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BookRiff and Nitobi Join Forces to create BookRiff.com

Posted Wednesday, May 06, 2009

One of North America's hottest web application developers invests in BookRiff Media, Inc.

 The software development firm Nitobi Software Inc. (Nitobi) is now a shareholder in BookRiff Media, Inc. (BookRiff), a company principally owned by D&M Publishers Inc.  The deal represents a partnership between one of the most innovative software development companies in North America and a leader among independent book publishing companies who are taking hold of new digital developments. Both based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Nitobi and D&M Publishers Inc. have been working together since early 2008 to build BookRiff.com, the site that lets you build your own book.Now in private beta, BookRiff.com is a unique web application that allows users to build custom print books in minutes by mixing together pieces of content from the world's leading publishers and authors, along with their own works and public domain content from the web.

Andre Charland, co-founder and CEO of Nitobi will now be joining the Board of BookRiff Media Inc. to help plan for the future development of BookRiff. About Nitobi's growing relationship with BookRiff, Charland says "We're excited to play a key role in the technology and now in the business of BookRiff. Right when the industry is calling for the death of print, BookRiff is making a move to transform print and take it in a direction that will make it more relevant to readers than ever before."

Andre is backed by a team of developers responsible for the open-source platform PhoneGap, the People's Choice winner at the 2009 Web 2.0 Expo Launch Pad Competition in San Francisco. Add that to a list of rich internet applications focused on end-user experience under Nitobi's belt, and it's easy to see why Mark Scott, founder and CEO of BookRiff Media Inc., chose this group of developers for BookRiff. "This is the perfect combination of a timely idea, mixed with publishing innovation and Nitobi's street-smart web developers. I am very pleased to welcome Andre to our board of directors," Scott says.

D&M Publishers Inc. is one of Canada's largest independent book publishers. Its core publishing programs emphasize art and architecture; science, nature and the environment; Canadian biography, social and political issues; First Nations issues and culture; literary fiction; and international popular culture and sport. It includes the publishing units Douglas & McIntyre, Greystone Books, and New Society Publishers plus Canadian distribution for the New York house, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.

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