App Development

HarperCollins imprint HarperTeen has partnered with MySpace to launch MySpace/HarperTeen. This new, interactive, online community provides teen readers with an opportunity to connect with one another on message boards and forums, as well as to interact with authors via author blogs and live chats. A “Weekend Read” bulletin informs readers of new releases, and, every Friday, users receive a book recommendation. Those who read the recommended title can then discuss it on the message boards the following week. (http://www.MySpace.com/harperteen) “With millions of teens spending their time online every day, it makes perfect sense for us to partner with MySpace to build

Social media is one of the tools book publishers need to have in their Web 2.0 arsenal. Web sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Gather not only draw millions of visitors, they also provide those visitors with a platform to converse and connect around shared interests and passions. On Gather (www.Gather.com), which President and COO Carl Rosendorf describes as “MySpace for grown-ups,” “Books” is one of 11 “essential” channels that visitors can navigate to find content and conversation of interest. Gather’s “Books” group boasts more than 45,000 members, who read, contribute and/or comment on original content such as book reviews, articles and

The rise of niche marketing in the book world has led to a new appreciation of the power of audiences to drive interest in featured authors, titles and subject areas. Publishers are discovering a variety of ways to create communities, whether by building on time-tested marketing strategies or crafting innovative online features to encourage participation and create buzz. This feature shares tips from several experts on developing audience-building strategies that work. TIPS FROM ... Linda Leonard, Director, New Media, Random House Children’s Books Random House Children’s Books recently relaunched Teens@Random (www.RandomHouse.com/Teens), a Web site for fans of young-adult literature that makes extensive use of

John Wiley & Sons Inc. has reached an agreement with Safari Books Online, an on-demand electronic reference and learning platform, to offer selected Wiley business and technology titles in Safari’s Books Online Library (www.SafariBooksOnline.com). As a result of the deal, Safari customers now will be able to access and search the contents of these titles, including Wiley’s “Bible” and “For Dummies” series. Sebastopol, Calif.-based Safari Books Online is a joint venture of two other technology publishers, O’Reilly Media Inc. and Pearson Technology Group. Safari’s library offers a fully searchable database of titles from these two publishers, as well as its other publishing

Barnes & Noble.com (BN.com) has announced two new partnerships that further expand its capabilities in the digital world. These partnerships come on the heels of a redesign of the BN.com Web site (www.BN.com), which the online retailer unveiled at the beginning of this month. Mobile commerce service provider Digby will market books, CDs and DVDs on BlackBerry smartphones through a newly established Barnes & Noble Storefront, which is available as a free download to all current Research in Motion BlackBerry smartphone users. The Storefront is updated daily and includes rich content, such as product descriptions and images; a mobile shopping

Barnes & Noble.com (BN.com) launched a newly designed Web site this week, with a host of new features and an emphasis on interactive content and community. The site has been in the works for approximately six months, according to BN.com CEO Marie Toulantis. The world’s largest bookseller partnered with New York-based agency R/GA to bring the project to life. After speaking with a number of potential agencies, “We selected R/GA [because] we felt they had the best experience in the interactive field, and they had done some really great work [in the past],” says Toulantis. “We thought they had a

When your stock-in-trade is information that drives innovation, people expect you to be on the leading edge. And so it is with the scientific, medical and technical (STM) publishing sector. While the STM market faces similar challenges to the rest of the publishing industry, its willingness to embrace electronic platforms and develop innovative revenue streams has positioned it well in the face of new competition brought about by the expansion of digital media. “The biggest challenge has been mastered, and that is the transition from paper to electronic for STM content,” notes Derk Haank, CEO of Springer Science + Business Media, the world’s

Audiobook sales were an estimated $923 million in 2006, a 6 percent increase over the previous year, according to the 2007 APA Sales Survey. The survey was released by Princeton Junction, N.J.-based Audio Publishers Association, a not-for-profit trade association, and analyzed 2006 sales data from a range of sales channels. Survey results also indicated that CD sales made up 77 percent of total audiobook sales, up from 74 percent the previous year. Cassette sales continued a steady decline, representing only 7 percent of sales compared to 16 percent in 2005, 30 percent in 2004 and 45 percent in 2003. Conversely, download sales continued to

Travel media company Lonely Planet, publisher of the Lonely Planet travel guidebooks, announced a partnership this week with Tempe, Ariz.-based Limelight Networks, a content delivery network (CDN) for digital media. Limelight will drive Lonely Planet’s new LonelyPlanet.tv travel video channel, which offers original travel programming via the Internet. “Choosing Limelight’s content delivery network has proven to be a smart business decision for our roll-out of LonelyPlanet.tv,” said Sohail Dahdal, digital manager, LonelyPlanet.tv. “We looked at all the different streaming services and found that Limelight was best-equipped to accommodate our future growth. Limelight’s infrastructure allows sites such as ours to rapidly grow and develop as

In the first half of this decade, sales were skyrocketing for LeapFrog SchoolHouse—a division of LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. and publisher of interactive, research-based assessment and curriculum content for the PreK-8 education market. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company saw a boom in net sales from $8.8 million in 2001 to $55.2 million in 2004. In 2005, however, the company faced some hard (and controversial) times, and its sales began to drop. Last winter, LeapFrog SchoolHouse made a number of changes to get the company back on a growth track, including restructuring the organization, hiring a new president and focusing on its strongest segment within the