The Mediatwits podcast is sponsored by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which offers an intensive, cutting edge, three semester Master of Arts in Journalism; a unique one semester Advanced Certificate in Entrepreneurial Journalism; and the CUNY J-Camp series of Continuing Professional Development workshops focused on emerging trends and skill sets in the industry.
Welcome to the 25th episode of “The Mediatwits,” the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift’s Mark Glaser and entrepreneur Rafat Ali. This week is the Beyond the Book series at MediaShift, and keeping with that theme the podcast is all about Amazon.com. Rafat admits to being a fanboy of Amazon, with 5 Kindles bought and 1 on order. Special guests Laura Hazard Owen from PaidContent and author James Altucher talk about the growing power and convenience of Amazon in the book business.
On the plus side, Amazon delivers convenience, cheap prices and one-click online shopping. It also has lowered the prices for e-books and has a dead-simple Kindle e-reader, with the $199 Kindle Fire tablet on the way. But Amazon has also taken PR hits for its avoidance of sales taxes in many states, and the poor working conditions at a fulfillment center in Pennsylvania. On balance, is the book-selling behemoth doing a public service or harm?
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Intro and outro music by 3 Feet Up; mid-podcast music by Autumn Eyes via Mevio’s Music Alley.
Here are some highlighted topics from the show:
Intro
2:00: Origins of Rafat’s fanboy-dom
4:45: Rundown of topics for show
Amazon winning in e-readers, e-books
6:20: Special guests Laura Hazard Owen and James Altucher
8:10: Owen: Amazon takes a loss of $30+ on each Kindle Fire sold
11:45: Altucher: Book publishers don’t do marketing for most authors
14:10: Owen: Publishers still perform important role; self-publishing takes a lot of work
18:45: Altucher: Publishers take too long to get books into circulation
Amazon becomes a publisher
19:45: Owen: Amazon now enabling self-publishers and acting as traditional publisher
21:00: Owen: Amazon will have trouble getting its books in bookstores because of past antagonistic relationships with them
23:10: Apple has fallen short of Amazon with its iBooks
PR trouble for Amazon
24:10: Amazon avoiding taxes, hit by investigative report on working conditions at fulfillment center
26:30: Owen: Amazon building many more fulfillment centers; should provide better working conditions
29:10: Altucher: Average person doesn’t care about Amazon earnings, Kindle sales numbers
More Reading
Amazon Rewrites the Rules of Book Publishing at NY Times
Amazon Kindle Sales Surge, but Expenses Smoke Profits at Adweek
Amazon Reports a Sharp Decline in Income at NY Times
Amazon’s Acquisition Of The Book Depository Gets Official OK at PaidContent
Amazon Kindle Fire Sales Tracking to Hit 5 Million: J.P. Morgan at eWeek
Kindle Fire Privacy Concerns—Is ‘Big Browser’ Watching You? at PaidContent
Is Amazon Short-Changing Authors? at MediaShift
Amazon is Nobody’s Friend, Part One at Hellnotes
Inside Amazon’s Warehouse at the Morning Call
5Across: Beyond the Book – E-Books and Self-Publishing at MediaShift
Weekly Poll
Don’t forget to vote in our weekly poll, this time about what you think about Amazon:
Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit. and Circle him on Google+
The Mediatwits podcast is sponsored by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which offers an intensive, cutting edge, three semester Master of Arts in Journalism; a unique one semester Advanced Certificate in Entrepreneurial Journalism; and the CUNY J-Camp series of Continuing Professional Development workshops focused on emerging trends and skill sets in the industry.