{"id":1746,"date":"2014-06-02T14:53:40","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T21:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/?p=1746"},"modified":"2014-06-02T14:53:40","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T21:53:40","slug":"the-amazon-fight-david-carr-and-malcolm-gladwell-weigh-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2014\/06\/the-amazon-fight-david-carr-and-malcolm-gladwell-weigh-in.html","title":{"rendered":"The Amazon Fight: David Carr and Malcolm Gladwell Weigh In"},"content":{"rendered":"

[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”YGdDfwFUtQGZuwNoz6622v9UXTfsCNmw”]<\/p>\n

THIS fight between Amazon and the Hachette publishers doesn’t seem to be going away. And it may be damaging the online booksellers’ “brand,” says David Carr<\/a> in the New York Times.<\/p>\n

\n

As the uproar grows, Amazon is learning that while it may own the publishing industry with a 40 percent market share of all new books sold, according to Publishers Weekly, it doesn\u2019t own the debate. By blocking inventory, Amazon has become the less-than-everything store. Books may be a small fraction of what it sells, but books are precious, troves of speech, not just products for commerce. They were also the linchpin of the company\u2019s early march to retail dominance. The symbolism is profound.\"200px-David_and_Goliath_cover\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Carr also quotes James Patterson, who said, at BookExpo, \u201cIf Amazon\u2019s not a monopoly, it\u2019s the beginning of one. If this is to be the new American way, this has to be changed, by law if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bestselling writer Malcolm Gladwell has also broken his silence here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s sort of heartbreaking when your partner turns on you. Over the past 15 years, I have sold millions of dollars\u2019 worth of books on Amazon, which means I have made millions of dollars for Amazon. I would have thought I was one of their best assets. I thought we were partners in a business that has done well. This seems an odd way to treat someone who has made you millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, Jack Shafer — long one of the most credible and independent-minded critics of press and media, says he’s\u00a0 appalled by Amazon’s recent behavior, especially its silence in the press, and is cancelling his account.<\/p>\n

\n

One would think with that many hooks into me, I\u2019d be more an Amazon slave than a customer. But that\u2019s not so. Thanks to the company\u2019s recent non-response to criticism that it\u2019s abusing its market power \u2014 a silence that\u2019s consistent with Amazon\u2019s we\u2019ll only-talk-if-we-want-to-promote-something<\/a> media policy \u2014 I\u2019ve made the easy decision to turn my back on the world\u2019s biggest store.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is especially striking since Shafer is a pro-business libertarian with little patience for moral grandstanding. If he’s pissed, too, things are bad.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”YGdDfwFUtQGZuwNoz6622v9UXTfsCNmw”] THIS fight between Amazon and the Hachette publishers doesn’t seem to be going away. And it may be damaging the online booksellers’ “brand,” says David Carr in the New York Times. As the uproar grows, Amazon is learning that while it may own the publishing industry with a 40 percent market share of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[612,35,32,34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-amazon","7":"category-books","8":"category-internet","9":"category-literary","10":"entry","11":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}