Amazon, Publishers Seek to Knock Out Refiled E-book Price-Fixing Suit (publishersweekly.com)

After wresting the crown from longtime #1 Pearson in 2018, STM, business, and legal publisher RELX Group (formerly Reed Elsevier) remained the world’s largest publisher last year, with revenue of $5.64 billion, according to Livres Hebdo and Publishers Weekly’s annual ranking. The only change in the top 10 in 2019 was in the second and third spots, where Thomson Reuters, with a 3% increase in revenue to $5.28 billion, overtook Pearson and moved into second place. Sluggish higher education sales and restructuring efforts aimed at making the company more streamlined resulted in another year of revenue decline at Pearson, but it managed to hold on to third place, with sales of $5.09 billion. The other top 10 publishers in 2019 are in the same positions they held in 2018’s global ranking. Companies focused on the professional and educational markets took six of the top 10 spots, with the more trade-oriented publishers occupying the other four slots. Revenue last year was basically flat in Bertelsmann’s book publishing segments, which include both the world’s largest trade publisher, Penguin Random House, and the company’s small but growing education division. Bertelsmann was the #4 publisher in 2019.

The Nation, which now appears every other week, is switch to monthly frequency in January. The leftist magazine is promising 84 “bigger, richer” pages instead of the 48 it is serving now, according to the New York Times. This is being done in response to reader preferences, says D.D. Guttenplan, editor, • “Unlike almost all of our competitors, The Nation has never made a lot of money from advertising,” Mr. Guttenplan points out, according to the Times. The Nation is resolutely not going to an all-digital model.

Savvas Learning Company announced that educators in the Middle East will for the first time be able to benefit from SIOP® Professional Learning, a research-based instructional framework for teaching both English language skills and academic content. SIOP® Professional Learning is based on the SIOP® Model that is highly valued by teachers for integrating language learning into everyday instruction while also making grade-level content accessible to all students. Through its SIOP® training partner in the Middle East, SAMA Knowledge Training Institute, Savvas is now offering Middle East educators who work with English learners (ELs) the Savvas SIOP® Training for Teachers Workshop. This in-depth, in-person training provides the professional development necessary to effectively implement the SIOP® Model in schools and classrooms. The introduction of SIOP® to the Middle East comes at a time when several countries in that region have set specific goals to ensure that their students develop English language proficiency in order to successfully compete in the global economy.