A newly formed investor group has bought Open Road Integrated Media, which focuses on e-book marketing, both for titles it distributes digitally as well as for titles from other publishers. David Steinberger, former CEO of Arcadia Publishing and CEO of Perseus Books, who is also chairman of the National Book Foundation, has become Open Road's executive chairman and will become CEO, effective January 1. He will work with current CEO Paul Slavin to ensure a smooth transition, and after the leadership change, Slavin will continue to work with the company in a consulting role.
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David Steinberger |
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The investor group include private equity firm Abry Partners; MEP Capital, a media and entertainment private equity fund and Open Road publishing partner through its investment in Rosetta Books; Grove Atlantic, also an Open Road publishing partner; and "a number of prominent individual investors from the worlds of publishing and finance."
Founded in 2009 by former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, Open Road uses "proprietary data science technology to connect readers with books, resulting in dramatic increases in sales," the company said. "Open Road's technology platform collects and analyzes vast amounts of data and then recommends and executes tens of thousands of individual marketing campaigns each month. The typical sales increase for an individual title marketed by Open Road is more than 100%."
Open Road is the e-book publisher of more than 10,000 titles and markets more than 25,000 e-book titles for its 70 publishing partners, which, besides Grove Atlantic and Rosetta Books, includes Kensington Publishing, Europa Editions, Abrams, Workman Publishing and Yale University Press.
Steinberger commented: "Data science represents the next frontier in book publishing. The title-by-title impact on sales is unlike anything I've encountered in my 25 years in the industry. I'm looking forward to working with Paul and his outstanding team to build on Open Road's powerful momentum in the marketplace."
Slavin said, "I came to Open Road with the goal of building upon Jane Friedman's brilliant idea. We built a terrific team and a powerful tech/data driven marketing machine that led to significant growth in revenue and profitability. As David has recognized, it is a platform without peer and the results to match."