Many of the hottest stories in media and publishing new this week revolve around scandals: price fixing, plagiarism, and moral policing. As epublishing evolves, authors, publishers, and legislators often collide as they brave this new world of online content. Here’s a look at the headlines that caught our eye:
- U.S. Warns Apple, Publishers: Apple and five U.S. publishers face a potential lawsuit from the Justice Department for allegedly colluding to raise the price of ebooks, reports the Wall Street Journal.
- PRX hires Silicon Valley journopreneur Corey Ford to run the Public Media Accelerator: Public Media Accelerator has named former Frontline documentarian Corey Ford to lead the $2.5 million media incubator. (Ed. note: Nieman Lab’s headline introduced us to a new favorite term: journopreneur.)
- Wiley to Sell Off CliffNotes, Other Assets: On Wednesday, John Wiley & Sons publishing company announced plans to sell several of its publishing assets including CliffsNotes and Webster’s New World.
- Jon Flatland, columnist and former newspaper owner, exposed as serial plagiarist: Columnist Jon Flatland abruptly resigned his editorial position and left town after Singapore-based humor and technical writer Dave Fox accused Flatland of plagiarism. Although the extent of the infractions aren’t yet known, Poynter says Flatland may be among the most egregious plagiarists in newspaper history.
- PayPal Draws the Line on Erotic Books, as Criticism Mounts: PayPal.com faced criticism recently after asking online publishers and booksellers to remove certain erotic ebooks. The online payments company said it’s simply complying with legal responsibilities, while critics including the Electronic Frontier Foundation say the company should not censor book content.