The biggest industry news came from Amazon.com, Inc. this week, as the bookseller unveiled the new Kindle DX. Earlier this week, we interviewed Steven Kessel, SVP of worldwide digital media at Amazon, about why students should choose Kindle over the laptop.

GalleyCat has been tracking the stock performance of the major companies that influence the bookselling business. We created this chart with eight publicly-traded publishing stocks hand-picked by GalleyCat readers–including company name, symbol, current stock price, and price increase or decrease at week’s close.

The McGraw-Hill Co. MHP 33.71 0.8
Books-A-Million, Inc. BAMM 6.3 0.21
Borders Group, Inc. BGP 2.45 0.15
Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN 77.95 -1.33
Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS 24.35 0.02
Wiley John & Sons Inc. JW.A 33.79 -0.12
Scholastic Corporation SCHL 20.19 0.56
News Corporation NWS 11.1 0.33

Amazon.com Inc. unveiled the new Kindle DX today, taking a dramatic step into the e-textbook market. GalleyCat prowled the packed press conference at Pace University in New York City, trying to find out why cash-strapped students would pay $489 for this new device.

We landed a short video interview with Steven Kessel, SVP of worldwide digital media at Amazon, and the executive delivered a pitch aimed straight at college students. When the device is released this summer, Kessel believes that students will see a value in the Kindle DX’s reading experience and pay a premium price.

Earlier today, GalleyCat interviewed an executive at another e-textbook company who thinks that students will prefer laptops to the Kindle DX.