Google (NSDQ: GOOG) plans to add e-book sales to its massive free e-book offering sometime this summer, the company told book industry insiders today. Chris Palma, Google’s manager for strategic-partner development, said consumers using Google’s book search will be able to buy digital versions of current and backlist books, according…

Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) is the latest e-reader vendor to try TV as a way to reach the broad base of consumers needed to succeed in the highly competitive space. The retailer just launched a major ad campaign for the Nook, which got through the holidays in a burst…

Starting Sunday, for the first time since Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) launched the Kindle, prospective buyers will be able to try one out in a store instead of hoping for a hands-on moment courtesy of someone who already owns one. They also will get to experience instant gratification instead of waiting…

Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is making a very bold argument in its latest standoff with state tax collectors: The company charges that North Carolina—which is conducting an audit into whether Amazon is complying with its tax laws—wants it to turn over the name and address of every North Carolina resident who…

Let me get this one piece of advice out of the way: if you’re thinking of buying an Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad primarily to read e-books, don’t—unless you’d rather spend extra bucks on looking cool than on books. At $499, the cheapest WiFi-only iPad is vastly overpriced as an e-reader…

Round 1 goes to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). The iPad, as expected, has caused a big stir, and given people like Walt Mossberg reason to gush with enthusiasm about the death of laptops. Throughout, as various members of the press have mused about the death of Amazon’s Kindle, I feel compelled…

After the hardware holiday battles, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and book-selling rival Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) are eager to remind users, potential buyers and analysts that they offer platforms in addition to e-readers. And they should be: the multi-tasking more versatile iPad may not appeal to everyone but it’s already…

Like so many of its peers, The Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) is trying to find the right notes to play in just the right order when it comes to getting paid for digital content. Unfortunately, John Philip Sousa isn’t around to write the march. Instead, the Post is mixing it…

A few hours after Steve Case tweeted that Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) CEO Don Graham told a hometown crowd Tuesday the paper wouldn’t charge for online news, the company told paidContent it was launching its first paid iPhone app today. With that, the Washington Post joins a small but…

Weeks after Macmillan CEO John Sargent told Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) the publisher was switching to the agency model for e-book sales—prompting the e-tailer to black out its e-books for several days, he is still trying to explain what the change means for publishers and consumers. After Amazon pulled Macmillan’s books…

Someone at Macmillan has a sense of humor. When I landed on the site Saturday night to check on e-book pricing and availability following Amazon’s one-week banishment, the book being promoted at the top of the front page was Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage…

Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group is joining fellow iPad launch publisher Macmillan in plans to demand higher prices for its e-books, the WSJ reports. Macmillan’s titles in all formats initially were pulled from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) after it said it would set its own prices—preferably in the $12.99-$14.99 range—instead of…

That’s according to updated estimates from Doug Anmuth, analyst at Barclays Capital, in light of Amazon’s Q4 results and recent accounting change. Anmuth says he estimates 3.1 million Kindles will be sold this year (62 percent growth Y/Y) and Kindle-related revenue will be $1.6 billion, or 5 percent of AMZN’s…

Is Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) acquiring a touchscreen startup? The NYT reports that Amazon is picking up Touchco, a very small startup incubated at NYU Media Research Lab. No response from Amazon but acquiring a company that claims to have less expensive touchscreen tech—even though it never went commercial—and could fit…

When Mark Cuban (image, left) thinks of newspapers, he thinks of vampires. Newspapers getting their blood sucked by Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and content aggregators, said Cuban, the chairman of HDNet & Owner, Dallas Mavericks, speaking at the OnMedia conference in New York. While Cuban’s vampire lore might be off, he…

It was a surprising weekend for those of us who had naively imagined that after crossing the River iPad, we might actually get some Elysian rest. But, alas, the fates conspired against us and handed us the curious case of Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) vs. Macmillan. Or Macmillan vs. Amazon? For…

Five major publishers were highlighted by Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) at Wednesday’s unveiling of the iPad and the iBookstore. Two days later, one of them was starring in a different e-reader drama when reports emerged that Macmillan titles were no longer being sold directly by Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN). Macmillan wants to…

When we did the first version of this chart heading into the 2009 holiday sales season, four contenders—including the unexpected Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) Nook—were set to crowd the instant-download e-reader field that Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) had to itself for the last two years. Within weeks it already had…

For some critics, the lack of participation from content companies at yesterday’s iPad launch threw some cold water on predictions for how the new device could help the media business regain revenues lost to the web. But if you looked hard enough, publishers were there and, more importantly, some have…