Will the CafeScribe Acquisition Give a Boost to Electronic Textbooks?

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Will the CafeScribe Acquisition Give a Boost to Electronic Textbooks?

An interview with CafeScribe CEO Bryce Johnson

4/16/2008

By Linda L Briggs

The digital textbook is one of those technologies that seem obvious but can take a long time to gain traction. In March, the concept got a boost when long-time textbook distributor and retailer Follet Corp. acquired Salt Lake City-based Fourteen40, and, along with it, CafeScribe, a Web site in its beta phase of offering electronic textbooks. At the CafeScribe site, students can browse, purchase and download e-textbooks, which can then be read and annotated using CafeScribe's digital content reader. CafeScribe also offers an unusual twist on e-books: A social networking element that allows students to find each other and study collaboratively by sharing their notes, even across different institutions.

We talked recently with CafeScribe's CEO, Bryce Johnson. He co-founded Fourteen40 in 2004, after lugging around a huge backpack of books while working on his masters at UC Berkeley and Columbia. That inspired him to do a research paper on why e-textbooks hadn't caught on--something he aims to turn around with CafeScribe.

Campus Technology: Textbook publisher Follet Corp. has just acquired your company, Fourteen40, along with CafeScribe. Can you discuss the acquisition?

Bryce Johnson: We've been working with Follett for quite a while. We've done a number of pilots with them ... just taking a look at what was going on in the space. As you're probably seeing, things are changing rapidly in terms of how people are consuming music, videos, movies--everything has changed in the last five years.

Follet is one of the largest, if not the largest, retailer of textbooks in the higher education market. They've got a number of stores across the U.S. that they're integrated with, [including] a point of sales system and distribution of the textbooks themselves.

It's a very good marriage. We bring a creative approach to the [e-textbook space], and they have a very strong distribution model and long-term relationship with many major publishers, which own the content itself. That's where it evolved. Personally, I'm very excited about it. I think this gives more opportunity for students, as well as professors and universities.

CT: It's an interesting move. Follet is huge--a $2.3 billion company. Does this portend a sudden understanding on the part of established companies regarding what e-books are all about?

Johnson: Well, I think that they've been watching us for a while. There are executives at Follet that have been [keeping an eye on] e-books for some time.

CT: How did you get started in e-textbooks?

Johnson: I [went] back to take my masters in business at UC Berkeley and at Columbia, and while I was there--this was in early 2002--I kept thinking to myself, "It's odd that the enterprise has changed so much and is so dynamic, and here I'm logging around a 35-pound bag of textbooks. I can't look anything up, I can't search anything. I can highlight it, but I can't remember where I highlighted that or what I wrote at the margins."