Nxtbook Teams with Joe Pulizzi to Offer Custom Solutions

Digital edition provider Nxtbook Media and Joe Pulizzi—custom content “evangelist” and founder of content matching site Junta 24—have created a new company called Talefoundry that offers custom digital media solutions and services for small and mid-sized publishers who may not have the internal resources to fulfill those programs themselves.

“We had publishers looking to push the envelope further than the typical digital replica magazine but were limited by how much time and energy they could put into creating new products,” says Nxtbook marketing director Marcus Grimm. “They could sell it but they didn’t have the people to handle the creative work or the project management.”

Talefoundry services include optimized digital editions, white papers, Webinars, virtual events and soon, a text-messaging program to help support marketers. Recently, Talefoundry entered an agreement with Georgia Tech University to produce interactive show guides for the upcoming Future MediaFest.

Affinity Media—publishers of recreational vehicle titles such as American Rider and Powerboat—is an early Talefoundry client. “We’re looking for Talefoundry to help us develop strategies that will allow us to leverage our existing content and integrate new content so that we can find new and dynamic revenue streams,” says Steve Schiffman, senior vice president of corporate sales and marketing. “We have a tremendous amount of content but limited experience in taking it to market in non-traditional ways. Because we're new at this, we must figure out where we ‘pull the trigger’ in the cycle. Do we commit to projects and then go sell them?  Or do we sell them and take them to Talefoundry to build? The truth lies somewhere in between and Talefoundry is helping us identify where the ‘somewhere’ is.”

Talefoundry currently works on a project, rather than contract, basis, with pricing for early projects ranging from $2,000 to $60,000. “We want publishers to be competitive on price with other custom publishers,” says Grimm.

Within two years, Grimm says Talefoundry could account for 15 percent to 20 percent of Nxtbook’s total revenues.

Post Comment / Discuss This Story - Info/Rules