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| October 27, 2010 | Penguin to launch social network for bookworms | |
London:Here's good news for teen bookworms and aspiring authors. Penguin Digital is planning a social network for them where they can communicate and interact about their shared pastime. Penguin will transform Spinebreakers, a content website
developed three years ago, into a social networking site within the next six months.
Spinebreakers lacks tools that allow its users to communicate and interact about
their shared pastime. Instead it is a site where teenagers write about books and
authors. "I set up the site as I felt there were fewer and fewer places talking
about books in a way which appealed to teenagers, " The Telegraph quoted Anna
Rafferty, managing director of Penguin, as saying. "However, I knew in order for
the site to work, it would have to be written and edited by teenagers - which
is why we have over 100 deputy editors aged between 14 and 18 looking after the
site, and many more contributors of a similar age," she added. "However, they
cannot use the site to communicate, which is why I want to transform the site
into the first social network dedicated to books within the next six months,"
Rafferty said. She said the site, which attracts 10 to 15,000 unique users each
month and is still in beta, was not a commercial venture for Penguin, but was
hugely important to the company for "future-proofing the book industry". Rafferty
also admitted that the company had not "shouted enough" about Spinebreakers since
its launch and would do once it was re-launched. "There are too many distractions
out there for teenagers which pushes reading down the list of hobbies. Even other
social networks are a major distraction for teens, which is why I hope giving
reading its own social network, which is written and edited by teenagers, will
help keep reading relevant in the digital age," she said.
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