• 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

  • Roger Angell Dies at 101 May 20, 2022 NYT
  • Kakao Merges Tapas Media Into Radish May 20, 2022 Press Release
  • The Atlantic Announces Expansion of Books Section May 16, 2022 The Atlantic
  • Diversion Gets Investment and Partnership with Gemini XIII to Expand Their Podcast Adaptations May 12, 2022 Press Release
  • Dutch Publishers and Bookselling Chain Ready €12.99 eBook and Audio Subscription Service May 12, 2022 Publishing Perspectives
  • UNLV Sells The Believer To Paradise Media, Despite Efforts To Return It To McSweeney's May 11, 2022 Medium
  • Lagardere Board Considers Spinning Off Their Radio Group Into Separate Company to Protect Its "Autonomy" (Presumably from Conservative Vivendi Owner Bollore) May 10, 2022 Press Release
  • Harper Acknowledges A Second JD Vance Book Was Dropped "Some Time Ago" By Mutual Agreement May 5, 2022 AP
  • Highly Touted Skandar and the Unicorn Thief Publishes Today in the UK, May 3 in the US April 28, 2022 Guardian
  • Google Is Offering Publishers Free Creation of Machine-Narrated Audiobooks During Beta Launch April 27, 2022 Google page
© 2022 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.