BTW News Briefs

Online Retailers Begin Collecting Sales Tax in Georgia

On Monday, October 1, Georgia’s affiliate nexus law went into effect, thereby requiring online retailers with affiliates in the state, such as Amazon.com, to collect and remit sales tax to the state. The law, H.B. 386, was signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal on April 19, 2012. Under the law, a remote retailer must make $50,000 per year in annual sales to trigger nexus in the state.

According to Georgia’s WLTZ News, the state estimates the changes in the tax code will bring in about $18 million a year in sales tax revenue on Internet purchases.

Google, Publishers Reach Settlement in Copyright Case

A settlement was reached this week in a 2005 lawsuit brought by five members of the Association of American Publishers who charged that Google’s scanning of more than 20 million library books violated copyright laws. A similar lawsuit brought by The Authors Guild on behalf of its members remains unresolved.

A previous settlement between AAP, the Authors Guild, and Google was thrown out in 2011 by Judge Denny Chin, who cited provisions that allowed Google to acquire the rights of copyright owners without their consent and gave Google “a de facto monopoly over unclaimed works.”

The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday that “the new settlement won’t require court approval because it involves only parties to the litigation. Publishers will get to choose which books are included” in Google’s scanning project.

Michael J. Boni, a lawyer for the Authors Guild, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the prospects to make progress in the rest of the case now that the publishers have settled, according to the Times.

Hachette Restructures Sales Force

On October 3, Evan Schnittman, executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer of Hachette Book Group, announced a restructuring of the company’s sales force to “bring the sales and marketing functions in line with the changing book market — unifying print and digital sales, and integrating research and analytics into HBG’s overall sales strategy.” 

HBG said that it will not be reducing headcount as part of the re-alignment, and it announced several hires and promotions.

Chris Murphy has been promoted to senior vice president of the newly createdRetail SalesDepartment, consisting of five sub-departments: National Accounts, CBA, Clients and Nashville, Young Reader Sales, and National Field Force.

David Bowers, who was global vice president of business development and publisher of Oxford Academic Dictionaries, has been hired and senior vice president of sales strategy and operations, a new group within HBG’s sales department.

Among a number of other changes in the department, HBG’s ID and field sales teams will be brought together under Mike Heuer, who will be promoted to executive director, national field force; and Karen Torres has been promoted to vice president, account marketing and retail operations.

NRF, Shop.org Expect Solid Growth This Holiday Season

The National Retail Federation holiday forecast of October 2 estimates that holiday sales will increase 4.1 percent this year to $586.1 billion.

“This is the most optimistic forecast NRF has released since the recession. In spite of the uncertainties that exist in our economy and among consumers, we believe we’ll see solid holiday sales growth this year,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “Variables including an upcoming presidential election, confusion surrounding the ‘fiscal cliff’ and concern relating to future economic growth could all combine to affect consumers’ spending plans, but overall we are optimistic that retailers promotions will hit the right chord with holiday shoppers.”

Shop.org, which released its first online holiday sales forecast, is expecting sales to grow 12 percent over last holiday season to as much as $96 billion. Shop.org defines the holiday season as sales in the months of November and December.

“Online retail has been a bright spot for years and we don’t expect that trend to change anytime soon, especially with the growth in mobile,” stated Shay. “Aside from the convenience, shoppers look to the holiday season to take advantage of retailers’ increased digital offerings.”

Trillin Wins Thurber Prize

The 2012 Thurber Prize for American Humor was awarded Monday, October 1, to Calvin Trillin for Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff (Random House). The award was presented at Caroline's Comedy Club in New York City.

This year’s runners-up were Nate DiMeo for Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America (Hyperion) and Patricia Marx for Starting From Happy (Scribner).

Trillin won a $5,000 prize and a commemorative plaque.