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Brill to Launch E-Commerce Site
Steven M. Zeitchik -- 2/7/00
Brill Media Holdings, the company founded by Steven Brill that owns Brill's Content magazine, announced last week that it would begin selling thousands of magazines and books on a new Web site in the second half of 2000. The site, called Contentville.com, will feature reviews from more than 60 independent booksellers and eventually could serve as a digital-publishing platform as well. David Kuhn will serve as editorial director of the new venture.
Brill called the ambitious effort that will filter and sell all kinds of printed matter a "second-generation e-commerce venture"--because of its emphasis on "values" over marketing. Booksellers will write reviews, positive and negative, for the site. In return, they will receive a flat fee that won't fluctuate based on sell-throughs. Ingram, which has a stake in the venture, will drop-ship orders, and Contentville.com will toss in store newsletters based on customers' location.
But the bookstore partnerships are only one part of the enterprise. The site will review magazines and sell subscriptions as well as transcripts (possibly of programs from NBC and CBS, both of which have an investment in the venture) and eventually negotiate with agents and authors. "We want to throw ourselves right into the middle of that hot potato," Brill told PW. A partnership with Lightning Print could assume many forms, ranging from on-demand orders taken through the site to making available some of Brill's Content's own material as on-demand books.
Contentville.com will be promoted with a $75-million marketing budget that could include TV spots. The site's emphasis, at least at first, will center on magazines. But Brill said he is proudest of the relationship with indies. Although he acknowledged that he is competing with the stores by selling the same books they recommend, he said, "We're also helping the stores. In business circles, I think that's known as co-opetition."
Brill originally approached the ABA, hoping to work with Book Sense. "They couldn't bring themselves to shift gears," he said, "but a lot of their members will be working with us." He still hopes to work with the ABA in the future, and, in the meantime, will look to sign up quality indies.
Indeed, the dossier reads like a who's who of great stores--R.J. Julia, Powell's, Apple Book Center, Politics & Prose. But the partnership also validates that cliche about role reversals in the new economy: as journalism outlets turn into booksellers--the New York Times is another example (News, Oct. 18,1999)--booksellers have begun to function like editors.
In Brill's view, however, nothing's changed: "We're simply taking that same expertise and process and taking it off the floor in Madison, Conn., and putting it on the Web site." He added, "We don't see this as a frontal assault on Amazon and B&N. They do a terrific job in terms of convenience and content, but they don't have the ethos and values of an independent bookstore." As to questions about a conflict between customer demand and editorial recommendation, Brill said he looks to the successful indie bookseller as a venue where the twin pillars of editorial integrity and the bottom line c xist.
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