News

Oprah Pick Leads Random House Audible List
Jim Milliot -- 10/2/00
Random House Audible, the joint imprint between Random House and Audible Inc. that will produce spoken-word audio content for delivery over the Web (News, May 15), announced last week that Drowning Ruth has been chosen as its launch title. The novel, by Christina Schwarz, is the most recent Oprah Book Club selection. "I cannot imagine a more auspicious introduction for our new imprint," said Beth Anderson, v-p and publisher at Audible Inc. The company has set a $9.95 introductory price for the audio.
The remainder of Random House Audible's initial list will be available for preview in October and released in November. Among the 11 additional titles are Anna Quindlen's A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks, Randall Stross's eBoys, Amir Aczel's God's Equation and Irrational Exuberance by Robert Shiller. Pricing for the November titles, which can be downloaded at www.audible.com or through Amazon.com's audio download section, has not yet been set. Random House Audible releases scheduled to be available early next year include books by Noah Adams, David Maraniss and Paco Underhill.

Total revenues for Audible rose 40% for the six-month period ended June 30, 2000, to $1.2 million, and the net loss jumped to $17.2 million from $3.8 million. According to its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Random House paid $1 million to acquire 169,780 shares of Audible stock. The publisher has the option to purchase 878,333 additional Audible shares over the course of the four-year copublishing agreement.