BookScan stirs bureaucrats into 'action'

Nielsen BookScan seems as popular as HarperCollins’ 99-cent price point at present, and wasn’t that a thoroughly macabre photo of Michael Webster last month in the Australian? It seems the continuing hoo-ha in the press about the impact of BookScan on Ozlit has finally convinced the Australia Council that Something Must Be Done. It is spending $60,000 on a report. Among other many other things, it will be ‘an investigation of the impact of the Nielsen BookScan continuous retail sales data monitoring service.’ Knees are no doubt trembling as I speak. I wonder who'll get the job of writing the report.