Hachette, Penguin, S&S & AOL/HuffPo Team Up for Bookish

By Jason Boog 

Three major publishers–Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group (USA), and Simon & Schuster–will partner with AOL Huffington Post Media Group to launch a mysterious new website for readers this summer. Bookish will provide readers “with a personalized experience connecting them with their favorite authors and books through original editorial features, unique tools and more.”

AOL and The Huffington Post will help reach readers and AOL plans to provide advertising sales support for the new venture. Arianna Huffington explained that they will “use our multimedia, social, and community engagement tools to help connect our readers with authors and their books. And we’ll highlight this content through our entire network and hyperlocal sites.”

Here’s more from the release: “New media veteran Paulo Lemgruber is leading the effort as Bookish’s CEO. Previously, Lemgruber developed and ran digital businesses for Comcast and Reed Elsevier. Also part of the Bookish team is Charlie Rogers, who will serve as Editor-in-Chief. Prior to becoming part of Bookish, Rogers was Editor-in-Chief, Digital Media at NBC Universal and worked at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and The Paris Review. Technology efforts will be directed by Bookish Chief Technology Officer Andy Parsons, who previously served as CTO for Outside.in and Digital Railroad, Inc., as well as Director of Software Development at Juice Software.”