Bookwire strengthens international growth: Videl Bar-Kar joins as Director New Business UK & Ireland

Frankfurt, 20. June 2018 – Bookwire GmbH, international audiobook and ebook digital services provider with over 1,500 publisher clients, keeps growing: Audiobook industry leader Videl Bar-Kar joins the company as Director New Business UK & Ireland in order to roll out Bookwire’s business and offering to publishers in these key markets.

Videl Bar-Kar has a wealth of media industry experience and leadership across publishing, music and festivals with a passion for digital within both corporate and startup cultures: He moved into publishing in 2010 as Director of the Ways With Words festival group and then as Audio Publisher for Penguin Random House UK, where he led the transformation of the separate Penguin and Random House audio teams into a fully integrated, award winning audio publishing division. Most recently as an audio publishing consultant, Videl Bar-Kar has worked for authors, agents, publishers, startups and creative agencies, and is an advisory board member for the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

“There is still a real appetite amongst publishers in the UK & Ireland to invest in audiobooks”

Bar-Kar says “I am thrilled to join the talented Bookwire team at a time of growth for the UK audiobook industry. Over the last months I have had many conversations across the industry and it is clear to me that there is still a real appetite amongst publishers in the UK & Ireland to invest in audiobooks as a way of reaching new and diverse audiences who may already be podcast listeners, smart speaker owners or even music streaming listeners. Bookwire has a brilliant track record of enabling publishers to increase digital audio and ebook sales through their huge global distribution network - including streaming platforms such as Spotify - and I look forward to being part of their continued growth.”   

Bookwire Managing Director John Ruhrmann adds “We at Bookwire have had very positive discussions with UK publishers over the last months and are excited to have Videl Bar-Kar on board with his passion for audio and deep industry knowledge, which we are confident will widen and strengthen our relationships with publishes across the UK & Ireland. We are committed to the UK market and are very much open for business.”

Bookwire BASS to be rolled out in UK & Ireland

A further ambition for Bookwire is to help publishers monetize their audiobook catalogues across music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music with their millions of global listeners. Bookwire’s innovative audio snipping engine BASS algorithmically and invisibly cuts long audiobook chapters into smaller units the equivalent of music tracks. This finally solves the problem of how to fairly monetize audiobooks on music streaming platforms and opens up a huge potential audience for audiobook publishers. Bookwire is already doing this for a growing number of German audiobook publishers who have generated incremental sales without any cannibalization of existing digital revenues.