From SNL Kagan: A News and Information Service
By Sarah Barry James
As CEO of News Corp.’s HarperCollins, Jane Friedman knew the publishing world was changing. The digital revolution was already under way, and she knew she wanted to be a part of it. And so, Friedman left HarperCollins in June 2008 and about 16 months later launched Open Road Integrated Media, a company focused on first converting previously published, backlisted titles into the e-book format and then marketing them so that they can be discovered by readers. While Open Road started out with four employees, it has now grown its workforce by nearly 10x and publishes about 3,000 titles. Revenues have more than doubled each year.SNL Kagan spoke to the Open Road CEO and co-founder about the changes she has seen thus far in the publishing space and what she expects for the future. What follows is an edited transcript of that interview.
SNL Kagan: After you left HarperCollins, what made you decide to found a company that puts e-books at the center of its multimedia platform?
Jane Friedman: Several years ago at HarperCollins, I realized that the digital world was upon us and that we needed to be on top of it. We began to confirm e-rights and digitize not only the front-list but also the backlist — something very dear to me. I was fondly called the queen of the backlist during my years at Knopf and Vintage, and heartily supported all backlist efforts at HarperCollins. The backlist is the foundation of any strong publishing company.
I knew the next chapter of my life was going to be digital. But where to begin? I decided to go back to the future — my new mantra — and work with many of the great books and authors of the past. I made a wish list of those authors whose books I wanted to reinvigorate by publishing them as e-books, and I wanted to create a state-of-the-art marketing platform to promote the author as the brand.
Has the company changed in a way that surprised you?
We launched Open Road as a literary publisher focused on authors like William Styron and James Jones. While this is still a major focus for us, I was surprised at how quickly we grew into other verticals like romance, science fiction and mystery. We followed the demand and expanded in a very deliberate way — by hiring or partnering with experts in each genre like Otto Penzler for mysteries and Betsy Mitchell, a leading editor for science fiction.
Can you talk about the differences between working at a place like HarperCollins, which is owned by News Corp., and working at a young company like Open Road? Are you able to move or redirect more quickly?
I find it very liberating. Since we are built from the ground up to be an e-book publisher, we do not have to worry about a massive overhead or a legacy print business, so we can act faster, take risks and experiment with whatever is coming next. Our offices are a hybrid of a startup and a publisher and I love that mix — the freshness of a digital company and the books and authors who make up a publishing house.
How has the e-book market changed since Open Road began?
It has grown a lot faster than I ever thought — there has been a true secular change in the industry. And it has grown across genres and verticals. For example, we recently launched a military vertical focused on books about war, and titles are selling far better than I would have anticipated a few years ago.
As a digital publisher, how do you think about Amazon.com Inc.? Apple Inc.? Barnes & Noble? Do you see them as gatekeepers?
We are in a very different position than traditional publishers and see each of the e-tailers as a true partner. We only work with their digital teams who we partner with on new initiatives, on unique promotions we have created, and we provide them with rich, robust marketing content.
Are tablets replacing the e-ink e-readers in your view?
Tablets are certainly growing at a tremendous rate, but I think there will always be people who prefer to read on a dedicated device.
How are e-books changing as more people use tablets? Are there more photos? What about video?
Consumers do not as yet want enhanced books and very few of the ones that have been published have sold well. Even people who read on tablets just want to read the text. We are strong believers in not disrupting the reading experience and only include enhanced content on select nonfiction titles if it actually improves the reading experience. For fiction, we put illustrated bios of our authors at the end of the titles on both e-readers and tablets.
Do you think printed books will ever go away? Do you think e-books might become the dominant format in more genres?
Print books represent civilization and will never go away, but yes, I think e-books will become the dominant format for certain genres — mainly ones where the reader doesn’t care to keep a copy of the physical book in his or her own library.
