Wal-Mart Is Cutting 40% Magazines From Racks ( With 01/18/08 Update)

From Meg Weaver at Wooden Horse Magazine:

"WalMart, the chain that accounts for as much as 40% of many consumer magazine's single copy sales, has just released a new authorized list of magazine titles. It seems WalMart has decided to cut back on the number of magazines they will distribute. The exact numbers of titles involved are still not available but rumor has it that the list has been cut from roughly 3,000 titles to about 1,100...."

Surfing just now, I couldn't locate any new WalMart list of authorized titles, either.

JANUARY 18, 2008 UPDATE: This past Tuesday, Wal-Mart apparently released a list of 1000 magazine titles that it is purging from its shelves; however, I have been unable to find the actual list online. All sources seem to go back to one lone story in the New York Post, written by Keith Kelly, referencing the list and reporting the purge includes such big name titles as Better Homes & Gardens, The New Yorker, The Economist, Business Week, Forbes, and Fortune.

Lawyer Writer News Flash: Freelance Writers' Settlement Screwed

The settlement has been nixed by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a 2-1 decision, and now the Freelance Writers case, which argued that that freelance contracts do not allow for electronic publication (online, in databases) unless it's specifically stated, is back in the frying pan.

It's a 2-year-old settlement, with around $20 million at issue, and a Who's Who of Publishers as defendants: Knight Ridder Inc., Reuters, West Publishing, etc.

There are several well-known plaintiffs, as well: EL Doctorow, Gerald Posner, the National Writers Union, the Authors' Guild, the American Society of Journalists & Authors, etc.

And the basis for this? Jurisdiction.

Yep. The appellate court has found that the district court lacked federal jurisdiction to approve the settlement in this copyright infringement case. (Well, two justices did -- the dissenting judge said he wouldn't nix this settlement on jurisdictional grounds.) The majority opinion:

"The overwhelming majority of claims within the certified class arise from the infringement of unregistered copyrights ....We have held, albeit outside the class-action context, that district courts lack statutory subject matter jurisdiction over infringement claims arising from unregistered copyrights."

Read the opinion here.

So what happens now? Well, I'm betting that the Freelance Writers' counsel request a full-court review of this 3-justice panel decision - which may or may not get granted. After that, the Supreme Court is the next step, procedurally - and while it's very difficult to get heard by the Highest of the High Courts, they did hear Tasini ....

Putting Putter into Your Writing Schedule

A new study is out: exercising is important, but standing -- well, standing is a big, big deal. The study was published this month in Diabetes, and it's been covered over at ABC.COM.

Bottom line: thin people putter around the house, fat people don't. Being vertical allows your body to manufacture enzymes that are important to metabolism; setting all day, and this manufacturing process shuts down.

So, putter, people. Putter.