Speakers
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JASON ALLEN ASHLOCK is principal of Movable Type Literary Group, whose mission is to "help talented writers produce significant books and to foster prosperous, generative careers." At the eBook Summit, he'll tackle how the new publishing landscape affects the fragile relationships in the publishing process between writers, agents, and publishers. |
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BRANDON BADGER, product manager for Google Books will talk about how he is changing the reading experience, both online and off. In his own words, Badger's team "founded Google Books on the premise that anyone, anywhere, anytime should have the tools to explore the great works of history and culture. He also built the mobile web version of Google Books. Prior to working on Google Books, the Stanford University graduate was a Product Manager for Google Maps and Earth. At this event, he'll share the philosophy behind Google Books, and what the new service means in the changing ecosystem of publishing. |
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JOSHUA BENTON is a writer and the founding director of the Neiman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, an effort to help the news business make the radical changes required by the Internet age. Before that, he was an investigative reporter, columnist, foreign correspondent and rock critic for two newspapers, The Dallas Morning News and The Toledo Blade.Before that, he attended Yale University, studying history — particularly the history of the American south. Since 2001, he has kept a blog at http://www.crabwalk.com/. |
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NICK BOGATY is senior business development manager at Adobe Systems, Inc., and is responsible for business development for Adobe’s digital publishing group. He oversees Adobe’s eBook platform including client software, DRM services, authoring software and eBook enablement on mobile devices. Prior to Adobe, Nick was Executive Director of the IDPF and oversaw the creation and approval of the three specifications which comprise the EPUB file format for digital reflowable books. He is based in New York City. |
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BRENDAN CAHILL is vp and publisher at Open Road Integrated Media. Cahill has more than ten years experience in book publishing as an editor at companies such as the Running Press, Grove/Atlantic and Penguin Group USA. Most recently, he worked as a strategic management cosultant at the Bonton Consulting Group. In 2002, Cahill was one of two founding editors at Penguin Group USA for the launch of the nonfiction imprint Gothan Books. Prior to Penguin Group USA, Cahill edited literary fiction and nonfiction at Grove/Atlantic in New York. |
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NEELAN CHOKSI is CEO of Lexcycle, the company behind Stanza, the top eBook reader for the iPhone and iPod touch with more than 2 million users in 60 countries and 12 million eBooks downloaded. Choksi will speak about the opportunities he sees in digital publishing for both sellers and consumers of content. Choksi is a graduate of MIT (and was part of the often-publicized MIT Blackjack team), Stevens Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business. |
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SUSAN DANZIGER is CEO of DailyLit, a company that delivers classic literature to readers' email inboxes, one page at a time. The concept of DailyLit is that subscribers receive short book installments, designed to be read in under 5 minutes, sent via e-mail or RSS feeds according to the schedule set by each reader. Danziger brings more than 15 years of publishing and licensing experience to DailyLit, and to our eBook Summit. She was the head of Business Affairs for one of the divisions at Random House and was part of a team to spearhead Random House’s corporate electronic book program. She'll share her story, and examine how new services like DailyLit disrupt the traditional publishing process and provide opportunities for content creators and consumers. |
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JURGEN FAUTH is a writer, editor, film critic, and co-founder of the literary community Fictionaut. He has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers and is an associate editor for fiction at Mississippi Review. He covers world and independent film for About.com. He also maintains the Fictionaut blog and Twitter feed. His website is jurgenfauth.com. Fauth joins the eBook Summit to discuss the book club's shift to online, and the impact social networking is having on book-loving communities. |
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JANE FRIEDMAN is CEO and co-founder of Open Road Integrated Media, and former president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide. Friedman, who earned a B.A. degree in English from New York University in 1967, came to HarperCollins from Random House, where she was EVP of Random House Inc., EVP of the Knopf Publishing Group, Publisher of Vintage Books, and founder and president of Random House Audio Publishing. Friedman was honored by Variety's 2007 Women's Impact Report and was chosen by the New York Post as one of New York's 50 Most Powerful Women. She was appointed Publishers Weekly's 2006 Person of the Year; named one of The Wall Street Journal's 50 Women to Watch; selected as one of Fast Company's Fast 50; and was featured in New York Magazine's The Influentials. She joins co-founder Jeffrey sharp at the eBook Summit to share the story of their new multimedia eBook business Open Road Integrated Media. |
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GIL FUCHSBERG is president of FirstPaper, an eReading and advertising start-up. Fuchsberg has 20 years of operating, management and investing experience, ranging from business reporter to venture capitalist to corporate executive. He has spent the last 15 years successfully developing new ideas and companies, with a particular focus on emerging media and related technologies. Prior to starting FirstPaper, Fuchsberg was a principle with JPMorgan Partners and VP, new media & technology for The Interpublic Group of Companies. He joins the eBook Summit to discuss what's next for the eBook, from publishing to technology as the delivery and consumption of content continue to evolve. |
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TARA GELSOMINO is the editorial/marketing manager for BBC Audiobooks America, where she managed the company's Twitter Audio project in October 2009, an interactive crowd-sourced storytelling event on the social network. New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman launched the round-robin novella by tweeting the first line. Fans followed along and contributed their own lines to continue the story for the next eight days to craft a fairy tale-esque fantasy tale. The final story is being edited and will be recorded for audio in the upcoming weeks. Hear it first from her at the eBook Summit! |
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STEVE HABER, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division, developed the Sony Reader, Sony's digital book reader. Haber is responsible for the global direction and development of Sony’s Reader Digital Book, Sony’s eBook Store in the US and relationships with affiliate book stores overseas. Prior to this position, Haber was the Executive Vice President of Sony Electronics’ Consumer Product Group, which included the Home Products, Digital Imaging & Audio Products, Information Technology, Media Applications and Solutions business divisions. At the eBook Summit, Haber will discuss what new eReader hardware means for the evolution of software, IP and content distribution. |
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LISA HOLTON founded Fourth Story Media in January 2008 to explore the intersection between traditional children's book publishing and digital media. At this event, Holton joins our discussion Across Platforms: Storytelling, From Page to Screen, bringing her experience from this new media company that tells stories that unfold across books,t he web, mobile phones, and other forms of media. Prior to launching the new media start-up, Holton was President, Scholastic Trade Publishing and Book Fairs. During her tenure at Scholastic, Holton managed the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. Before joining Scholastic, Holton ran the Disney Global Children's Books division at The Walt Disney Company. |
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ANDY HUNTER is co-founder of Electric Literature, a new quarterly literary magazine. Because its founders seek to revitalize the short story in the age of the short attention span, they allow readers to enjoy the magazine any way they like: on paper, Kindle, eBook, iPhone and, starting next month, as an audiobook. Hunter and co-founder Scott Lindenbaum will join the eBook Summit discussion about opportunities in digital publishing, to share the lessons they've learned by creating a new kind of content outlet in digital publishing. |
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KATTY KAY is Washington Correspondent for BBC World News America and co-author of The New York Times bestseller, Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules to Success (2009). At the eBook Summit, Kay will share her persective on the changes in the publishing industry from her unique position as a journalist and author. Kay's career with the BBC began in Zimbabwe in 1990 where she filed radio reports for the Africa Service of BBC World Service radio. She went on to work as a BBC correspondent in London, and later Tokyo, reporting on stories including the Kobe earthquake, the gas attack on the Tokyo underground and the beginning of the Japanese economic recession. She settled in Washington in 1996 where she took some time out of broadcast journalism to join The Times Washington bureau before returning to the BBC as a freelance journalist in 2002. From Washington, Kay has covered sex scandals in the Clinton administration, two Presidential elections as well as wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
She is a contributor on Meet the Press, Larry King Live, The Chris Matthews Show and a regular guest host for Diane Rehm on NPR. |
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SCOTT LINDENBAUM is co-founder of Electric Literature, a new quarterly literary magazine. Because its founders seek to revitalize the short story in the age of the short attention span, they allow readers to enjoy the magazine any way they like: on paper, Kindle, eBook, iPhone and, starting next month, as an audiobook. Lindenbaum and co-founder Andy Hunter will join the eBook Summit discussion about opportunities in digital publishing, to share the lessons they've learned by creating a new kind of content outlet in digital publishing. |
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BOB LIVOLSI is founder and CEO of Books on Board, the largest independent e-book retailer. Livolsi started his business to solve a simple problem: where to find a good selection of eBooks online for purchase. Books on Board was the first retailer to offer books in the ePUB standard, an open format that allows readers to read (and move) their books wherever they want. Livolsi joins the eBook Summit roster to examine how consumer book consumption is changing, and what it means for publishers, buyers, and suppliers. |
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ANDREW MALKIN is vice president of book content for Zinio, a consumer-targeted digital and interactive publishing products and services company. Malkin oversees business development and digital strategy for Zinio's book publisher content initiatives, a job that includes identifying and collaborating with specialty, general trade, and professional publishers globally on the aggregation, distribution and marketing of their traditional, illustrated or enhanced content. Over the past 20 years, he has held a range of senior marketing and sales functions for market leaders such as HarperCollins, Random House and Ingram. Most recently, he was Vice President of Trade Book Sales at Rodale with responsibilities of digital, international, domestic, special sales, retail video, and rights. Malkin joins the eBook Summit to uncover the best ways to link one platform to another, extend brands, and find new sources of revenue for news, magazines, and books. |
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TAMMY NAM is vice president of content and marketing at Scribd, a social publishing site where tens of millions of people share original writing and documents. Scribd's vision is to liberate the written word. At Scribd, Nam observes content and reading behavior trends. She joins the Summit to explain why electronic publishing presents a huge opportunity for authors and publishers. |
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ANDREW PATE is a veteran in book publishing with a focus on new technologies. He is senior vice president of business development at OnDemand Books, a company that prints low-cost, library-quality paperbacks, from digital files for readers in minutes. Pate previously served as SVP of Global Operations at the web-based publishing platform Lulu.com, and VP of Business Development at Lightning Source. Pate has been a key proponent of technologiesrelated to self-publishing and web-based publishing. He will share what he learned along the way with our audience at the eBook Summit. |
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ADAM PENENBERG is an American investigative journalist best known for uncovering the journalistic fraud of The New Republic reporter Stephen Glass in 1998. He was portrayed by Steve Zahn in the movie Shattered Glass. At the time, he was a journalist working for Forbes magazine's online Web publication. As of 2005, Penenberg is an assistant professor of Journalism at New York University. He is also a freelance writer for Fast Company, the New York Times, Forbes, Wired News and Playboy. His non-fiction book, Tragic Indifference: One Man's Battle With the Auto Industry Over the Dangers of SUVs, which deals with the biggest product liability case in history, the Ford-Firestone fiasco, was published in 2003 and is currently being made into a movie. |
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JOSH QUITTNER, editor-at-large for TIME, covers consumer technology in the magazine and also writes regular technology reviews on TIME.com. Quittner has a long history at Time Inc. Most recently, he was the managing editor of Business 2.0 and a writer for FORTUNE. He first had a byline in TIME in 1994 as a staff writer covering technology, back at the very beginning of the Internet. While at TIME, Quittner launched “The Netly News,” first as a website on Time Inc.’s Pathfinder and later as a column in the magazine. He subsequently served as editor of TIME.com—twice—as well as tech editor of TIME before moving to San Francisco in 2002 to work for Business 2.0. Prior to coming to Time Inc., Quittner worked at Newsday in the early ‘90s, where he wrote a pioneering column called “Life in Cyberspace.” |
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EVAN SCHNITTMAN is responsible for all licensing and digital partnerships across OUP’s various content divisions. He has over 23 years of publishing related business experience having held positions as an EVP at The Princeton Review, Senior Editor at Little, Brown amongst others. Schnittman's blog, BlackPlasticGlasses, is required reading for anyone wishing to understand book publishing in the digital age. Twitter: @evanschmittman |
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JEFFREY SHARP is president and co-founder of Open Road Integrated Media. In producing a series of Academy Award and Golden Globe winning films over the past ten years, he has distinguished himself in recognizing the opportunities to better integrate the publishing and film industries in creating critically acclaimed commercial entertainment. His credits to date include the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winning film Boys Don't Cry and You Can Count On Me, which was nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. He joins co-founder and former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman at the eBook Summit to share the story of their new multimedia eBook business Open Road Integrated Media. |
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MATT SHATZ is vice president, digital for Random House. In that role he oversees the company’s corporate digital efforts including Insight, Random House’s search and browse engine for book content, eBooks, print-on-demand and new products and models including personalized books. Previously, Mr. Shatz has worked in a variety of digital media and online commerce strategy roles at Booz Allen Hamilton, American Express and a start up interactive TV company called World Theatre. He has a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia University. |
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IGOR SMIRNOFF is the director of strategic development at NewspaperDirect Inc. - the world leader in multi-channel newspaper and magazine content distribution and monetization. Smirnoff is responsible for launching and spearheading the development and evangelism of the company's digital media business, which includes PressDisplay.com, the largest aggregated platform of digital newspapers and magazines in the world, and SmartEdition, NewspaperDirect’s innovative ePaper solution integrated into major national and international publishers’ websites. Smirnoff oversees the development of strategic partnerships with Microsoft and Google, along with newspaper, magazine and book publishers, mobile device and eReader manufacturers and major telecom operators. He also sets the strategic directions in digital advertising and social media in the 1,100+ full content publications on the NewspaperDirect network. At this event, Smirnoff will look ahead to what's next as the eReader market is expected to expand beyond books. |
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JENNIFER STENGER oversees licensing and business development for mobile markets for the Associated Press. Stenger established a mobile presence for AP as a business-to-business company through licensing arrangements with mobile carriers, aggregators and device manufacturers prior to AP launching its own direct-to-consumer mobile products. She then focused on distribution agreements for AP's applications and mobile website. eReaders have been a natural extension of mobile, and Stenger joins us to share her story as she works closely with eReader device manufacturers to bring AP's newly defined products to this market. |
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WIM VAN DER STELT currently holds the position of executive vice president, business development at Springer Science+Business Media, and has more than 20 years experience in the publishing industry. Having been at Springer since 2004, Wim has seen the transition from print to digital for the publisher’s journal and book collections as well as the acquisition of a major open access publisher BioMed Central. At the Summit, Wim will discuss the new opportunities that are made possible by digital publishers. |
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STEVE WASSERMAN, former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, is managing director of the New York office of literary agency Kneerim & Williams. He is also books editor of the award-winning online magazine www.truthdig.com. He is past editorial director of Times Books when it was a division of Random House, Inc. and also of Hill & Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Among the authors he has worked with are President Bill Clinton, Christopher Hitchens, and Sister Souljah. Wasserman joins the eBook Summit to discuss how the new publishing industry affects the relationship between writers, agents, and publishers. |
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ANDREW WEINSTEIN is vice president and general manager of retail solutions at Ingram Digital Media. Weinstein joined Ingram Digital Ventures, the predecessor company to Ingram Digital, in September 2005. Previously, Mr. Weinstein spent five years at Lightning Source Inc., most recently as Vice President of Channel and Publisher Development. In that role he had responsibility for all aspects of Lightning Source's e-book business. In addition, he managed the business development and operational relationships for Lightning Source's key print-on-demand distribution customers, including Amazon, B&N, Ingram Book Group, NACSCORP and Baker & Taylor. |
Moderators |
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ANDREW ALBANESE, features editor at Publishers Weekly, recently edited the Viral Issue: Blogging as Multiplier Effect. Andrew is a resident expert on digital publishing, and assembled a standing-room only panel at the last BEA event. He joins us to discuss the economics of digital publishing and how writers and publishers can promote their work and businesses in the current environment. |
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DAN COSTA is executive editor of the PCMag Digital Network, where he oversees product testing, reviews production, and PCMag Labs operation. He also writes a column focused on how technology affects social, business, and consumer trends. Costa also co-hosts PCMag Radio, a weekly podcast dedicated to technology issues. Prior to PCMag, he was Editor of the CNET Fortune Technology Review, managing editor at Workstationplanet.com, and an associate editor and columnist at Computer Shopper. His articles have appeared in various publications and Web sites, such as Digital Life, CNET, Tech Living, LabRat, Blender, Budget Living, Publisher’s Weekly, Mobile Computing, Parent & Child, Time Out New York, and FoxNews.com. |
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CALVIN REID, senior news editor at Publishers Weekly, covers technology, and co-edits PW's weekly e-newsletter Comics Week. A lively moderator, he is hands down an expert in the area of technology for PW, and is often called upon by BEA and many other organizations to moderate or participate on panel discussions. |
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CARMEN SCHEIDEL directs the content and strategy of mediabistro's educational offerings, events, and video-on-demand content -- all in the name of helping media people learn new tricks and land great jobs. She began her career as an editor and writer at a monthly arts and culture magazine and spent seven years freelancing as an editor, writer, and book reviewer. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School. |
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LANCE ULANOFF is the editor-in-chief of PCMag.com. |
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MANOUSH ZOMORODI reports on business and technology for Reuters Television and Reuters.com which puts her in the same position as the audience - a media professional in today's transitional economy. As our host, she knows what you want to hear and isn't afraid to ask the hard questions from the audience perspective to get you the answers you need. |
