Gender bias in books world remains ‘systemic’
Study by Vida shows great majority of quality-press reviews are still by and about male writersIt was the year when VS Naipaul infamously declared no woman writer to be his equal, so perhaps it's not surprising that new research shows a huge skew towar...
China stops Tibetan blogger receiving Prince Claus award
Poet Tsering Woeser says she is under house arrest in Beijing after police tell her not to attend ceremony at Dutch embassyA leading Tibetan writer has said she remains under house arrest in Beijing after police prevented her from attending a ceremony ...
Penguin and The Economist form partnership
Penguin has gone into partnership with The Economist. The book publisher's digital series of exclusive short works, known as Penguin Shorts, is to publish a collection of reports entitled Penguin Economist Specials. The reports, originally written for...
Ebooks: the giant disruption
At some point the ebook will become the publishing market's primary engine. Authors will go digital-first and the most successful will land a traditional book deal with legacy publishersIn the past 12 months, I've never bought fewer printed books – a...
Pearson reports 72% rise in profts
Ebook revenue growth helps push Pearson to pre-tax profit of £1bn for 2011Pearson has reported a 72% surge in pre-tax profits to £1.15bn for 2011, with ebook sales at Penguin more than doubling and profits at FT Group, home to the Financial Times, up...
Private papers of Anthony Sampson, Anatomy of Britain
The author and Observer journalist laid bare the inner workings of the country in his Anatomy of Britain in 1962. His papers, made public for the first time, reveal an irresistible listenerHe was the man who knew everybody. For more than a generation...
Has confessional journalism gone too far?
Rachel Cusk published a memoir of the failure of her marriage, to a wave of controversy last week. Yvonne Roberts and Lucy Cavendish – who has often written about her family life – debate whether the rise of the 'confessional' narrative debases or ...
Twitter’s fake Cormac McCarthy reaches end of the road | Media Monkey
To say it was something of a surprise when Rupert Murdoch joined Twitter would be an understatement. So it followed that the world of 140 characters barely batted an eyelid when the reclusive American novelist Cormac McCarthy appeared to join the micro...
‘In Mexico, reporters are hunted like rabbits’
It's tied for first place with Pakistan as the world's deadliest country for journalistsAt the end of January I was at the Royal Courts of Justice to hear Jonathan Heawood, of English PEN, speak to the Leveson inquiry about the importance of a free pre...
Pearson reveals profit upgrade and predicts 10% boost in full-year earnings
Financial Times publisher says it earned £2bn in digital revenues last year and £600m from emerging marketsPearson, the owner of the Financial Times and book publisher Penguin, announced a profit upgrade and now expects full-year earnings to be up 10...
Leveson inquiry: OK! editor denies Kate Middleton cover crossed the line
Magazine's front page on Duchess of Cambridge's 30th birthday celebrations did not mislead readers, says Lisa ByrneThe editor of celebrity magazine OK! has denied to the Leveson inquiry that a recent front page about the Duchess of Cambridge "crossed a...
The readers’ editor on… how too much coverage of some people can annoy