Open Road Ignition Drives Strong Sales in Q3 for Open Road Integrated Media

By: Robert Diamond Dec. 08, 2017

NEW YORK, Dec. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ Open Road Integrated Media (OR/M), a digital media company, announced results through the third quarter of 2017 ending September 30. Despite a challenging market for ebooks (in October 2017, the AAP reported an industry-wide decline of 4.6% in eBook revenue), overall OR/M's year to-date revenue rose 24.6% while gross profit increased 24.4% and operating EBITDA improved 38.5% over the same period in 2016.

In Q3 the company launched Open Road Ignition, a full-service marketing program OR/M delivers for external publishers; this was a key source of growth. Currently OR/M is marketing more than 600 titles from external publishers, including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt who participated with an initial test of 74 titles that have earned a 323% revenue increase over baseline sales in Q3. Overall, OR/M provided a 211% uplift in revenue over baseline sales for all its partners in the same period. OR/M also featured 700 titles as paid promotions in its newsletters and content sites from dozens of publishers of all sizes from the top five US trade publishers to self-published authors.

Highlights through Q3 also included sales of more than 100,000 units of The Miracle of Dunkirk by Walter Lord in print and ebook formats. The book was on both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists as well as Amazon Charts.

"The progression we've seen over the past 22 months is directly tied to advances in our direct-to-consumer operation," said OR/M CEO Paul Slavin. "Our newsletters continue steady growth in subscribers and this is driving significant gains in sales of our titles as well as those of other publishers," he added "we've built an audience that loves books and we are pleased to be able to serve them not only our own books, but those of our partner publishers as well." OR/M announced here the company's newsletters have reached 1,000,000 subscribers, and its launch of a full-service marketing platform for external publishers.

About Open Road Integrated Media

Open Road Integrated Media is a prestige content brand delivering digital experiences that entertain and inform readers around the world; their network of digital properties produces compelling stories that keep audiences engagedacross devices and around the world. The Open Road brands include Early Bird Books, a daily eBook deals newsletter and website; The Lineup, for fans of true crime, horror, the mysterious, and the paranormal; The Portalist, for fans of science fiction, fantasy; Murder & Mayhem, for fans of mystery and thriller; The Archive, for fans of history and non-fiction; and A Love So True, for fans of romance; and Open Road Media, a global eBook publisher whose catalog includes legendary authors such as William Styron, Alice Walker, Pat Conroy, Gloria Steinem, Octavia Butler, John Jakes, Pearl S. Buck, Walker Percy, Ruth Rendell, and Sherman Alexie.