Doubleday Direct and Book-of-the-Month Club Joint Venture Named Bookspan
Posted on March 29, 2000
Doubleday Direct, Inc. and Book-of-the-Month Club Holdings LLC have announced that their joint book club partnership will be known as Bookspan. Each book club operated by the new Bookspan company will retain its individual identity. Markus Wilhelm, CEO of Doubleday Direct, will be CEO of the new Bookspan Joint Venture. The senior management team for Bookspan has been drawn from both Doubleday Direct (DDI) and Book-of-the-Month Club (BOMC).
``I am certain our new Bookspan name and partnership will become as well known as its predecessors, Book-of-the-Month Club and Doubleday Direct, for the finest in book selection and service,'' said Wilhelm. ``A main reason we created Bookspan and our Booksonline Internet subsidiary was to make our book clubs more competitive in the Internet space, which is one of the primary ways we intend to grow our clubs and the new Joint Venture.''
Seth Radwell, Executive Vice President of Bookspan and President & CEO of Booksonline, Inc., the Internet subsidiary of Bookspan, will manage the combined former BOMC and DDI e-commerce and new product efforts. Each individual book club's website will be enhanced with interactive features such as live author chats, member bulletin boards and online polls, as well as author interviews, reviews and book excerpts not available in regular club mailings.
