ReadOz Raises $2.2 million, Continues Growth and Accelerates Rollout of Free Digital Publishing Platform

CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- ReadOz, a leading digital publishing software technology company, announced today that it has closed its Series A round of financing, raising a combined $2.2 million in private capital to accelerate the rollout of its free digital reader and one-stop publishing platform for users.

This represents the most robust private financing of any digital publishing startup to date which will allow ReadOz to rapidly expand its user base and further enhance its user-friendly platform.

Through its free, proprietary digital reader, ReadOz develops and deploys online and mobile access to newspapers, magazines, catalogues, brochures, directories and other printed materials. With built-in analytics and commerce technology, ReadOz digital editions also feature full search engine optimization, bookmark and share technology with 35 social networking platforms, audio/video capabilities, as well as iPod, iPad and Android applications.

Whether content is generated real-time, daily, monthly or quarterly, ReadOz provides a scalable solution to meet the needs of the most demanding production schedules.  ReadOz is also available contract-free, allowing users and publishers immediate access to its platform.

"Taking publications from concept to commerce, ReadOz is the only one-stop digital publishing solution and our free platform is the best value in the industry," said Alex Shchekin, founder and president of ReadOz.  "Rather than focus on just one part of the digital delivery chain, our comprehensive platform will continue to evolve so users, publishers and advertisers can deliver the most dynamic experiences to their key audiences and capture new revenue opportunities."

With content hosted and embedded via its website, ReadOz.com is growing into the industry's most sophisticated digital portal and marketplace for consumers, publishers and advertisers with a growing catalogue of more than 50,000 digital files. This includes titles from a variety of publishers around the world, including the Tribune Company's RedEye Chicago and TribLocal editions.

ReadOz Digital Reader Combines Commerce, Analytics for Industry's Best Value

On the backend, ReadOz has packaged its free digital reader with free commerce and analytics capabilities for an unrivaled offering in the industry that allows individuals and publishers of all sizes – from small community newspapers to boutique magazines to the world's largest publishers – to monetize their digital editions and harness real-time reader intelligence.

• Commerce – ReadOz provides publishers with a fully integrated subscription management tool which allows users to purchase subscriptions on ReadOz.com, creating revenue streams for digital editions.
• Analytics – ReadOz provides unparalleled reader/user intelligence to publishers and advertisers via real-time for a holistic view of the reader experience as well as more granular detail into traffic and time spent with each digital edition.

"Unlike other contract-based services, we have created a free, Hulu-like digital portal for print materials as both a destination and library for content, and we're excited by its continued growth as we enter our next phase of development," added Shchekin.

About ReadOz

Based in Chicago, ReadOz is a leading digital publishing software technology company with the industry's only one-stop publishing, commerce and analytics platform which serves the needs of consumers, publishers and advertisers.  For more details visit ReadOz.com.

Contact:

Alan Thavisouk

ReadOz

312-929-2500

SOURCE ReadOz