Rob Kaufman, the former president of netLibrary who had been directing the company since its purchase by OCLC in January, has left the e-book publisher and has been replaced by Rich Rosy, who was named OCLC v-p, netLibrary division. Rosy was most recently executive v-p of sales and publishing for netLibrary.
Rosy is directing a trimmed-down version of netLibrary, which filed for bankruptcy last fall. The company recently moved from its 140,000-square-foot headquarters into a new 30,000 square-foot office space; staff is now at 110, down from 120 in late January. Rosy will report to Jay Jordan, president and CEO of OCLC, and Herb Hilderley, senior v-p for the MetaText division, who had reported to Kaufman, will now also report to Jordan. MetaText is now a for-profit division of OCLC that manages Web-based digital textbooks for publishers.
To help put netLibrary on sounder financial footing, OCLC raised prices shortly after the acquisition was completed. "The old model didn't work. We needed a new one," Jordan noted. NetLibrary is also in discussions with publishers about replacing its one-book-one-user policy with a program that will permit more flexibility to libraries for lending e-books. "We're talking to publishers now and will talk to them at BEA about finding alternatives that will be financially attractive to everyone," spokesperson Marge Gammon said. NetLibrary has continued to sign up new publishers and now has agreements with about 315 companies.
