MediaBay Goes Digital

by Shannon Maughan -- Publishers Weekly, 10/4/2004

MediaBay, the Cedar Knolls, N.J.-based spoken word audio and marketing company, has joined the digital revolution, revealing its strategy for digital media distribution. The move is one of the company's efforts to improve recent financial difficulties.

MediaBay has begun digitizing and encoding its vast library of spoken-word recordings, including 25,000 hours of audiobooks and 50,000 hours of old-time radio shows. Among the company's popular holdings are classic recordings of such radio programs as Amos & Andy, The Jack Benny Show and The Lone Ranger. When the conversion is complete, digital downloads will be available through MediaBay-owned www.audiobookclub.com and www.radioclassics.com, as well as via various existing stores and music services.

"By making our content available to the digital customer, we believe the market for our audio content could expand, and we may be able to significantly reduce the cost of delivery," said MediaBay CEO Jeffrey Dittus. "We believe this distribution strategy could lead to increased revenues and potentially put the company on a track to profitability."