Looking to improve coordination between its print and online operations, Bookspan has brought its Internet division, Booksonline, and its traditional clubs under one new group. Seth Radwell, former president and CEO of Booksonline, will serve as the group's president, reporting to Bookspan president and CEO Markus Wilhelm.
The new group will encompass marketing and editorial operations for all the clubs. The move fits, according to Radwell, with how the two entities have evolved. "The distinction between Booksonline and Bookspan was a bit artificial," he said. "It was necessary at one point so we could focus on new products, but we always recognized that we were serving the same customer and that, at the end of the day, it would make sense to integrate." Radwell said that a growing number of club members are "hybrids," customers who can be reached through both print and digital means. As a result of the new organization, an unspecified number of jobs were eliminated, with the editorial and marketing group now employing between 350 and 400 people.
From a corporate standpoint, the move brings a number of executives under Radwell, including Mel Parker, senior vice-president and editorial director, who came from the Book-of-the-Month-Club side of the joint venture that became Bookspan. It also represents a promotion for Radwell, a Prodigy veteran who joined Bertelsmann in 1998 as part of what was then BOL, Bertelsmann's shelved books e-retailer.
What it means in practical terms is a greater likelihood of overlap between content in the catalogue and on the clubs' many Web sites, as well as more budgetary flexibility between print and online. "We could pull money from one side and give it to the other much more easily," Radwell told PW. Radwell expects both direct marketing and online promotion to grow in the coming months, with direct marketing remaining "our number-one channel." He said print efforts, such as magazine ads, would be subject to closer scrutiny as that market slackens.
Radwell said that he hoped to grow Bookspan's affiliate marketing and wanted to push the clubs' site higher on the visitor ratings. It currently flip-flops with Barnesandnoble.com as the second most popular books-related site, after Amazon.
At present, Bookspan has several dozen clubs, each boasting its own Web site. Users can also access them through the Booksonline portal. The club has been moving in the direction of developing more demographically targeted clubs as opposed to those built around genre. It recently launched Mosaico, a Hispanic club, and also has the Jewish club Traditions and the gay and lesbian club Insightout, to go with its more established African-American-centered Black Expressions club.
