Open Road Integrated Media Increases Revenue 26% Year to Date in 2019

NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Paul Slavin, CEO of Open Road Integrated Media (OR/M), announced results through September 30, 2019: a year-over-year increase of 26% in revenue and EBITDA improvement of 86%. Through Open Road Ignition, the white-glove marketing/distribution service, OR/M more than doubled sales for its partners' titles. "Our services generated an average of 108% uplift in partner revenue this year to date," Slavin said. "The current business is growing rapidly and we are profitable."

"We continue to grow revenue for our partners and our catalog as ebook sales throughout the industry stagnate or decline," Slavin said referring to AAP report on ebook sales in AAPStatShot reflecting a 3.8% decline in ebook revenue for the first half of 2019. Last month, AAP also reported a year over year decline of 7.3% in ebook sales for August of 2019 over August of 2018.

"In addition to increased ebook revenue, independent studies show our publishing partners are also gaining ground on print sales at a 9.6% increase on average," Slavin said. "Dozens of forward-looking publishers have begun working with us and virtually all of them continue to put new titles into Ignition's full-service marketing program. As a result that business has increased 127%," he added.

The elements of the full-service program include curated title features, powerful consumer outreach vehicles, direct demand stimulation, strategic and tactical pricing, consumer segmentation and personalization, content syndication, metadata and copy optimization, all executed by a team of marketers with deep publishing and marketing experience.

"We have built a discovery engine for books," OR/M CMO Mary McAveney said. "Our tech-enabled, data-driven marketing combined with our direct-to-consumer engine improves the discoverability for these titles and helps readers find books they might otherwise have missed. Right now we need more ebooks to satisfy the growing demand of our audience."

Open Road Ignition is a suite of marketing services that drive direct economic benefits, such as increased revenue, audience exposure, discoverability, a demonstrated "halo" effect across alternate formats and titles in a series or by the same author, and expanded readership. These services utilize OR/M's extensive, search-first content marketing that showcase books or brands on any of OR/M's six digital properties reaching 2.6 million readers monthly. These include Early Bird Books, a daily eBook deals newsletter and website; The Lineup, for fans of true crime, horror, the mysterious, and the paranormal; The Portalist, for fans of science fiction, fantasy; Murder & Mayhem, for fans of mystery and thriller; The Archive, for fans of history and non-fiction; and A Love So True, for fans of romance.

About Open Road Integrated Media

Open Road Integrated Media is a prestige content brand delivering digital experiences that entertain and inform readers around the world; their network of digital properties produces compelling stories that keep audiences engaged—across devices and around the world. The Open Road brands include Early Bird Books, a daily eBook deals newsletter and website; The Lineup, for fans of true crime, horror, the mysterious, and the paranormal; The Portalist, for fans of science fiction, fantasy; Murder & Mayhem, for fans of mystery and thriller; The Archive, for fans of history and non-fiction; and A Love So True, for fans of romance; and  Open Road Media, a global eBook publisher whose catalog includes legendary authors such as Joan Didion, Graham Greene, William Styron, Alice Walker, Pat Conroy, Gloria Steinem, Octavia Butler, John Jakes, Pearl S. Buck, Walker Percy, and Ruth Rendell.

180 Maiden Lane, Suite 8A
New York, NY 10038
openroadintegratedmedia.com

Contact: Mary McAveney
Open Road Integrated Media
[email protected]   
Phone: 212.691.0900

SOURCE Open Road Integrated Media