Bookspan Divides Itself

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 1/16/2006

On January 1, Bookspan officially became the parent company of Doubleday Entertainment and YES Solutions, as the giant book club operation completed a yearlong restructuring effort that will expedite its attempt to expand its third-party business. Under the new operating structure, Doubleday Entertainment will house all club functions, while YES will include all operating and marketing services departments, as well as the third-party client business. Georg Richter, formerly chief operating officer of Bookspan, is now president of YES, while Lucia Coffey, senior v-p of new member marketing, is president of Doubleday Entertainment and retains her day-to-day marketing duties. Markus Wilhelm remains Bookspan CEO, overseeing both companies. Bookspan began ramping up its third-party business over a year ago, but the new legal entity will help focus those efforts. "It's a bit of a mental shift for us," said Richter. Though Richter will still handle some duties for Doubleday, Bookspan has created a YES staff, including a sales organization, dedicated to the third-party operation. In addition to offering a host of operational and fulfillment services—including direct-to-consumer fulfillment—YES will also handle a range of creative services for clients.

YES currently has about 10 clients, and Barry MacMullen, v-p of business development for YES, said he is focusing on working with "multichannel companies that do lots of shipping to various end points." One of YES's newest clients is Hasbrotoyshop.com, for which YES is handling customer services and fulfillment. MacMullen said that while he is reluctant to turn away any business, "very, very small companies" probably wouldn't benefit from the service. Richter added that he is "dreaming big."