There has been much furore this afternoon about the bookshop formerly known as Waterstone’s. The company has decided to drop the apostrophe from its name to make it more ‘versatile and practical’ according to its managing director, James Daunt. The company is also restoring its old branding.
The suspicion is that apostrophes are not digital friendly. Waterstones, as we must now call it, is turning its attention to the digital world and this latest change is part of a concerted online push. For example, its recently revamped online book reviews (take this one on Jeffrey Sachs’ The Price of Civilization) are bulkier than those found on Amazon, and they display the love of reading and learning that Waterstones believes is its unique selling point in this tempestuous market. While the internet book reviews are true to the company’s ethos, the dropping of the apostrophe is its very antithesis, which is causing much ire and a little merriment on Twitter.
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