Content and publishing

Medium hires former literary agent as director of content

Medium, a publishing platform being developed by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, has hired a director of content.

Williams announced on his company's blog yesterday that Medium has hired Kate Lee, former literary agent at International Creative Management. Lee left her job at ICM in April, after deciding that she wanted to have some time off. She spent 10 years at ICM and focused heavily on bringing blog writers to the book publishing world.

In her new role at Medium, Lee will serve as director of content, a job that will see her "help get great stuff onto Medium,&… Read more

Amazon's Bezos is Fortune's businessperson of the year

Jeff Bezos, who has run Amazon at a loss the past two quarters has been dubbed Fortune's businessperson of 2012.

Amazon's quirky CEO has worried Wall Street by spending heavily on new warehouses and employees for the holiday rush and investing in new business overseas. The spending alone wouldn't be cause for concern had the company been able to turn a profit these days.

After several years in the black, Amazon posted losses over the past two quarters. For the third quarter ended September, the retail giant lost $274 million, compared with a net profit of $63 … Read more

If Windows 8 baffles you, here's some free training

People new to Windows 8 can get a helping hand via a special course from the online training site Lynda.com.

Dubbed Windows 8 Essential Training, the four-hour course is available for free to the public until November 23.

The online course covers a variety of topics, including how to upgrade to Windows 8, how to organize your files and folders, how to print, how to use the Mail app, how to back up your files with File History, and how to use Internet Explorer 10.

People can sign up for the course by "liking" its Facebook page. … Read more

Google asks court to ax book-scanning suit from Authors Guild

Google is trying to convince the courts to throw out a book-scanning lawsuit filed against it by the Authors Guild.

In a brief submitted to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday, Google argued that a suit filed on behalf of all authors whose books have been scanned shouldn't be allowed because most authors support the scanning.

Backing up its claim, the company yet again cited a survey that found 58 percent of the authors polled approved of Google scanning their books so the content could be searched online. A full 45 percent said they had … Read more

Reddit's challenge: More users and higher costs

Reddit has seen its user population skyrocket, but that growth is forcing it to spend money to keep up with the flow.

The company revealed its latest traffic stats in a blog posted yesterday.

Last month, Reddit recorded more than 3.8 billion page views and more than 46 million unique visitors. Those page views alone are double what the Web site saw a year ago, according to VentureBeat.

The huge increase in traffic means Reddit has had to add more servers and other equipment and bring in more staff to maintain its site. That raises the question of how … Read more

China blocks NY Times over story on leader's 'hidden fortune'

The Chinese government is not too happy today with The New York Times.

A report from the newspaper yesterday detailed how relatives of Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao have grown extraordinarily wealthy during his time in China's ruling elite. The NYT reported that his family has "controlled assets" valued at $2.7 billion. His wealth stands in stark contrast to the poverty that afflicts large numbers of people in China, and was built in some cases, with financial backing from state-owned companies.

In response, China has blocked the newspaper's site in both English and Chinese for … Read more

Yelp buys European rival Qype for $50 million

Yelp is looking to grab a bigger slice of the European pie with its latest acquisition.

The company, whose mission is to "connect consumers with great local businesses," said today that it has acquired Qype. Located in Germany with operations in the U.K, Qype dubs itself Europe's biggest local reviews site.

The two sites help people find local restaurants, gas stations, hospitals, retail stores, and a variety of other businesses. Users can find details on a business, including the address, directions, and phone number. And they can read reviews from fellow members to see if the … Read more

Apple to expand iBookstore to 18 new countries

Apple's iBookstore is going live in 18 new countries, according to AppleInsider and other tech blog sites.

Citing information from an Australia-based iBooks label, AppleInsider said that the countries in line for iBookstore are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. Those 18 would bring the total number of iBookstore-supported countries to 50.

The expansion of iBookstore comes on the same day that Apple is expected to unveil the iPad Mini. The company also is reportedly aiming to push the education angle with its new tablet, … Read more

Office 2013 Web Apps final version now live on SkyDrive

Microsoft's Office 2013 Web Apps suite is now a final and official part of SkyDrive.

The online Office suite has been available for SkyDrive users since July. But it's been in a customer preview mode still being tweaked by Microsoft. A tweet yesterday from Omar Shahine, a SkyDrive group product manager, confirmed that the final edition is now live.

SkyDrive users who create or open a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote file will see it pop up in the completed 2013 edition of Office Web Apps. Opening a file created under the previous version triggers a message that … Read more