A few days ago it emerged PRH titles were disappearing from the Storytel, Nextory and Bookbeat platforms.
The assumption at the time was that PRH was unhappy with the model, and in a statement to the Swedish trade journal Boktugg today, updating the January 13 post, PRH confirmed as much.
At this point in time, Penguin Random House has decided that we will not participate in subscription models with unlimited access. Our decision was made jointly by the company’s international management team to protect a variety of content on the market and the actual and perceived long-term value of our authors’ intellectual property rights.
No real surprises there, but also no real logic.
Here’s the thing: Such a position is quite understandable in relation to Scribd in the USA, for example, where offering titles in an unlimited access service clearly has the potential to cannibalise regular digital and print sales.
But when sending English-language titles to Storytel, Bookbeat and Nextory, none of which operate in the US, and only one in the UK (Bookbeat), where is the cannibalization going to happen?
