Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Leer es SEXy
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Pay-per-reading society: Asda says Harry Potter's Bloombury publisher is "profiteering"
Asda says Potter publisher "profiteering"
By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters) - The publisher of the Harry Potter books called in the lawyers after a supermarket chain accused it of "blatant profiteering" for charging 17.99 pounds for the final novel in the series.
The dispute between Bloomsbury and Asda, the British unit of Wal-Mart Stores, erupted on Tuesday, just four days before the launch of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", widely expected to become the fastest selling book of all time.
Bloomsbury said it cancelled a delivery of 500,000 copies to Asda stores across the country because of unpaid bills.
But Asda believes the real reason is a statement it issued on Sunday in which it criticised Bloomsbury's pricing policy.
"Today, Asda pointed the finger directly at Bloomsbury for attempting to hold children to ransom by raising the recommended retail price on the final Harry Potter instalment," it said, adding that the pricing was "blatant profiteering".
The retail price of 17.99 for "Deathly Hallows" compares with 11.99 pounds for "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", the first book in the series published 10 years ago.
That book was 223 pages long, compared with 608 pages for the seventh and last instalment.
A spokeswoman for Asda confirmed that the company had received a legal letter from Bloomsbury on Tuesday, and that its own legal team was working out what to do in response. Continued...
"It seems Bloomsbury doesn't like us suggesting the publishers might be profiteering from the sale of the last book in the series," she said.
Asda hopes the issue can be resolved in time for a delivery of the books to its stores ahead of a deadline in the first minute of Saturday morning, when stores around the country will be allowed to begin selling the book.
Bloomsbury said the row started over "invoicing arrears", but escalated after the release of the Asda statement.
"It did start with the invoicing arrears, but you can't escape from the fact that this press release is extremely provocative, and I think potentially libellous," Bloomsbury marketing director Minna Fry said.
"Asda definitely owes us money and this has been going back for years," she told BCC Radio's Today programme.
"When you don't pay your electricity bill you get cut off, they don't just say, 'Oh, we'll wait and see if you perhaps pay up.' They will remain cut off."
She also defended the increase in Potter book prices.
"That was 10 years ago and that was around 200 pages," said Fry, referring to the "Philosopher's Stone".
"This is 608 pages long ... 17.99 is in line with other hardback novels of this length." Continued...
Asda has taken online pre-orders for "Deathly Hallows" for 8.87 pounds, and will reveal its in-store price on Friday.
Asda, rival supermarket chains and online retailers have launched an aggressive price war over the final Potter, likely to sell tens of millions of copies worldwide. Small, independent booksellers have been squeezed out of the market as a result.
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