BTW News Briefs

Google Unveils Nexus 7 Tablet

Looking to compete with Apple’s iPad, this week Google unveiled the $199 Nexus 7 tablet.  The slim device has a seven-inch display and is powered by Android 4.1, Jelly Bean. Google is marketing Nexus 7 as being built for Google Play and is offering incentives for a limited time to get customers to sign in to a Google Play account.

Google’s tablet will also face competition from Microsoft, which launched its own tablet last week, according to Bloomberg News, which noted that Microsoft is expected to have about 12 percent of the tablet market by 2016 and that number could increase.

News Corp to Pursue Publishing/Entertainment Split

News Corporation announced today that it intends to pursue the separation of its publishing and media and entertainment businesses into two distinct publicly traded companies. The transaction would create a publishing company, which would be comprised of News Corp’s newspapers and information businesses in the U.S., U.K., and Australia, the company’s publishing brands, including HarperCollins, its integrated marketing services company, its digital education group, as well as its other assets in Australia; and a media and entertainment company, which would encompass News Corporation’s broadcast and worldwide cable networks, film and television production studios, television stations, and pay-TV businesses in Europe and India.

Upon closing of the proposed transaction, which is expected to take about 12 months, Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corporation, would serve as chairman of both companies and CEO of the media and entertainment company.

Perseus to Phase Out Vanguard Press

Perseus Books Group will be phasing out its Vanguard Press imprint.Though the imprint, which established a new model for creative and extremely close collaboration between authors and publishers, was successful for a number of titles, Perseus President and CEO David Steinberger told staff in a letter that the need for “significant investments to build a backlist and fully develop and sustain the program” and today’s “many alternative opportunities” for growth were behind the move.