Bookstore Sales Jumped in November (publishersweekly.com)

Incorporating both new editorial content and an elevated look and feel, the new SHAPE provides the service that today's woman desires: beauty and style advice that adapts to her busy life; ways to discover the joys of healthy and delicious eating; relatable tips for health and relationships; and innovative ways to keep her body strong and fit. The May 2018 issue, featuring actress Kate Mara on the cover, hits newsstands April 17. SHAPE Editor in Chief Elizabeth Goodman Artis led the reimagination of this iconic brand. "Today women want what we call the well-lived life, a more holistic approach to health and happiness," Goodman Artis said. "They know that nurturing one part of life feeds and refreshes another. We want SHAPE to reflect this philosophy." Click Read More below for additional information.

Fourth-quarter service performance for July 1 through August 6 included: *First-Class Mail: Delivered 88.9 percent of First-Class Mail on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 1.4 percentage points from the third quarter. *Marketing Mail: Delivered 92.6 percent of Marketing Mail on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 1.6 percentage points from the third quarter. *Periodicals: Delivered 82.9 percent of Periodicals on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 3.6 percentage points from the third quarter. For the week of July 31 – August 6, Periodicals, including newspapers and magazines, reached the highest service performance level (84.8 percent) reported for that category in nearly a year and a half, since the week of March 28 – April 3, 2020 (85.3 percent).

Following the House Antitrust Subcommittee’s capstone digital markets hearing, “Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 6: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google,” three groups representing thousands of authors, publishers, and booksellers in the United States – the Association of American Publishers, Authors Guild, and American Booksellers Association – have sent a joint letter to Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) enumerating a series of anti-competitive tactics that permit Amazon to exercise extraordinary market dominance over the advertising and sale of books in digital markets. Its practices against both book suppliers and book customers have threatened the vitality of the American publishing industry and rendered any meaningful competition from other publishers, booksellers, or emerging platforms impossible. “The Subcommittee’s work has shown that Amazon holds an outsized position of power and control in our country, giving it the ability to interfere with the free flow of information, ideas and literature on a large scale,” the letter tells the Chairman. The full letter can be viewed at: https://publishers.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Joint-Letter-to-Rep-Cicilline-081720.pdf