TeleRead Sold to North American Publishing Company

[anurag]

From http://www.teleread.org/2010/02/10/t...cept-for-mine/

TeleRead, the oldest English-language site devoted to general e-book news and views, is now owned by the Gadgetell subsidiary of the North American Publishing Company (NAPCO). We closed the deal today.

I’m leaving as editor-publisher, but Co-editor Paul Biba (left photo) will remain—now as full editor. What’s more, Senior Writer Chris Meadows (right), the second most frequent contributor, will stay. Both Paul and Chris have been e-book-lovers for eons, and publications ranging from the New York Times to the Guardian have quoted Paul over the years. Under Paul, who has supplied most of TeleRead’s posts since September 2008 and managed it day to day, you’ll continue to be able to speak up for or against DRM and share your thoughts on e-book formats or the Macmillan-Amazon controversy.

Started to advocate well-stocked national digital library systems, a cause still dear to me, TeleRead has been online in one form or another since 1992, when I was posting the library plan on CompuServe. Nowadays we draw close to 100,000 unique visitors a month and are among the world’s primary sources of e-book news for readers, writers, editors, agents and publishers. Among other things, TeleRead prodded the main trade group, the International Digital Publishing Forum, into finally going ahead with a consumer-level standard for e-books; and today the Sony Reader, the new Apple iPad and countless other machines can read files formatted in ePub.

...

[rhadin]

But Paul Biba, the coeditor, will continue as editor-in-chief, as will several of the regular contributors like Chris Meadows, so we can expect Teleread to continue on with its mission and still be a great place for news and views about ebooks.

[calvin-c]

We can hope. Very few corporate acquisitions actually allow the acquired company to continue with its 'independent' mission-but this might be an exception. (Note that most acquisitions 'promise' that the acquired company will continue with whatever has made it worth acquiring, but hidden agendas usually sabotage that within a year or two, at most.)

[ondabeach]

Unfortunately the cynics in this case are merely being realists. If you think that there is any chance at all that TeleRead will not now be dancing to a different tune, you are far too generous, others would say naive. So sad, but then again, compared to MobileRead, TeleRead is, wasand always will be.... well, you know..... oh dang it, my mama always told me if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all.

Oops, too late

[Alexander Turcic]

I briefly talked to David Rothman yesterday to congratulate him. David has helped to shape the e-book world, and I will miss him dearly.

I wish David the greatest of health and all the best for his future endeavors.

[dadioflex]

Edit.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

A cursory examination of NAPCO suggests a strongly print-based organization (including the central subjects of many of their magazines), but also an ongoing effort to transition to digital media (many of those same magazines have digital counterparts on their website). They recognize that digital media is the future, and they are trying to address that.

And as they are magazine-based, maybe we will see an increasing dialogue regarding digital magazines, an area that has been poorly served in the past by sites like MR and TR, but with the ongoing development of display technology, may be poised to leap ahead soon.

NAPCO may well make changes to TR's essential focus, or possibly they will simply take advantage of the site to help promote their own material... we'll have to wait and see.

But in the meantime, congrats go to David, Paul, Chris, et al, for creating and maintaining the great site that is TeleRead.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

But in the meantime, congrats go to David, Paul, Chris, et al, for creating and maintaining the great site that is TeleRead.

Hear hear, that's the important part of this story. It's a shame to see people focussing on the negative in what is, at heart, a "good news" story.

[BooksForABuck]

I agree with HarryT that we should celebrate the fact that blogs/forums discussing our industry are now worth money. Just a couple of years ago, I spent half my time arguing with people who thought nobody would ever want to read a book from a screen.

Whether TeleRead can survive this 'success' is something we'll have to see. It's true that acquisitions change the acquired but there have been examples where synergy worked. I will be interested in seeing how NAPCO tries to monitize their investment. I don't believe that the advertising it generates will pay many salaries.

Rob Preece
Publisher, BooksForABuck.com

[elvenic]

RIP Teleread...