Scribd, HarperCollins deal casts long digital shadow

Whether publishers want it or not, the Netflix model is coming to the book business.The San Francisco startup Scribd, best known as a site for posting PDFs of documents, announced Tuesday it is launching a multi-platform digital book subscription service that will provide access to a wide range of titles for $9 a month. Users can read ebooks on iOS and Android devices, as well as on Web browsers, and keep as many as 20 titles available for reading offline.Unlike other Netflix-like services that have launched recently, including Manhattan-based Oyster, Scribd is starting with thousands of titles from HarperCollins, or the majority of the publisher's backlist up until July 2012. Getting the cooperation of the so-called Big Five New York publishing houses has been the holy grail of subscription-service startups, and having even one of them represents a significant advance.More than 30 smaller publishers are also working with Scribd, including Sourcebooks, Workman and Kensington.Scribd, founded in 2007, also starts out with a high profile and an enormous user-base: It claims 80 million active readers monthly, and says that the subscription service—which soft-launched in January—has been growing by 60% every month. The company declined to provide subscriber numbers."There's never been an access model rolled out with this level of support and scale," said Trip Adler, Scribd's 29-year-old CEO and co-founder.Publishers have typically shied away from subscription services on the... Continue reading at 'Crains New York'

[ Crains New York | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hearst To Buy Lagardere Magazine, Digital Units for $889 Million

Hearst Corp. announced today that it has made an offer of 651 million euros (or about $889 million) for Lagardere's international press and magazine business, including 102 titles in 15 countries, and 50 related Web sites. The deal includes publishing rights to Elle in 15 countries as well as 10... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Man Booker to accept digital submissions for first time

Written By: Katie Allen E-books are to be accepted for entry for the Man Booker prize for the first time in 2011 as a number of changes are made to the rules. Publishers are being asked to submit a digital version of their submissions as judges are to be supplied with e-readers for the first... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble Digital Newsstand Passes 650,000 Periodical Downloads

While publishers and Apple haggle over the pending launch of a digital newsstand, Barnes & Noble took the opportunity to remind everyone that it not only has a functional newsstand, but it's chugging right along. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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eBookFling Brings Digital Libraries to Kindle, Nook

Borrowers can create a wish list queue of books they would like to read and lenders earn 1 credit for every 5 books they list on the site as available for borrowing. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paste Returns? Music Mag Acquired, Set to Relaunch as Digital Edition

The assets of music magazine Paste—which folded in print last fall but kept Pastemagazine.com alive—have been sold to Wolfgang's Vault, owner of a variety of music sites including Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital Soars, Print Improves For Meredith in Second Quarter

Total revenue jumped 9 percent to $367 million for Meredith Corp in the second quarter of fiscal 2011, driven by strong advertising growth and integrated marketing services. Total advertising revenue for the first six months of fiscal 2011 jumped 11 percent to $420 million (with total revenue of... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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