Jane Friedman Named One of Fortune's 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs

(PRESS RELEASE) Jane Friedman, cofounder and CEO of Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher and multimedia content company, was named to Fortune Magazine’s 2011 Ten Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs list. Fortune called Friedman and the other entrepreneurs “extraordinary innovators, game-changers and groundbreakers.” They are taking part in Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif., from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5.

Friedman said: “After spending my career in the traditional publishing world, it has been an incredible experience to do something entrepreneurial and to go from being a CEO of one of the big six publishing companies to a start-up CEO. Open Road is a true digital publisher built from the ground up to take advantage of the revolution taking place in our industry. This honor is a testament to everything our team has done at Open Road and we look forward to continuing to connect our authors with readers.”

Friedman co-founded Open Road in 2009 after an acclaimed career in traditional publishing. She served as President and Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, one of the world's leading English-language publishers and a subsidiary of News Corporation, from November 1997 through June 2008.

Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its e-books through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media. In less than two years, Open Road has published and marketed e-books from legendary authors including William Styron, Pat Conroy, Jack Higgins, James Jones and Virginia Hamilton, formed partnerships with publishers like Pegasus, Thomas Nelson and Delphinium and has launched new e-stars like Mary Glickman. Friedman recently announced that the company is also publishing titles from Alice Walker and Leon Uris. The company’s investors include Kohlberg Ventures, Azure Capital and Golden Seeds.

The other entrepreneurs featured on the list are: