Random House Inc. Partners With Smashing Ideas to Create Children's Apps

(Press Release) New York, PRNewswire—Random House Inc., the largest U.S. trade-book publisher, announced today a partnership with digital media agency Smashing Ideas to develop book-based children's Apps for mobile devices. Seattle-based Smashing Ideas is a cutting edge developer of immersive, interactive experiences for all screens, building digital products and destinations around brand characters in the children and youth markets. Random House Children's Books will work in close collaboration with Smashing Ideas' newly formed ePublishing group—led by the co-creator and developer of the smash hit, Alice for iPad—and with key Random House children's books authors, illustrators and brands to produce innovative digital products that marry story, design, and technology.

"With App stores being the fastest-growing new channel for digital content, we're excited to work with an experienced partner to build upon our shared expertise and their exceptional track record in this space," says Madeline McIntosh, President, Sales, Operations, and Digital at Random House Inc.

"We are thrilled to be working with Random House to build out this category. Random House brings an extraordinary publishing history and a state-of-marketplace understanding of children's book content, brands and their audiences. By combining their incredible knowledge with our extensive experience in the digital space, we will partner together to create a new frontier of enriching and cutting-edge reading for children," says Steve Jackson, President and CEO of Smashing Ideas.

"Smashing Ideas is an ideal partner at this most exciting time in children's publishing," says Chip Gibson, President and Publisher, Random House Children's Books. "We're eager to bring fresh, smart and interactive experiences to our readers and are delighted to be working with such an innovative company on these creations."

Random House Children's Books is the world's largest English-language children's trade book publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books, novels, and e-books, the imprints of Random House Children's Books bring together award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and multimillion-copy series. The company's Web site, Kids @ Random (www.randomhouse.com/kids) offers an array of activities, games, and resources for children, teens, parents, and educators. Random House Children's Books is a division of Random House, Inc., whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG, a leading international media company.