2009

Jane Friedman founds Open Road as an eBook-first publisher.

2010-2013

Open Road secures eBook rights to 10,000 backlist eBooks including major authors such as Joan Didion, Dee Brown, William Styron and Alice Walker.

2014

No longer trying to separate eBook rights, focus shifts to growing sales through marketing technology.

Launches Early Bird Books, a daily discount ebook newsletter and website dedicated to surfacing great literature.

2015-2017

Open Road expands their content strategy, adding to Early Bird Books and The Line Up additional reader-focused sites such as The Archive, Murder & Mayhem, A Love So True and The Portalist to their roster. These sites serve true crime, history, mystery, romance, and science fiction and fantasy readers.

2017

Launches Ignition service to market eBook backlist titles on behalf of other publishers – signs first Ignition publisher: Grove Atlantic.

2020

The Ignition program hits 10,000 participating titles in its system. Over 50 publishers are now partnered with Open Road Integrated Media and experiencing an average 100% revenue lift on participating titles.

2021

Open Road purchases Bloodhound Books, a leading independent publisher in the United Kingdom.

2021

New ownership group including David Steinberger as Chairman and CEO.

2022

Signs HarperCollins and Scholastic, bringing Ignition to more than 90 publishers and more than 40,000 eBooks.

Launches Activation service for frontlist marketing, all formats.

2023

Launches Rediscovery Lit to publish and market reverted and out of print books.

2024

Ignition surpasses 100 publishers and more than 50,000 eBooks enrolled.

Launch of The Open Book Podcast with David Steinberger.

David Steinberger

CEO

David Steinberger brings 25 years of experience in the publishing industry to Open Road, having served previously as CEO of Arcadia Publishing, CEO of the Perseus Books Group, and both President of Corporate Strategy and President of Adult Trade at HarperCollins. Over the course of his career, David has led the acquisition and transformation of numerous publishers and publishing services companies, with a focus on bringing the power of digital innovation to the world of books. David also serves as Chairman of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards.

Robert Zaffiris

CFO

Finance executive with a proven track record of delivering strategic and financial objectives through revenue, profit, and cash flow growth across B2B, B2C, and B2B2C businesses within both mature businesses and disruptive digital businesses.

Peter McCarthy

CMO

Pete McCarthy is an audience-centric, data-informed technical and creative marketer focused on books and media. Throughout his 25 years in publishing, Pete has held executive roles at Penguin and at Random House. He also co-founded and ran a boutique consultancy and an analytics start-up. The breadth of his experience includes sales, operations, technology, editorial, data analysis, people management, and strategic leadership.

Sarah Janet

SVP, Business Analytics and Growth

Sarah Janet organizes and refines the company’s overall marketing and business efforts. She brings to her role more than 15 years of experience in publishing and marketing, along with strong data analytics skills and an ability to assess financial risks and opportunities. Prior to joining Open Road she held marketing positions at Penguin Random House, working with a wide range of bestselling authors.

Heidi Sachner

SVP, Business Development

A publishing veteran with extensive experience in sales, marketing, and distribution, Heidi Sachner oversees Open Road’s Ignition marketing services program for client publishers.  Before joining Open Road, Heidi led the book group at F+W Media, a multimedia content and ecommerce company and was a distribution executive at both the Ingram Content Group and Perseus Books Group.  Prior to that she held various sales and marketing positions at large publishing houses and was also associate publisher involved in all aspects of the business at independent trade publisher Newmarket Press.

Chris Gillespie

SVP, Publisher

Chris Gillespie‘s 30 years in the publishing industry is anchored by two decades in senior leadership roles at Penguin Random House, including SVP Publishing Director for Knopf and SVP Associate Publisher of Knopf, Pantheon and Schocken Books. She brings a strategic, comprehensive, and growth sensibility to the role of OR/M Publisher. Chris’s expertise is rooted in her diverse background in sales, marketing, and retail, giving her an end-to-end understanding of publishing operations. In addition to her most recent roles at Penguin Random House, she previously held positions at Simon & Schuster and Borders Group.  At OR/M, she directs operations for our diverse catalog, working with our publishing and internal partners to drive cross-functional collaboration and alignment to maximize growth and sales.

Jatin Mehta

Head of Engineering

Jatin Mehta is a dynamic, hands-on technologist with 15 years in leadership, team management, and staff supervision across various industries. He is responsible for engineering and product development and oversees the long-term technology strategy, technology architecture, and strategic IT partnerships. Prior to OR/M, Jatin led one of the largest parenting & pregnancy assets What To Expect for EveryDayHealth Inc., a ZiffDavis company.