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More Titles, Deals from Books24x7.com
Judith Rosen -- 4/10/00

Revamped in 1999 from a publisher of digital versions of computer manuals into a subscription service providing online access to tech titles, Books24x7 is broadening its offerings as Web-based competition for the IT professional book market increases. The company is expanding its titles beyond the hardcore IT professional market and is looking to license its patent-pending search-engine technology.

Books24x7 (www.books24x7.com) sells subscription access to a fully searchable online library of 500 computer titles chosen by tech experts. The books are not downloaded; rather, they are hosted by Books24x7, and subscribers can log on to their accounts at any time. Subscription costs $199 annually per user. Books24x7 targets the IT departments of firms that need up-to-the-minute, fully searchable technical information. The site also offers the print editions for sale through an alliance with Barnes&Noble.com.

John Ambrose, v-p/marketing at Books24x7, told PW the company is launching Office Pro 2000, an online collection of 50 titles that will expand the company's market to office personnel who want to troubleshoot computer systems or learn computer programs such as PhotoShop. The new service will cost $39.95 per subscriber. Although Ambrose said the site will continue to focus on the business-to-business model, he told PW, "We see many opportunities for significantly broadening our focus. You will see us move to the corporate desktop and then beyond."

Books24x7 is also marketing the searching, bookmarking, bookshelf and annotation capabilities of its search-engine technology to other Web sites; the firm is negotiating with a number of publishers to provide Books24x7's searching capabilities to their sites. The company has signed an agreement with ZD Education, Ziff Davis's online training site (welcome.zdu.com), which offers courses on basic computer skills, through which ZD Education's users can take courses and access hundreds of technical titles through Books24x7.

Although some industry observers question the company's subscription-service model, Ambrose believes that it is competitors such as ibooks.com, which sells access to individual online technical titles much like a bookstore, that will face problems: "The user has to really want an electronic version rather than a paper version, because they're the same price." Books24x7 has 10,000 paid subscribers. Ambrose told PW, "Publishers like our revenue-share model. Every time a page of their content is accessed, the publisher is paid."

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