[LINK] Publisher website

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Publishers Make a Plan: A ‘One Stop’ Book Site

By JULIE BOSMAN Published: May 6, 2011 
<www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/books/publishers-plan-a-joint-one-stop-book-
site.html?_r=1>


Publishers have spent a lot of time and money building their own company 
Web sites with fresh information on their books and authors. 

The trouble is, very few book buyers visit them. 

In search of an alternative, three major publishers said on Friday that 
they would create a new venture, called Bookish.com, which is expected to 
make its debut late this summer. http://bookish.com

The site intends to provide information for all things literary: 
suggestions on what books to buy, reviews of books, excerpts from books 
and news about authors. 

Visitors will also be able to buy books directly from the site or from 
other retailers and write recommendations and reviews for other readers. 

The publishers — Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group USA and Hachette Book 
Group — hope the site will become a catch-all destination for readers in 
the way that music lovers visit Pitchfork.com for reviews and information. 

"There’s a frustration with book consumers that there’s no one-stop 
shopping when it comes to information about books and authors," said 
Carolyn Reidy, the president and chief executive of Simon & Schuster. 

"We need to try to recreate the discovery of new books that currently 
happens in the physical environment, but which we don’t believe is 
currently happening online." 

As bookstore chains like Borders have liquidated many stores, pressure 
grows on publishers to depend less on brick-and-mortar retail outlets to 
promote their books. 

But few have found easy and effective ways to communicate directly with 
readers, who are already confounded by too many choices in the book 
marketplace. 

"We thought it would be really good if we could come up with a site that 
embraced all the amazing marketing materials that publishers have been 
doing on their own sites and put them together on one site," said David 
Shanks, the chief executive of Penguin. "With the purpose of answering the 
question for the consumer, ‘Which book should I read next?’"

The venture will be led by Paulo Lemgruber, who developed digital 
businesses for Comcast and Reed Elsevier, and Charlie Rogers, the former 
editor in chief for digital media at NBC Universal. Mr. Rogers will be 
editor in chief of the site. 

Mr. Lemgruber said he would have a staff of 20 people, who will select 
books from at least 14 participating publishers. The three publishers that 
provided start-up financing have committed to financing the company until 
it becomes profitable. Mr. Lemgruber declined to say when he thought that 
would be. 
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Cheers,
Stephen