挑战迪士尼与华纳兄弟：亚马逊与出版界的最新战役

    只要涉及定价问题，就一定有亚马逊（Amazon），和它搅起的满城风雨。

    这家电子商务巨头今年已经向无数人发起挑战，从史蒂夫•金（Stephen King）到迪士尼（Disney），从华纳兄弟（Warner Brothers）到邦尼出版集团（Bonnier），其目的只有一个，就是掌控低价的最终话语权。

    以下就是亚马逊最近的斗争史。

    Where pricing is concerned, there’s Amazon, and then there’s everyone else.

    From Stephen King to Disney, Warner Brothers to Bonnier publishing, the e-commerce giant has waged battle against countless parties this year, all in an attempt—at least, that’s how it appears—to have the final word on low prices.

    Below, a tally of Amazon’s recent brouhahas.

    亚马逊对阵阿歇特

    今年春季，亚马逊通过推迟订单以及重新补充网站所售电子图书的库存，对美国第四大图书出版商阿歇特（Hachette）发起了攻势。此举用意何在？就是为了在电子图书定价的谈判中占据上风。（亚马逊曾表示，希望阿歇特的图书售价不要超过9.99美元。而阿歇特和其他出版商则认为，这样的定价水平将过分压低他们的利润率。）

    亚马逊“目前购入的各类书目的（纸质）库存和‘安全库存’……均低于我们的通常购入量，并且不再向出版商预订那些尚未到发行日的书目，”5月时，在一个网络论坛的帖子里，有人如此解释道。但是亚马逊所做的不仅仅是降低了阿歇特出版书目的库存，更是直接取消了一些图书的预订，如布拉德•斯通（Brad Stone）所著《万物商店：杰夫•贝索斯与亚马逊时代》（The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon）的平装本，以及J.K.罗琳（J.K. Rowling）的小说《蚕》（The Silkworm）。

    自然，这引起了一些作者的强烈不满。“我们已经让亚马逊赚了数百万美元，并且多年以来一直通过合作、联合推广、评论和博客，无偿地为亚马逊做出了巨大的贡献。”900名愤怒的作者组成了“作者联盟”，其中不乏一些家喻户晓的名字，譬如约翰•格里森姆（John Grisham）和诺拉•罗伯茨（Nora Roberts），该联盟于8月时在《纽约时报》（New York Times）上购买了一整版的印刷广告，如此写道，“如此对待商业伙伴让人匪夷所思。如此对待自己的朋友更令人难以接受。”

    谈判状态：进行中

    Amazon vs. Hachette

    This spring, Amazon took an aggressive stance toward Hachette, the fourth largest book publisher in the U.S., by delaying orders and restocking of e-books it sold on its site. Why? To get the upper-hand in negotiations over e-book pricing. (Amazon has said it wants Hachette titles to sell for no more than $9.99. Hachette, among other publishers, thinks that price will overly reduce profit margins.)

    Amazon is "currently buying less [print] inventory and 'safety stock' on titles … than we ordinarily do, and are no longer taking pre-orders on titles whose publication dates are in the future," it explained in a statement posted to an online forum in May. But the company went beyond merely cutting back its inventory on Hachette titles, going so far as to remove the ability to pre-order books like Brad Stone’s paperback edition of The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon and J.K. Rowling’s novel The Silkworm.

    Authors were understandably livid. “We have made Amazon many millions of dollars and over the years have contributed so much, free of charge, to the company by way of cooperation, joint promotions, reviews and blogs,” they wrote in a full-page New York Times print advertisement in August paid for by Authors United, a group representing 900 disgruntled writers including household names like John Grisham and Nora Roberts. “This is no way to treat a business partner. Nor is it the right way to treat your friends."

    Status of negotiations: Ongoing