring cover subject Robert Downey Jr. and other actors, as well as an ad for Lexus." />

Newspaper publishers are running out of costs to cut, and unless they can show some real ad revenue gains soon, the rally that has ignited their stocks in recent months could fizzle. " />

Walmart, Amazon and Target are limiting online sales of certain steeply discounted books, preventing small bookshops from taking advantage of a price war to stock their own shelves." />

Barnes & Noble says heavy demand for its Nook e-book reader is delaying shipments of the latest pre-orders of the device. " />

A Taiwanese company, Prime View International, plans to pay $215 million to acquire E-Ink, which owns the technology for displaying text in e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader.

Condé Nast and Adobe are building a digital version of Wired magazine for electronic reading devices, as publishers struggle to render magazines on e-readers." />

Google and two author and publisher groups submitted a modified version of a controversial settlement over digital books, but it appears likely the fight over the agreement will continue." />

Companies look to freeze out Google"/>FT.com / Media - Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact