McGraw-Hill axed from iPad launch after CEO leaks on TV | Hacker News Reader

McGraw-Hill axed from iPad launch after CEO leaks on TV

venturebeat.com

51 pointstransburgh19 comments

Not that McGraw-Hill published Harry Potter (because they didn't) but could have you imagined how much a publisher would have flipped out if Steve Jobs had leaked the ending of the final Harry Potter books the day before it came out (had he known the contents)?

When I saw this guy on TV I was thinking, "What the hell is he thinking- there's no way Apple is sanctioning this"

That leak would have sounded like: "Wow, I just got done with the new Harry Potter book. It is amazing -- it has, like, magic and stuff, and there are these three kids, and they keep saving the world. We're so happy to have it on the iPad -- it is going to sell a whole lot of copies."

i.e. it only matters if you're a legendarily obsessive control freak.

Not exactly. It's leaking a secret. "Harry Potter has wizards in it" wasn't a secret.

Right. Mind if I read a few titles from Hacker News the day before the exec mentioned the Apple Tablet?

Apple Execs Downright Giddy About The Tablet (techcrunch.com)

Industries Apple's Tablet Could Shake Up (popularmechanics.com)

Apple Tablet 'Isn't Going To Cost Anywhere Near $1,000' (businessinsider.com)

Apple Tablet: Bestest, Coolest, Greatest Thing Ever (markevanstech.com)

Apple's tall order may be making tablets viable (sfgate.com)

"Flurry Notices Cupertino-based Users Testing Apps on Apple Tablet"

The only way this secret could have been less secretive was if it had been passed to the CIA with explicit instructions that under no circumstances was it to be leaked to the New York Times.

except none of that was verifiable or insider info; this wasn't speculation, but hard fact (and something new - the e-book store)

a couple of years ago, there were a group of trolls who had gotten hold of one of the potter books a few days before release, and went around trying to spoil it for everyone, by revealing how one character murders another one in the end. not surprisingly, the author and many of her readers were upset over it. so no, it does NOT only matter if you are a "legendary obsessive control freak."

Though it was a dumb gaff on his part it's not like he is the only CEO type to do this, the executive editor at the NYT did something similar did he not? http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/10/26/itablet-leak-assumpt...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/08/02/

Indeed, this is the first thing I thought of when I read about McGraw chirping up:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/00/07/19/apple_turns_co...

Etc.

"Either way, it’s a concrete lesson in just how far removed the publishing industry can be from reality"

I'm sorry but this is an example of how far-removed the Silicon Valley echo chamber can be from reality. When you're dealing with people far removed from the tech field, they have a very different set of ideas about what is important.

That's damn near Seinfeldian. No pad for you! One Year!

Apple and Mcgraw Hill need each other. Mcgraw needs the distribution platform and hardware and Apple needs the content. They will forgive and forget what happened.

http://www.linkedin.com/companies/macmillanmcgraw-hill

looks like macmillan and mcgraw-hill are the same companies.

They're not ;) See below, or,

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1083043

Macmillian is McGraw-Hill, and they're on that slide along with the others.

http://www.macmillan.com

Macmillan is not McGraw-Hill.

http://www.mhschool.com/ From the above url, its hard to tell if the companies are different.

throw_away mentioned the joint venture, but its easiest to see the difference if you look at Macmillan's logo (nowhere to be found at mhschool.com), and maybe more importantly, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill's titles, which are all educational, and not quite what you'd expect from one of the big 5 advertised at today's Stevenote.

In fact, the joint venture ended awhile ago. Some context:

  [In] 1989, McGraw-Hill entered into a 50/50 joint venture
  with Macmillan, combining the elementary, secondary, and 
  vocational education businesses of both companies[...]

  [...] In 1993, the company bought out Macmillan's half of
  the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Publishing Company[...]

http://www.answers.com/topic/the-mcgraw-hill-companies-inc

I think Macmillan/McGraw-Hill was just a joint venture they have in elementary school textbooks. Macmillan is private, while McGraw is public, so I don't think either is owned by the other.

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