Financial Times Deutschland -- RIP

The American media paid attention today to Australian-American immigrant Rupert Murdoch's reshuffling of News Corporation and the announced closing of his iPad news publication. In Europe, a media event quietly took place that spoke to the challenged economics of the print media. Gunnar + Jahr, part of Bertelsmann, the German publishing Goliath, is shutting down the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD). The story, as reported in the Parisian daily Le Monde, noted that 300 people will lose their jobs and 100,000 subscribers will have to find new ways to read reliably reported information.

Meanwhile, Bertelsmann's planned shotgun wedding of its scion Random House with book publisher Penguin (owned by Pearson, which publishes the UK-based Financial Times) continues on schedule.

PS. The Financial Times sold its fifty percent share of FTD in 2008.

Jack Kerouac's "Lost" First Novel Now Published

Cover of Australian Edition of Kerouac's "Lost Novel"

The Sea Is My Brother: The Lost Novel, a work by a very young Jack Kerouac, has been published by Penguin. The BBC reported in today's online editions about the book's release. Meanwhile, the book's US launch might be the quietest for a popular deceased writer that I can remember. The publicity for the novel has been -- so far -- a much bigger deal in other English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia.

Typically, first novels are something writers have to get through. Kerouac, whose works rely on a refreshing, insouciant spirit and uncomplicated prose, is unlikely to be an exception to the "first novel syndrome." Significantly, The Sea Is My Brother did not find a publisher during Kerouac's life. As is well known, Beat Generation writers were in the literary wilderness for years, while other "important" novelists found publishing homes. It's generally thought their finest work has already been published. Will The Sea Is My Brother: The Lost Novel be an exception, a newly found jewel in the Beats' literary crown? We'll see.