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digital stewardship now
…milestones, observations, issues, solutions13 June 2009 – 18:45
Simon & Schuster signs e-book distributionagreement with Scribd: 5,000 titles amongScribd’s “35 billion words”
It is not a penetrating insight to note that there is increasing volatilityin the digital books and documents market space. This volatilityextends to the distribution channels to seek and secure them, “e-reader” technology to consume them, and the business models tomake it all profitable.Scribd, describing itself as “the world’s largest social publishingcompany,” and Simon & Schuster announced an agreement to sellSimon & Schuster eBooks in the Scribd Store, “an e-commercedestination and publishing marketplace launched last month tocomplement Scribd’s already-popular platform for users’ sharing theirwritten works.”One supposes that if you create a new category – social publishing –one is likely to be world’s largest player in the category. But Scribd’sfast facts are weighty enough to take note of:- More than 60 million readers every month- Millions of documents shared- More than 35 billion words- More than 5 million iPaper embeds (more on iPaper below)- 90 different languagesSome 5,000 Simon & Schuster eBook titles will be available at launchon Scribd “for purchase and download, making them readable onScribd.com, computer desktops and various mobile devices” via theSimon & Schuster storefront on Scribd(www.scribd.com/Simon&Schuster).
 
Popular titles referenced in the announcement include “…bestsellingbooks from authors such as Stephen King, Dan Brown, Mary HigginsClark, Chelsea Handler and Steve Martin.”We watch “announcement rhetoric” and corporate titles closely, so weshare what Simon & Schuster’s Chief Digital Officer (and ExecutiveVice President) Ellie Hirschhorn said:
“With millions of visitors and an extraordinary number of posted documents, Scribd has become an important destination for readersseeking written information that is relevant to their lives. We’re pleased to offer them this convenient, user-friendly option for discovering, sampling, and purchasing Simon & Schuster books, any time and anywhere.” 
All works involved will be added to Scribd’s Copyright ManagementSystem, described as “an industry-leading technology that helpsprevent the upload of unauthorized written works. Publishers likeSimon & Schuster have the ability to determine how works are read,including settings for ‘read only on Scribd.com,’ ‘download’ and‘download with DRM.’
 
We will monitor Scribd closely as it is clearly accelerating an importantmodel, aggregating and distintermediating at high velocity:.We share below the language from the “About Scribd” page on thewebsite” _____________________________________ Scribd began with a simple observation — that the desire for self-expression through the written word is as old as humanity itself. Buteven with the proliferation of blogs and other self-publishing tools,there was no easy way for average people to publish to a readership of millions. Today, Scribd is the largest social publishing company in the world —the website where more than 60 million people each month discoverand share original writings and documents.Scribd’s vision is to liberate the written word — to turn everyone into apublisher and create the best possible reading experience on the weband mobile platforms.With Scribd’siPaperdocument reader, anyone can easily upload andimmediately share their original works on Scribd.com or any otherwebsite. iPaper transforms “print” files like PDF, Word or PowerPointinto web document — with all the fonts, layout and artwork that makesyour document unique. Your work can be shared with Scribd’s community of passionatereaders, and because your document is indexed for search engineoptimization, your screenplay, novel or even sheet music and recipescan be discovered by the world.At Scribd, we built a technology that’s broken barriers to traditionalpublishing and in the process also built one of the largest readershipsin the world. ___________________________________________ Largest readerships in the world indeed…..
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