A more harmonious experience" is how cofounder and executive v-p of Waterfront Media Michael Keriakos describes what he's looking to bring to readers through his company's new deal with the Duke Diet & Fitness Center. For the first time, Waterfront, best known for specializing in building Web sites in the diet, fitness & health category (among its most notable projects is its site for the South Beach Diet), has signed on to tackle both the online and (at least part of) the print components of a project. But as Keriakos explains the Duke partnership—through which Waterfront will build a Web site and package two subsequent DFC books—it's less about the company looking to enter the publishing business than it is about finding opportunities to get involved in projects early in the print process.
"It's a pretty dramatic change in how we've done business in the past," Keriakos said. Explaining that Waterfront usually starts working with publishers after a manuscript has been written, Keriakos said the deal with Duke allows Waterfront to create complementary print and online products that will allow users to go back and forth from page to screen. Noting that the company's work on the South Beach site "wasn't synchronized" in this way, Keriakos emphasized that Waterfront isn't looking to become a publisher or packager but, rather, "to make the two works intertwined."
Building on the DFC brand name—the center is nationally renowned for its in-patient programs focusing on weight loss, disease management and healthy living—Waterfront has entered into a 10-year agreement, with plans to launch the site and publish the books in the second half of 2007. Waterfront has already tabbed Inkwell's Richard Pine to find a publishing partner. The plan, Keriakos said, is to invest significantly to market the brand around the joint publication of the two books—with 100,000-plus initial printings—and launch of the Web site.
So what kind of bells and whistles can readers expect from more "synchronized" efforts like this? As Keriakos explains it, these books will allow readers to take full advantage of the three pillars of Waterfront's sites: community, personalized content and tools. As an example, Keriakos referred to the limitations on the South Beach project: "The South Beach book talks a lot about the importance of measuring your body mass index, but it doesn't say go to the Web site and have it calculated. We can do things like that in the [Duke] books." The Duke books, in short, can send readers to the site for everything from data to chat rooms where they can discuss concerns or simply commiserate with fellow dieters.
Although Waterfront isn't currently involved in any other deals as a packager, Keriakos said it has several projects in the early stages with Random House, HarperCollins and Meredith where it's building Web sites early on. And, looking ahead, Keriakos hopes this is the kind of time line he can work on. Getting print and online in sync is, he noted, "hard to achieve when you have two separate editorial processes for the site and the book."
