• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Random House Means to Play (in Transmedia), Partnering with Blacklight

October 5, 2011
By Michael Cader

Random House continues to push deeper into the murky but promising frontiers of “transmedia.” A few months ago the RH Publishing Group’s intellectual property development group was quietly christened Random House Worlds–meant to represent their broad development of content for multiplatform implementation, across books, interactive, film, TV, mobile, and more, working with partners from various media. RH Worlds is an evolution of what started as a unit to develop videogame properties in March 2010 under director of creative development Keith Clayton. Spokesperson Theresa Zoro says they regard the unit as “a service/development area, as opposed to an imprint.”

In the latest step, the company announced today that RH Worlds is partnering with Blacklight Transmedia, a “next generation production company, producing feature films, television programming, video games, books, comics, and digitally delivered content” started by Zak Kadison in 2009 (with a first-look deal with Imagine Entertainment).

Their intention is to work together to “create and develop complete transmedia worlds,” along with detailed “world bibles” documenting those new creations, to drive partnerships with authors, screenwriters, directors and media companies. Clayton says in the announcement, “We are leveraging one of Random House’s core strengths–story development–in new and exciting ways. This includes developing rich worlds ready for multiplatform implementation. Blacklight has one of the most unique transmedia strategies in Hollywood, and our relationship with them will help to further enrich the quality of our content as we develop properties for mediums beyond the book.”

In a different beyond-the-book expansion earlier this year, Random House, Inc. acquired Seattle-based digital media agency Smashing Ideas in May. At the time they said it “signaled the intention of Random House and its parent company to be leaders in digital content creation, and demonstrates their commitment to expanding revenues from mobile and interactive online products and services.”

Speaking of transmedia, our partners in producing Digital Book World F+W Media are convening their inaugural StoryWorld transmedia conference in San Francisco in just a few weeks. Our Publishers Launch Conferences division will be there, too, producing a West Coast version of our very well-received eBooks for Everyone Else full-day program that we first held at NYU last week. You can register for either or both at great rates here.

Filed Under: eNews, Free, New Business Models

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Booktopia Borrows $12 Million (AU) For New Fulfillment Center, With Some Funding From Nash and Taurig February 3, 2023 Press Release
  • Barnes & Noble Signs Lease for 7,000-Square-Foot Store in Brunswick, ME February 3, 2023 Maine Biz
  • A Former Prosecutor Explains the Precedents On Woodward and S&S's Side February 2, 2023 The Hill
  • Author Booted From Horror Writers Association Over Racist, Transphobic Rants February 1, 2023 Daily Beast
  • Two Years Ago Netflix Settled A Lawsuit Brought by Chooseco; Now Random House Has Licensed A "Stranger Things" Choose Your Own Adventure Book February 1, 2023 PW (with no reference to the lawsuit)
  • London Book Fair Seminars to Feature Harper CEO Brian Murray, Author Colson Whitehead February 1, 2023 Show site
  • Folio Prize Shortlists Announced February 1, 2023 Prize site
  • Barnes &. Noble Plans 15,000-Square-Foot Store At The Avenue East Cobb in Atlanta January 30, 2023 East Cobb News
  • Boris Johnson Received £510,000 As First Advance on His Memoirs January 27, 2023 Parliamentary Disclosure
  • Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne's Literary Archives Acquired by New York Public Library January 27, 2023 NYT
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.