Penguin Random House and Amtrak Partner to Create an In-Train Reading Platform
Today Penguin Random House announced a new partnership with Amtrak that will provide a selection of free ebook excerpts to passengers riding the Boston to Washington, D.C. Acela Express. The excerpts will be available to passengers through Amtrak's redesigned WiFi service, AmtrakConnect, and each excerpt will include buy buttons that allow readers to purchase the title from a number of retailers.
Readers will be able to preview excerpts from PRH titles such as The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, and Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham, among others.
"We're thrilled to work with Amtrak to share great books with readers. The partnership allows us to help thousands of train passengers each day discover their next book," said Christine McNamara, vice president and director of partnerships for PRH, in a press release.
This is not the first D2C initiative targeting readers in transit. Last year, HarperCollins brought over twenty titles to airborne readers through a partnership with JetBlue. Like PRH, HarperCollins offers free ebook selections through JetBlue's Fly-Fi Hub, and readers can purchase those titles in-flight from the retailer of their choice. Similar initiatives have gained popularity on European transit as well, including a German bus company and French railway.
The PRH and Amtrak partnership will continue throughout the year, expanding to all Northeast Regional trains that are WiFi enabled. PRH will continue to add new title selections, including audiobooks.
Read the full press release below.
New York, New York, April 10, 2015-Amtrak Acela Express passengers will have access to a selection of bestselling fiction and nonfiction from Penguin Random House, the exclusive book content partner for the launch of the newly redesigned AmtrakConnect® on-board Wi-Fi page. Acela Express customers using the Amtrak service between Boston and Washington, D.C., via New York and Philadelphia, will now be able to read more than twenty free excerpts from a variety of genres across all Penguin Random House's adult imprints.
Readers will be able to preview excerpts from bestselling titles such as Gray Mountain by John Grisham, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Believer by David Axelrod, Ruby by Cynthia Bond (an Oprah Book Club 2.0 Pick), Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling, Wild by Cheryl Strayed and others. Each excerpt will include buy buttons to enable customers to purchase any of the available titles from a variety of retailers, directly, while onboard.
"Reading for pleasure is an activity that many passengers look forward to during their rail journey. We're thrilled to work with Amtrak to share great books with readers. The partnership allows us to help thousands of train passengers each day discover their next book," said Christine McNamara, Vice President and Director of Partnerships on behalf of Penguin Random House.
In the coming months, this program will be rolled out onto all Northeast Regional trains that are Wi-Fi enabled, connecting every Amtrak rider directly with Penguin Random House books. As well, audio book content will be included for listening pleasure. The partnership will continue throughout the year, with updated selections as the titles publish.
"As part of our enhanced AmtrakConnect web page, Amtrak is delighted to have entered into a partnership with Penguin Random House," said Lenetta McCampbell, Sr. Director of Passenger Experience. "Providing exclusively-free excerpts of today's most popular titles is a great way to round out a platform that will keep passengers more entertained, and better-informed, and enjoy their journeys."
About Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House (http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com) is the world's largest and first truly global trade book publisher. The company is made up of 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually worldwide, along with the works of more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world's most widely read bestselling authors. It employs more than 11,500 people across the adult and children's fiction and nonfiction print, audio, and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, India and South Africa; Penguin's trade publishing activity in Asia; DK Worldwide; and Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial's companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Central America, and its Portuguese-language company in Portugal. Penguin Random House was formed on July 1, 2013 and is jointly owned by Bertelsmann (53%) and Pearson (47%).
Ellen Harvey is a freelance writer and editor who covers the latest technologies and strategies reshaping the publishing landscape. She previously served as the Senior Editor at Publishing Executive and Book Business.