HarperCollins is a legendary book publisher with authors like Mark Twain, H. G. Wells, Agatha Christie, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Dickens, and even John F. Kennedy. The company was founded in 1817 by the brothers James and John Harper.
Since the late 1980s, the company has been a part of News Corp. (NYSE:NWS), and the division pumps out about $1 billion in revenues. However, the fact remains: the traditional book publishing business is ailing.
Well, this week, HarperCollins announced an investment in LibreDigital, which is a division of NewsStand (the amount was not disclosed). Basically, this will allow HarperCollins to digitize its content. What's more, the company will market these services to other publishers and individuals. In the Age of Blogging, this is definitely a smart move.
The services include: typesetting, digital warehousing, Net distribution, and online marketing. In the press release, HarperCollins indicated that " all publishers must develop this capability." That is certainly true.
Actually, HarperCollins has been fairly aggressive with digital technologies. For example, it has digitized more than 10,000 books over the years.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.
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