Mediagazer: Research Libraries Increase Spending on Digital Materials (Alisha Azevedo/Chronicle of Higher …)

3:50 PM ET, October 12, 2012

Top News:

BBC:

Kindle Fire HD and Paperwhite sales make Amazon no profit — Amazon boss Jeff Bezos discusses the Kindle Fire HD — Amazon has confirmed it will not make a profit from sales of its latest Kindle tablet and e-reader devices. — “We sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware …

Discussion: AllThingsD, bizjournals, ZDNet, The Sun, Bigmouthmedia Search …, CNET, Telegraph, Mashable!, Pocket-lint, Engadget, Forbes, PublishersWeekly.com, Bookseller news, Fast Company and BBC

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

In self-publishing push, Amazon expands Kindle Owners' Lending Library to Europe — Amazon is expanding the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, which allows Prime members who own a Kindle device to borrow one ebook a month for free, to the United Kingdom, Germany and France later this month.

Discussion: Telegraph, CNET, Softpedia News and Engadget

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

A Web survey isn't a poll, CNBC — The network's tweet creates a misleading media narrative on the veep debate — Whoever was running the CNBC Twitter feed last night didn't know the difference between a scientific poll and a Web poll: … As I'm writing this, that misinformation has been retweeted 4,838 times, favorited 405.

Discussion: TVNewser, Mediaite, Cable Television News, Forbes, National Review, Washington Examiner, The Huffington Post, BREITBART.COM, Guardian and The Daily Beast

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

Facebook news-feed changes mean newsrooms need new engagement strategies — Changes to the algorithm guiding the Facebook news feed make it more important than ever that newsrooms and journalists engage effectively on Facebook. — We don't fully know how the changes work or what we should do about the them.

Discussion: GigaOM

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

BookShout pulls users' Kindle, Nook books onto other platforms — BookShout, which is backed by book distribution company Ingram Content Group's CEO John R. Ingram and has gone through a number of iterations since its founding in 2010, is doing something that may make Amazon and Barnes & Noble mad …

Discussion: Forbes

Guardian:

Guardian CEO outlines digital future of news and media industry — The chief executive of the Guardian Media Group, Andrew Miller, has outlined how his company must change to be sustainable — Print still accounts for 70% of the Guardian's revenues, according to its chief executive.

Discussion: paidContent

Niamh Ring / Bloomberg:

New York Times Gains on Stock Upgrade, Digital Progress — New York Times Co. (NYT), the newspaper publishing company, rose the most in two months after Barclays Plc upgraded the stock, citing increasing revenue from its digital paywall and a better cash position.

Discussion: Capital New York, paidContent and AllThingsD

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Times and Sunday Times make U-turn over bulk copies — Papers break ranks with industry by selling copies to partners such as airlines for a nominal sum that are then given away free — The Times and Sunday Times have boosted officially audited sales figures for September by distributing …

Discussion: Media Week and Media Week

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Mitt Romney Makes Play For Newspaper Endorsements In Battleground States — NEW YORK — The Des Moines Register endorsed President Barack Obama in the 2008 election and, given the paper's left-leaning editorial board, could be expected to do the same this time around.

Alisha Azevedo / Chronicle of Higher Education:

Research Libraries Increase Spending on Digital Materials — Spending by research libraries appears to be rising, especially for digital materials, according to new data from the Association of Research Libraries. — The data are part of the association's Library Investment Index …

Felix Salmon:

Why Margaret Sullivan is right to be wrong — I was one of the “oxpeckers” quoted by Joe Coscarelli giving the new NYT public editor, Margaret Sullivan, a “rapturous reception” — not on the grounds that she was particularly spot-on in her judgments, but rather on the grounds …

Discussion: Poynter, The Atlantic Wire and Capital New York

New York Times:

Romney's Pledge Puts Focus on Public TV — It has been a strange week for public television executives. Meetings have been postponed. Trips have been canceled. And conversations have turned in urgency to, of all things, Big Bird. — The turn of events can be traced to Mitt Romney's pledge …

Discussion: Media Decoder