Michael Johnson

In the USA recently a group of booksellers brought an action against the publisher Dell. They alleged discriminatory trade practices in that Dell supplied chain store booksellers and supermarkets at discounts greater than those granted to independent retailers. In its defence Dell argued that the massive cost of representation to the many scattered independents precluded the allocation of increase ... (read more)

Sydney’s Nullarbor, that international wasteland fringed by car yards that masquerades as the Parramatta Road, has few peers in the communications business. Driving back to my airconditioned oasis at the cultural Broadway end of the tatty ribbon, I passed drought-stricken telegraph poles all festooned with a stark (Koo?) message, black on yellow: “Fergie and Andy its official”. That’s what ... (read more)

In the UK Bookseller, the self-named ‘organ’ of the VAT-proof Thatcherland, the gossip columnist, one Horace Bent, speculated that Simon and Schuster International were running their New York eyes over Thomson Books UK. However, Thomson, the umbrella sheltering Nelson from the noonday sun, along with pedigree icons Hamish Hamilton, Michael Joseph, and the slightly more louche Sphere and Abacus ... (read more)

Are we in Sydney or Singapore this January? Tinsel Town gives off the same driving ram, the same steamy conditions as the city-state shaking on its financial foundations. Some days of course the sun shines, the beaches are bright with bikinied or semi-bikinied naiads and the surf patrols strut. However, it is Tinsel Town as described by its literati that has kicked the year off with a bang. ... (read more)