Late last year, Time Warner AudioBooks v-p/director Judy McGuinn paid a visit to the WEA Manufacturing plant in Olyphant, Pa., to personally thank the factory workers who duplicate the tapes and construct the cassettes and boxes. McGuinn told 150 assembly-line workers what audiobooks are all about, thanked them for their contribution to the industry, encouraged them to recommend audiobooks to their friends and handed out free audiobooks.
"I was happy to visit Warner Manufacturing and speak with the people who are daily working to manufacture audiobooks for two reasons," said McGuinn. "First, it's very positive when people who participate in a process on any level develop a greater sense of ownership. That always helps them to be more effective about the jobs they do. Second, the greatest factor in the growth of the audiobook market has been word of mouth. These people are already close to the product every day, but the result of our conversation was that each one of them literally now knows how to recommend an audiobook. So we have a whole new group of people who are not only able to be, but feel encouraged to be, new missionaries for the audiobook medium."
