Why David Risher Cheers as Readers Embrace Smartphones

Ask media executives about readers’ global migration to smartphones, and you can expect a chorus of groans. It’s the same lament across the newspaper, magazine and book businesses. The rise of tiny screens upends readers’ traditional habits — and clobbers ad revenue.

David Risher sees things differently. He’s the president and cofounder of Worldreader, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that distributes digital books in a wide range of developing economies, chiefly in Africa, Latin America and south Asia.