The Reading Room, one of the fastest growing social discovery platforms for books, has reached more than one million members and just released a major platform update with a new look and feel, including a responsive design for mobile.
With a database of seven million–plus books and three million authors, TheReadingRoom.com provides an independent experience for readers, enabling people to connect with like-minded readers, participate in online book clubs, browse carefully selected lists, author selections, and member’s choices. It includes the latest reviews and news from such sources as the New York Times and the Guardian, as well as thousands of member reviews and discussions.
“Providing our audience with a seamless experience across devices is key to ensuring readers have every opportunity to discover the latest books, sharing and discussing the books they love,” says CEO Kim Anderson. “We’re very excited about this latest release, as it’s not only a major shift in design and technology but in our audience’s ability to access the Reading Room when they are out and about.”
The Reading Room recently relocated its global base to New York. “With more than 70% of our audience in North America, and our print and e-book e-commerce offerings being U.S. driven—the Reading Room has retail partnerships with retailers outside of the U.S.—it seemed natural to locate our headquarters here,” says Anderson. The Reading Room reports that it has doubled its member base over the past nine months and is seeing significant month-on-month growth. With millions of data points gathering behavioral data, the Reading Room’s aim at BEA is to meet publishers and other business partners, to try to provide more efficient ways to connect with a highly targeted audience.
