News

New numbers from Nielsen Books & Consumer showing that ebooks were outsold by both hardcovers and paperbacks in the first half of 2014.

"According to Nielsen’s survey, ebooks constituted only 23 percent of unit sales for the first six months of the year, while hardcovers made up 25 percent and paperback 42 percent of sales. In other words, not only did overall print book sales, at 67 percent of the market, outpace ebook sales, both hardcovers and paperbacks individually outsold ebooks." 

Read more on the Huffington Post.

Magazine’s art director stresses animation by Christoph Niemann of traffic in the rain is not a ‘technical gimmick’

Famous for its front page art has unveiled its newest innovation - the first animated cover used by a digital magazine.  The animation called "Rainy Day" was created by a German artist named Christoph Niemann.   Niemann has used animated gifs in the past, including a recent projects for Google Doodles for the first days of summer/winter and a project for MoMA called DESIGN AND VIOLENCE. 

The New Yorker’s art director, Françoise Mouly, explained to Mashable how it came to commission an animated gif: “We wouldn’t have done it if it was just a technical gimmick. It had to be a good image. The rain one has the graphic quality and the aesthetic quality that meant it was a modern version of a very old fashioned New Yorker cover."  She added: “I don’t want to set up an expectation that from now on it’s always going to be some kind of added web version of the cover. Most often it will stay as it is. I think that’s the most powerful.”

Read the entire article on the New Yorkers animated gif cover here.  

In a recent video, published on the IKEA website, the furniture giant gives a subtle nod to the power of print.  

Among the features, the man says: The catalog is wireless, has an “eternal” battery life, and comes with “pre-installed” content that can be navigated page-by-page without lag. Pages can be “bookmarked” by turning down their corners, and the catalog supports multiple users via hand-to-hand sharing.

In other words, it’s a typical paper catalog.  

The video, titled "Experience the power of the bookbook" is a spoof of Apples recent ad campaigns has gone viral, creating additional buzz for the retailers catalog,.

Television series "Gotham" was promoted in a huge way, with Virtual Images lenticular tags!  Over 100,000 of these luggage tags were handed out at Comicon, both on the show floor and around the convention center.  

"Fox will also distribute 5,000 Gotham Chronicle newspapers to fans on the ground at the convention (see the first issue above). Taking the news hook one step further, the network will launch a website where fans can keep up to date with breaking news, culture and entertainment stories set in the fictional world of Gotham with GothamChronicle.com. On top of all that, there will be 100,000 lenticular tags on lanyards distributed both on the street and at the Fox Comic-Con booth." - The Hollywood Reporter

The company reported Monday that it added 1.69 million paying streaming subscribers worldwide in the second quarter.

Netflix on Monday reported that it added 1.69 million paying streaming subscribers in the second quarter, enough to put it past 50 million for the first time.  

Read the Hollywood Reporter's original post here.