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Last year, the Department of Canadian Heritage commissioned Turner-Briggs, a Vancouver-based market-analysis company, to study the Canadian book retail market. The resulting report – The Book Retail Sector in Canada – has received considerable attention from both policy makers and the industry as it describes the dramatic change in how books are distributed and sold in Canada.

The shift away from local bookstores to chain stores such as Indigo has been readily apparent to many consumers, yet the report notes that even bigger changes are afoot. Though Indigo retains a dominant share of the market, it is being challenged by the growing influence of major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Costco as well as by online sellers that include Amazon.ca and Victoria, British Columbia’s AbeBooks.

While the evolution of book selling in Canada merits careful study, it is the emergence of "Books 2.0," featuring new models of book publishing, that offer an even more compelling story.

For example, Wikitravel, one of the Internet’s most acclaimed travel websites, was launched in 2003 by Montreal residents Evan Prodromou and Michele Ann Jenkins. Using the same wiki collaborative technology that has proven so successful for Wikipedia, the Wikitravel site invited travelers to post their comments and experiences about places around the world in an effort to build a community-generated travel guide.

In less than five years, the site has accumulated more than 30,000 online travel guides in 18 languages, with more than 10,000 editorial contributions each week. The content is freely available under a Creative Commons licence that allows the public to use, copy or edit the guides.

Building on Wikitravel’s success, Prodromou and Jenkins recently established Wikitravel Press, which introduced its first two titles earlier this month. Wikitravel Press represents a new approach to travel book publishing based on Internet collaborative tools and print-on-demand technologies that should capture the attention of the industry for several reasons.

First, the books are based on content that is freely available online. Rather than paying $18.99 for a copy of the 469-page Wikitravel Chicago guidebook, users can easily access all the content on the Internet paydayloans.com. In this instance, the publisher is convinced that the book version is easier to use and therefore worth the investment.

Second, the books are continuously updated. Unlike other travel books that feature lengthy delays between when they are written and when they appear on store shelves, Wikitravel Press books are updated every month as the publishers pull together the latest contributions and edits from the website.

Third, Wikitravel Press uses print-on-demand technology supplied by Lulu.com, a U.S.-based site founded by Canadian (and CFL Hamilton Tiger Cat owner) Robert Young. Using the Lulu.com print and delivery system, it delivers books to more than 200 countries within a few business days.

Looking ahead, Wikitravel Press plans new titles for Paris, Toronto and Sydney, to be followed by "ad hoc" books that will allow travelers to customize their own travel books based on Wikitravel content.

Canadians are also playing a leading role in reshaping the creation of audiobooks. Hugh McGuire, a Montreal-based writer and Web developer, established LibriVox in August 2005. The site is also based on concept of Internet collaboration. In this instance, LibriVox volunteers create voice recordings of chapters of books that are in the public domain. The resulting audio files are posted back on to the Internet for free.

The LibriVox project, which does not have an annual budget, has succeeded in placing more than 1,200 audio books on the Internet, including Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, works from Mark Twain, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and hundreds more.

New technologies are rapidly reshaping the book industry and it is exciting to see how Canadians are quietly playing a leading role in the re-imagining of how books are created and distributed.

Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at www.michaelgeist.ca

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THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL – In a major step toward a program launch this year, Bombardier Inc. has authorized formal sales deals for its new CSeries aircraft.

Company president Pierre Beaudoin said: "Airlines worldwide have expressed their keen interest to receive formal sales proposals."

The announcement was immediately welcomed by world airlines.

The CSeries, with five seats abreast, is designed for the lower end of the 100- to 149-seat market segment.

That's estimated at 5,900 aircraft – worth US$250 billion over the next 20 years – and Bombardier aims to capture half of that market.

Montreal-based Bombardier said a program launch decision is expected this year, with service entry scheduled for 2013.

Beaudoin said the CSeries aircraft "will benefit from the latest technological advancements, including: increased use of composites and aluminum lithium in structures; a next-generation engine – the Pratt & Whitney Geared TurbofanTM; and the very latest in system technologies, such as fly-by-wire, and fourth-generation aerodynamics."

He said the advancements will produce up to 20 per cent better fuel burn and up to 15 per cent improved cash operating costs.

Friday's announcement was immediately hailed by Pratt & Whitney and possible customers.

At Germany's Lufthansa, "we are considering the CSeries family of aircraft in our broader evaluation of opportunities for the lower end of the single-aisle fleet because its proposed advantages could be attractive to us," said Nico Buchholz, senior vice-president for the corporate fleet.

At Qatar Airways, "the CSeries aircraft's 2013 entry into service date suits us very well cash advance. We envisage an order for 20 aircraft," said CEO Akbar Al Baker.

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DUBLIN, Ohio–Wendy's International Inc. is aiming to roll out inexpensive sandwich wraps and a new hamburger to increase sales as the U.S. economy weakens, Chief Executive Kerrii Anderson said Tuesday.

"We have to grow the top line," Anderson told Reuters in an interview at the company's headquarters, referring to sales.

"The consumer environment from a year ago has changed drastically," she said. "I am very concerned about the consumer overall and their confidence level."

The restaurant industry is being squeezed by higher ingredient costs while U.S. customers grapple with higher gasoline and food costs and concerns about falling home values and the possibility of recession.

"We are very focused on driving traffic," said Anderson.

Also, Wendy's directors have also been weighing a sale since June 2007 under pressure from billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, who wanted better performance from the company.

Peltz, whose Triarc Companies Inc owns the Arby's chain, has since offered to buy Wendy's and has said he plans to seize control of the No. 3 hamburger chain's board.

CEO Anderson is not part of a special committee appointed to decide Wendy's fate and had no update on its progress.

Plans for international expansion and selling company-owned restaurants, which could boost results, are on the back burner until the committee makes a decision, leaving Anderson limited options with which to fight McDonald's Corp and Burger King Holdings Inc.

Anderson, who has helped Wendy's improve margins with restructuring and cost controls, is focused on ending five years of declining traffic with one of the company's most aggressive new product lineups since the mid-1990s.

Still, she said: "We don't think we're going to flip the switch and it's going to change overnight."

Wendy's plans to introduce a spicy version of its Baconator sandwich next month and to roll out value-priced wrap sandwiches in the first half of 2008.

The Spicy Baconator is the first extension of Wendy's meat-heavy Baconator line, which debuted last year and targets men in the 18 to 34 age group, which visits fast-food restaurants more frequently than any other group.

Anderson said Wendy's new $1.49 Go Wrap sandwiches, which include lettuce and chicken, fit into the snack and value categories and should appeal to women.

The company also plans to offer salads topped with hot chicken this summer, Anderson said.

Wendy's, known for using fresh beef, has struggled to find a successful marketing message since the 2002 death of company founder Dave Thomas, who was an advertising cult hero and starred in more than 800 commercials starting in 1989.

A recent advertising campaign that featured characters in red wigs sparked a lot of debate but not sales.

Wendy's newest campaign, its fifth since Thomas' death, includes back-to-basics ads that, as Anderson says, "make food the hero" by focusing on quality.

She hopes the new ads will attract customers to its nearly 6,000 U.S no fax payday loans. restaurants.

Wendy's will know in about six months whether the campaign has achieved that goal. In the meantime, Anderson says Wendy's has a winner with its new cod sandwich, which will only be sold through March.

"Fish is very good for us," said Anderson, who would not elaborate on the impact the sandwich has had on traffic and sales.

"There is a lot going on with the consumer right now," Anderson said.

Wendy's has warned that January was a tough month for business.

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The dough isn’t the only thing rising in Cordi Italian Bakery.

With wheat prices around the globe hitting record highs, the small family-owned bakery in Mississauga is seeing its costs skyrocket. Now, it’s facing a difficult decision: whether to raise the price of its bread and buns. Again.

"We were trying to ride it out," said Carlo Cordi, as he slides a wooden pallet with half a dozen mini-pizzas into a giant bake oven.

"Then, finally, we raised our prices. Flour was $35 (a bag) then. The very next day, our supplier calls us to say, `It’s going up again.’"

His supplier, Gerry Miller, of Bakers and Us Inc., is hearing the same story all over town from the hundreds of small European-style bakeries he services from his warehouse near the airport.

"In 30 years in business, I’ve never seen it like this," said Miller, who has spent most of the past week on the phone giving customers the bad news.

The price of an industry standard 40-kilogram bag of flour is going up to around $44, roughly double what is was last summer.

And there’s no end in sight, Miller warned. "My customers are screaming. They’re saying `I’m going to have to close my doors.’ That’s an expression a lot of people use just out of frustration," he added. "But if that turns out to be a reality, what happens to me? It’s not long before I’m out of business."

With wheat stocks around the globe falling to record lows, prices are skyrocketing as the end of this year’s selling season approaches.

Wheat prices have been rising for a couple of years but most of the gains have come in the past six months. Volatile weather, rising demand in emerging regions like Asia, and market speculators have all driven the price to record levels.

Consumers are already feeling the pinch and not just in the neighbourhood bakery.

The price of a basic loaf of bread sold in supermarkets had jumped to $2.18 by the end of December from $1.27 at the start of 1995, the first year Statistics Canada began tracking this food item.

That’s a 71.6 per cent increase over 12 years, versus 27.3 per cent for all other items. In other words, bread is rising at 3 1/2 times the overall rate of inflation.

Last year alone, the price of bread rose 8.9 per cent, while the rate of inflation for all items was just 2 per cent, according to StatsCan.

Wheat isn’t the only commodity that has taken off. Oil, corn and soybeans are all caught in the same supply-demand squeeze.

But the pressure on wheat prices has intensified as this year’s stocks were depleted over the winter and speculators began placing bets on next year’s crop.

"The prices have escalated quite dramatically in the past 18 months, most of it since last September," said Bruce Burnett, director of weather and market analysis for the Canadian Wheat Board. The farmer-controlled organization is the single largest seller of wheat and barley in the world with a 20 per cent share of the global market.

"Chicago wheat for May delivery is $10.16 (U.S.) a bushel," Burnett said, referring to wheat futures that trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a widely quoted benchmark guaranteed payday loans. "A year ago, it was $5."

For most of the past 15 years, wheat has traded in a very narrow band. In fact, taking into account inflation, the real cost of wheat was actually declining at one point.

But global demand for wheat last year rose to 619 million bushels, while supplies grew, but not as fast, to 603 million bushels, according to the latest report by the United States Department of Agriculture.

The shortfall resulted in wheat stocks being drawn down to their lowest levels in 30 years.

By the time the selling season ends in May, experts predict the world will have just 109.7 million tonnes of wheat left in storage, down from 150.6 million tonnes three years ago.

Unless this year’s crop is bigger, that downward spiral will continue and prices will continue to soar.

It’s not just the little guy who’s suffering.

Canada’s biggest bread makers, including Weston Foods and Canada Bread, both say they’ve been cutting costs, passing on price increases, and shifting their sales mix to focus on more profitable products.

Miller said he’s been able to delay some of the impact on his customers by signing short-term contracts with his suppliers, major flour-mill operators like Robin Hood, Dover Industries and Archer-Midland Daniels. But when those contracts end, he says, he has to pass on most of the price increase.

He’s also taken a hit on his bottom line. Instead of charging a 20 per cent profit margin on a $22 bag of flour, he’s taking 5 per cent on a $44 bag, he says. That means he’s getting just over $2 per bag instead of just over $4 to cover his costs.

His customers say they’re doing the same thing.

At Nova Pastry & Bakery in Mississauga, co-owner Helder Lopes says his weekly costs have jumped $1,800 since he raised the price of bread last November. The cost of flour is the biggest contributor, but vegetable oil, cardboard boxes and paper have also gone up.

The last time Lopes raised his prices, a basic loaf of bread went up 30 cents to $1.75. To cover the latest round of cost increases, he’d need to charge another 60 cents a loaf, he said in an interview in his Portuguese-style shop.

But Lopes said his customers would never accept another increase that big so soon, even though many are European immigrants, who know it’s a global problem and the price back home is often worse.

So, for now, he’s taking the same route as Cordi and Miller.

"We’re just going to have to absorb the costs as long as we can," Lopes said. "What choice do we have?"

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LONDON – A subsidiary of Canada’s Jim Pattison Group, which owns the Ripley’s Believe It or Not franchise, has acquired Guinness World Records from HIT Entertainment for an undisclosed price.

First published in 1955, the annual Guinness World Records book has developed into a phenomenon published in 37 languages. The publication itself is listed as the world’s best-selling copyrighted book.

The highly diversified Jim Pattison Group, based in Vancouver, is Canada’s third-largest private company with sales of $6.3 billion and more than 29,000 employees online cash advance.

Its holdings include Ripley Entertainment Inc., which has held the global rights to develop and operate the six Guinness World Records museums and attractions, in Niagara Falls, Ont., Hollywood, San Antonio, Tex., Gatlinburg, Tenn., Tokyo and Copenhagen.

The Canadian Press

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PHILADELPHIA–Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable operator, reported a 54 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit on solid revenue gains as customers spent more for cable TV.

In a bow to the desires of agitated shareholders unhappy with its weakened stock price, Comcast also said it will start paying a 6.25-cent quarterly dividend starting at the end of April.

Moreover, the Philadelphia-based company is pledging that by the end of 2009, it will spend the remaining $6.9 billion it has allotted to buy back shares – in a bid to satisfy a growing chorus on Wall Street to step up its repurchases.

In the fourth quarter, Comcast reported a net income of $602 million, or 20 cents per share, compared with $390 million, or 13 cents, in the same period a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting profit of 17 cents per share.

Operating cash flow in the quarter was $3.08 billion, up 19 per cent year-over-year, while free cash flow tripled to just a tad over $1 billion.

Revenue was up 14 percent to $8 billion, beating Wall Street's $7.9 billion average forecast.

The company added 1.2 million revenue generating units – the number of services sold and a key metric of performance – down from 1.6 million in 2006.

For the year, Comcast posted a 2 percent increase in profit to $2.59 billion, or 83 cents per share, as revenue rose by 24 percent to $30.9 billion.

Among its business segments, Comcast said video revenue rose by 6 percent to $4.5 billion in the quarter payday loans. The average cost per customer rose to $61.72 a month from $58.19, which could be a combination of higher prices and more services ordered.

The number of basic subscribers fell by 94,000, compared to a gain of 111,000 in 2006. Even its digital sign-ups slowed, adding 523,000 compared with 614,000 in the prior year.

Comcast's high-speed Internet business saw a 14 per cent revenue gain to $1.7 billion. But the company added 331,000 new customers compared with 490,000 in 2006. The average cost per customer fell, as well, to $42.44 from $42.89 a month, perhaps reflecting the effect of competition.

Comcast's phone revenue rose by 73 per cent to $523 million. The company signed up 604,000 digital voice subscribers compared with 510,000 in the prior year. However, its circuit-switched business lost 128,000 accounts as Comcast continues to exit this market.

The average cost per digital voice customers fell to $40.34 a month from $43.05.

Comcast said capital expenditures were $1.5 billion in the quarter, up from $1.4 billion. In past quarters, Wall Street had been concerned about increases in the company's capital spending.

Looking ahead, Comcast is projecting an 8 to 10 per cent growth in overall revenue and operating cash flow for 2008. It also expects to post free cash-flow growth of at least 20 per cent and capital expenditures should fall as a percentage of revenue.

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PAWTUCKET, R.I. – Toymaker Hasbro Inc.’s profit rose 24 per cent as it avoided the mountain of lead-paint related recalls that plagued many of its competitors.

The Pawtucket, R.I.-based company’s profit rose to 84 cents per share, from 62 cents a year earlier. Wall Street expected the company to report 81 cents per share in the period.

Sales climbed 16 per cent to US$1.3 billion as Hasbro sold more Transformers, Marvel, Littlest Pet Shop, Baby Alive, Nerf, Monopoly, Operation and Sorry toys and games.

Competitor Mattel Inc freecreditreport. posted a 15 per cent gain in fourth-quarter profit but faced negative publicity during the fourth quarter because of its recalls of millions of Chinese-made toys tainted with lead.

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So far, they’re just friends – really – even though word is the happy couple has been spotted walking hand in hand.

Still, there is plenty of buzz around UAL – which runs United Airlines – and Continental Airlines that the two might actually run away with each other. United is the nation’s second-largest airline and Continental is fourth biggest.

Merger talks between Continental and United are escalating because two other airlines – Delta and Northwest – reportedly are nearing a deal of their own.

A wave of mergers would dramatically reshape an industry that is beset with heavy debt, high expenses because of rising fuel costs and lost revenue because of lower business travel, analysts said. The airline industry has lost an estimated $35 billion (U.S.) in recent years.

The Delta-Northwest combination would create a new world leader, leapfrogging American Airlines and the Air France-KLM tandem how to get a free credit report.

The next potential deal in line – United and Continental – would be even bigger, and other pairings are likely too as carriers bulk up to compete.

The economics of the airline industry also are driving carriers into each others’ arms.

High fuel prices and the threat of recession are leading challenges and while airlines have raised fares, hikes are not enough to offset increases in the cost of fuel.

With files from Associated Press

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Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet may today signal that growth is increasingly replacing inflation as their biggest concern.

U.K. policy makers will lower their benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 5.25 percent, according to all but two of 61 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. While the ECB will probably leave its key rate at 4 percent, Trichet may indicate the region's expansion isn't as strong as anticipated.

Europe's economy is weakening as U.S. growth falters, pushing King to follow Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke in cutting rates and pushing the ECB to soften its inflation- fighting rhetoric. U.K. house prices fell for the first time since 2000 last quarter and the euro region's service industries grew the least in more than four years in January.

“The Bank of England's policy pendulum has swung to focusing on growth and the ECB's will soon do the same,'' said David Brown, chief European economist at Bear Stearns International in London.

King and his eight colleagues on the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee are looking to bolster the U.K. economy, which they predicted in November would grow just 2 percent this year after 3.1 percent in 2007. Since then, mortgage approvals dropped to a nine-year low in December and the faltering U.S. economy is undermining the prospects for global expansion.

Decision at Noon

The Bank of England publishes its decision at noon in London. The ECB makes its announcement 45 minutes later and Trichet talks to reporters at about 2:30 p.m. in Frankfurt.

The International Monetary Fund last week cut its forecast for world economic growth this year to 4.1 percent, below the 4.4 percent projected in October and the slowest pace in five years.

The second U.K. rate reduction in three months probably won't be the last, with the bank paring the benchmark to 4.5 percent by the end of the year, according to the median forecast of 44 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. “It's the end of a long-term boom for the U.K.,'' said Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank AG in London.

“The longer the bank waits, the bigger the danger that the situation could deteriorate,'' said David Kern, economic adviser to the British Chambers of Commerce. He called for an interest- rate reduction today.

Weaker Expansion

If it cuts borrowing costs, the Bank of England is gambling that weaker expansion will restrain inflation, after it topped its 2 percent target for three months. That would follow the pattern of the Fed, which pushed inflation concerns aside last month to lower rates at the fastest pace since 1990, to 3 percent, in a bid to avoid a recession.

“European data clearly show there's no decoupling,'' said Jan Amrit Poser, chief economist at Bank Sarasin & Cie AG in Zurich pay day loans. “If you have a recession in the U.S., which seems to be the case, you would have at best a severe slowdown in Europe.''

Confidence among European executives and consumers slumped in January more than economists had forecast, a European Commission survey published last week showed.

The ECB has so far stuck to its prediction that Europe will weather the worst of the economic slowdown, helped by expansion in emerging markets such as China and India. In December, the bank said euro-region growth would slow to about 2 percent in 2008 from 2.6 percent last year.

Inflation remains “a major concern,'' ECB council member Nicholas Garganas said in an interview published Feb. 1.

Wage-Price Spiral

Consumer prices rose the most in 14 years in January, breaching the bank's 2 percent limit for a fifth month. At the ECB's last rate-setting meeting on Jan. 10, Trichet signaled the bank may still have to raise rates should workers' pay increases unleash a wage-price spiral.

Economists and investors are betting ECB policy makers will be forced to follow their counterparts in the U.S. and U.K. The implied rate on the Euribor interest-rate futures contract for December settlement fell to 3.51 percent today, from 4.36 percent on Dec. 27. The euro traded near a two-week low against the dollar and yen on speculation Trichet will signal borrowing costs may need to be cut.

HSBC Holdings Plc and Societe Generale SA changed their forecasts in the past week to show three quarter-point rate reductions this year. HSBC previously anticipated one cut, while Societe Generale had said the benchmark rate would stay at 4 percent through the year.

`It's When'

“The question is now not if the ECB cuts rates, it's when,'' said Stephane Deo, chief European economist at UBS AG, who predicts the bank's key rate will be pared to 3 percent by the end of 2008.

That may prompt Trichet to begin softening his language today by saying the downside risks to the economy have increased, said Kenneth Wattret, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in London. “There will be some subtle, but significant changes in the assessment of the economy,'' he said.

Michael Saunders, chief western European economist at Citigroup Inc., said the ECB will still lag behind the Bank of England and Fed in cutting rates with the first reduction unlikely before the second quarter.

“The U.K. will cut more than the ECB, but rates are coming down in both,'' he said.

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