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Will the CafeScribe Acquisition Give a Boost to Electronic Textbooks?
An interview with CafeScribe CEO Bryce Johnson
4/16/2008
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."
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