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I haven't heard anything about Scribd going under. It probably lost a lot of romance readers in its bid to prove profitable, but it's done two things that might help it stay afloat:
* limit the romance offerings, by reducing and rotating catalogue. Readers were gobbling that stuff down like crack (myself included). There's no way they could have paid royalties for it all based on what we were paying. I've still been using the service for YA (which reads as quickly but doesn't have the same following) and SF (slower going altogether).
* limit the audiobook listens. There is a monthly credit for high-demand audiobooks now (they roll over), and unlimited listens on another grouping of audiobooks.
I think tiered subscriptions might also be successful in this space.
Since there is reporting that Google has acquired the Oyster staff to work in their ebook division. I wonder if Google is interested in launching a subscription service to compete with Scribd and KU?
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