Contentville.com: Close But the Wrong Cigar?

by Edward Nawotka, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 10/1/2001

Some 15 employees have been let go at Contentville, which officially closed last Friday. They include Peter Costsanzo, who will be familiar to booksellers as Contentville's director of book marketing and merchandising. Most positions lost were in customer service and computer support. The one remaining editorial staff member, senior site producer Kori Anderson, has moved to Brill's other company, Media Central. At its height, the company had 57 employees.

In a note to staffers, Contentville.com founder Steve Brill wrote, "My idea for Contentville just didn't work."

Launched on July 12, 2000, not long after the Internet bubble burst, Contentville.com was notable for the breadth of material it sought to sell, which included university dissertations, media transcripts and stories from newspaper and magazine archives--as well as books. It attracted high-profile partners, including Viacom's CBS, General Electric's NBC, Microsoft, Ebsco Industries and Ingram Book Company. It attracted top staff with extensive book publishing experience, including editor-in-chief David Kuhn and executive editor Heather Byer. Unfortunately, shortly after its launch, the company ran afoul of the National Writers Union and others who accused the company of "violating" copyright law by selling the materials without compensating writers.

The company also signed up independent booksellers, including many of the best known in the country, to recommend titles and write editorial content for a small fee, thereby providing a "heart and soul" to the site's bookselling area. The practice sparked some debate in the bookselling community: some wondered if indies should aid a company that would give them little compensation and no direct book sales.

In what was arguably Contentville's greatest achievement, Annik LaFarge, senior v-p and e-publisher, helped the company launch an e-book program. The site's first book, an exclusive chapter-by-chapter release of Mark Burnett's tell-all of the first season of Survivor, was available the day after the airing of the final episode and represented one of the few examples to date of the sort of publishing that has been promised by low cost, speedy e-publishing companies.

LeFarge, who has since moved (back) to Random House, says, "The fact that our editor, Heather Byer, was able to attract Elmore Leonard to write an original e-book for Contentville Press speaks, I think, to the seriousness and marketing creativity that we brought to the whole undertaking. And we managed to build a list with authors like Leonard, Francine Prose, Ed McBain, James Ellroy and Lingua Franca (The Real Guide to Grad School) in a very short period of time. So we had strong content and innovative marketing, and by building on that we were able to attract lots of great writers."

In a prepared press release, Brill avoided laying blame on "the economy or the dot com economy" and stated that the company had "ample, unstinting support from our financial partners and our media partners." He added, "We should be proud of how hard we tried and the quality of what we tried to produce." Brill was unavailable for further comment.

On why Contentville couldn't make it, LeFarge said, "I just don't know. Maybe it turns out that for all that time Steve Brill was chomping on the wrong brand of cigar."