Digital Media Company Expands Direct-To-Consumer Outreach, Launches Marketing Services
(New York, NY — June 22, 2017) Open Road Integrated Media (OR/M), a digital media company, announced that its newsletter business has reached the 1,000,000-subscriber mark. Led by Early Bird Books, for fans of discount deals, The Lineup for fans of true-crime and horror fans and The Portalist for fans of science fiction and fantasy, the newsletters have delivered a 253% increase in ebook revenue for OR/M in 2017 over the same period in 2016. Subscribers have responded well to the newsletters with a 30% open rate and a 28% rate of conversion to sale.
OR/M’s growth has attracted partners from across the industry to feature ebooks in the newsletters. Participating publishers include Hachette Books Group, Crown Publishing Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan, Skyhorse, Wild Blue Press, Kensington Books, Dunemere, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
“The response to our newsletters has been extraordinary,” said Paul Slavin, CEO. “The key to the whole engine is our increasing sophistication around audience engagement. Our ability to give our consumers the books and products they love has driven significant sales increases for us. Based on that success we are growing our network of external partners, which allows us to provide our readers with an even broader selection of bestselling books.”
Additionally, OR/M publishes three consumer-focused content sites that tie directly to its newsletters: EarlyBirdBooks.com/articles, The-Line-Up.com, and ThePortalist.com, which reach more than 22 million users. OR/M will launch three additional content sites this month: A Love So True for romance fans, Murder & Mayhem, for mystery and thriller fans, and The Archive, for history and non-fiction fans.
Full-Service Marketing for External Partners
In addition to significantly growing its direct-to-consumer relationships, OR/M has honed its marketing expertise and delivered 40% annual revenue growth on its own catalog since the end of 2015. Today OR/M is announcing a full-service marketing program where it will market backlist titles on behalf of other publishers across all sales channels.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has signed on as an early partner: Ellen Archer, President of Trade Publishing, there said “We’re aware of the success Open Road has had marketing its own list. As another publisher with a robust list of iconic backlist titles, we are interested to see how the focus and sophistication they bring to backlist marketing will benefit our list. We’re always looking to find more ways to reach as many readers as possible, and we’re excited to work together with Open Road on this initiative.”
About Open Road Integrated Media
Open Road Integrated Media is a prestige content brand delivering digital experiences that entertain and inform readers around the world; their network of digital properties produces compelling stories that keep audiences engaged—across devices and around the world. The Open Road brands include Early Bird Books, a daily eBook deals newsletter and website; The Lineup, for fans of true crime, horror, the mysterious, and the paranormal; The Portalist, for fans of science fiction, fantasy; Murder & Mayhem, for fans of mystery and thriller; The Archive, for fans of history and non-fiction; and A Love So True, for fans of romance; and Open Road Media, a global eBook publisher whose catalog includes legendary authors such as William Styron, Alice Walker, Pat Conroy, Gloria Steinem, Octavia Butler, John Jakes, Pearl S. Buck, Walker Percy, Ruth Rendell, and Sherman Alexie.
