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Faber is to launch a digital division next month that will create new digital products “beyond”
frontlist and backlist e-books. Faber chief executive, Stephen Page, said the division had been designed to “create digital products beyond the straight-forward business of producing individual e-books”. Page added that the new venture may involve making changes to Faber’s book copyrights to help it create new digital products.
The Faber Digital division will be headed by Henry Volans, who is Faber’s head of digital publishing. In his new role, Volans will relinquish all editorial duties and report to head of new business development Jason Cooper. Volans said the decision to create an entirely new division was “a marker of our digital intent” that would give him time to “think in a broader, and more strategic way”.
He added: “It will allow me to be freed up [from the e-book programme] to focus on digital activities. It doesn’t mean we think e-books are in any way less important, but . . . there is also room for a publisher to make products and services that don’t fall into the remit of that existing programme.”
Although he declined to mention specific projects, he said it would be “a mixture of the more immediate and achievable projects with one or two that are more adventurous and experimental”, while retaining a connection “to what Faber is”.
Volans added: “Some ideas we have come up with during the past year have slipped through the cracks, and this is us thinking about how we can make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The digitisation of frontlist titles will continue through Faber itself, although Volans will have some involvement in this programme. The award-winning print-on-demand programme, Faber Finds, will continue under John Seaton.