barnes & noble

Barnes & Noble is replacing its self-publishing platform, PubIt, with a new system presumably designed to make publishing with the bookseller easier than doing so with rival Amazon.

Nook Press lets authors compose the book within the platform, instead of requiring them to upload a file and convert it to the system's formatting. An author need only upload the content once and then write and edit within Nook Press, and preview the work, before it turns into an ePub file.

Theresa Horner, Barnes & Noble's VP of Digital Content for Nook Media, said this allows authors to avoid … Read more

In-app purchasing will finally make its way to the Barnes & Noble Nook tablet.

Nook Media, the recently formed subsidiary of Barnes and Noble, announced the news today, saying that it's partnered with mobile-payment provider Fortumo to bring in-app payments to its line of Nook tablets. Fortumo will provide the tools to developers to integrate in-app purchases. The company's platform also includes real-time data on revenue and analytics.

For the customer, the experience of in-app payments should be similar to what they've found elsewhere. The platform will allow for one-click buying; simply clicking the "Pay" … Read more

When it comes to free stuff for your tablet or e-reader, Amazon rules the roost.

The Amazon Appstore is home to a kajillion freebies for Kindle Fires, while the Kindle Store offers literally thousands of free Kindle e-books.

Barnes & Noble, on the other hand, offers a comparatively limited selection of free apps in its curated store, and I couldn't even find a "free books" section in the Nook Book Store.

At least there's Free Fridays, which gives you a free e-book every week. Today, for example, you can get the Nook edition of David Rhodes' "Driftless," … Read more

The Nook is stocking up on video.

Barnes & Noble subsidiary Nook Media this morning announced new content licensing partnerships with Hollywood studios and content providers including Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Relativity Media, National Geographic, Little Pim, and Film Buff.

The partnerships will provide Nook users with the choice of "thousands" of additional movies and TV shows including "The Hunger Games," the Twilight movies, "Skyfall," "Rocky," "Mad Men," and "Amazing Planet," the company said.

With the news, Nook Media is playing up the high-resolution screens of its 7-inch … Read more

Just last month I shared a deal on one year of Bitcasa unlimited cloud storage for $69.

This is less.

Through this weekend, as part of a Cheapskate exclusive deal (woo!), you can get a year of Pogoplug unlimited cloud storage for $39. No file size restrictions, no limits on uploading or downloading, just an endless supply of virtual-hard-drive goodness.

Granted, Bitcasa and Pogoplug are, to a degree, apples and oranges. The former works more like Dropbox on steroids, syncing selected folders and even letting you migrate data off your hard drive and onto your cloud drive.

Pogoplug doesn't … Read more

Barnes & Noble had a rough fiscal third quarter -- the three-month period ended January 26 -- due mainly to its ailing Nook operation.

During the period, Barnes & Noble snagged $2.2 billion in revenue, down 8.8 percent compared to the same period last year. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization slumped 63 percent from $150 million last year to $55.5 million this year.

The big decline in its operation during the period was its Nook business. Revenue in its Nook division, which includes its e-reader and related services, hit $316 million, down … Read more

The company, which has struggled in the changing bookselling market, disclosed that Leonard Riggio plans to offer to buy the retail side of Barnes & Noble's operations. Riggio has not yet made a formal bid but said in a regulatory filing that he plans to negotiate a price with the board for Barnes & Noble's 689 stores and Web site. The bulk of the purchase would be made with cash, Riggio said. He is the company's largest shareholder with a 30 percent stake.

The Nook hasn't worked out as Barnes & Noble had hoped, reportedly leading executives at the bookseller to rethink its hardware strategy.

The bookseller, which acknowledged last month that Nook segment sales for the holidays were much lower than expected, will "move away" from building its own hardware to a strategy that focuses on licensing content to third-party developers, sources tell The New York Times.

"They are not completely getting out of the hardware business, but they are going to lean a lot more on the comprehensive digital catalog of content," said an unidentified person … Read more

The Nook business ain't what it used to be.

Barnes & Noble announced yesterday that it expects a higher loss from its Nook business for fiscal 2013, which ends in April. The company didn't reveal specific numbers, but its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) showed a loss of $262 million for fiscal 2012.

B&N expects overall annual sales from the entire Nook Media business to be less than $3 billion. The Nook business itself includes the tablet, an e-book reader, accessories, and digital content such as books and movies. The Nook Media business … Read more