Simon & Schuster names Doug Stambaugh, recent VP Business Development, to the newly created position of VP Global eBook Market Development and Strategy, will help to further develop e-book business, evaluate room for expansion

Kendall Sinclair

NEW YORK , May 20, 2013 (press release) – After many years of significant growth in ebook market in the United States, we are now seeing the emergence of a global ebook marketplace that offers exciting new possibilities for Simon & Schuster and our authors. Our digital content, liberated from the constraints of printing, shipping and limited shelf space for our titles in international markets, is now crossing borders at the push of a button, reaching consumers in locations as far as Burkina Faso, Kyrgyzstan, and even Antarctica, to name a few of the more than 200 territories where Simon & Schuster ebooks are sold. Previously inaccessible segments of the global population now have 24/7 access to our entire catalog of books, fueling explosive growth in sales around the world. 

These welcome developments call for a globally coordinated, strategic approach to our worldwide ebook business, and I am pleased to announce that Doug Stambaugh has been named to the newly created position of Vice President, Global eBook Market Development and Strategy, reporting to Dennis Eulau. Doug’s responsibility will be to help us further develop our ebook business in a manner that best positions us for success in all our markets around the world. He will work with sales colleagues from each of our companies to identify and evaluate opportunities for retail expansion, and new partnerships, digital channels and publishing initiatives. He will develop company-wide strategies, policies and best practices for all our domestic and international publishing units in areas ranging from terms and pricing to digital rights management, technology platforms and new business models. He will assist our teams from legal, sales, technology and operations in opening up new accounts and in negotiations with existing retailers, and will help all our divisions around the world to work in a unified fashion with our common retailers. We will also look to Doug to assist us in tapping the potential for ebooks in nonretail channels such as special sales and the school, library and academic markets.

Doug is ideally suited for this position. He has been with Simon & Schuster Digital since 2007, most recently as Vice President, Business Development, and has been a central figure in establishing our presence in the digital marketplace. He has worked with colleagues across the company to finalize ebook agreements with all our major retailers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Open Market. Most recently, he was instrumental in launching our pilot e-lending program with three New York area libraries that was our entry into this important channel. 2 While digital content is firmly established as a significant portion of our business, the digital arena is still evolving, with new products and business models coming our way on a daily basis. Doug will serve as the point of entry into the company to assess these new prospects, and will advise senior management in our publishing and operations groups on the many opportunities and issues that will inevitably arise in this exciting and ongoing transition.

Please join me in congratulating Doug on his new position.

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