Senior Publishing Executive Joins World's Largest Online Library - Hiring of Publishing Industry Veteran, Richard Koffler, Signals Strong Growth Plans for Questias Content Acquisition

Publishing industry insider, Richard Koffler, joins Questia, the world's largest online library, to aggressively grow the Questia collection of 49,000 books and 390,000 articles.

HOUSTON, TX (PRWEB) June 3, 2004 --Dr. Richard Koffler, a seasoned publishing veteran with 27 years of experience in the publishing industry, has joined Questia Media Inc., the worlds largest online library and research service, as its Director, Publisher Relations. Working from a base in the New York/New Jersey area, Dr. Koffler will spearhead content acquisition to grow the Questia online library of more than 49,000 complete books and 390,000 journal, magazine, and newspaper articles.

The Questia online library focuses on books and articles supporting academic research in the humanities and social sciences and contains high quality previously published digital content from more than 260 renowned university and commercial presses. Dr. Koffler will be instrumental in servicing existing publisher relationships, developing new publisher agreements, and aggressively expanding the digital content in those fields of study.

I welcome the challenge of bringing my knowledge of publishing and my experience with colleagues in the field to an undertaking that will change the way students in higher education approach the underlying tasks of research and writing

The growth potential for the company is huge, and the territory ahead, largely uncharted

said Troy L. Williams, president and CEO, Questia Media, Inc. He is widely recognized as extremely knowledgeable of the publishing industry and will provide us with invaluable expertise. Questia achieved a cash-flow positive position just over a year ago, and we are now undertaking a substantial expansion of our library collection. Richard will be instrumental in helping us achieve this goal

During Dr. Kofflers distinguished 27-year career, he has most recently been the Executive Editor for Aldine de Gruyter/Walter de Gruyter. Prior to that position, he was the Executive Editor for Rowman & Littlefield and the Vice President, Editorial for Associated Faculty Press/Kraus. Dr. Koffler also held the post of Executive Director for the Association of American University Presses, serving as chief executive and board member for that leading educational nonprofit corporation.

A Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Rutgers University, an M.A. from New York University, a B.A. from Yale University, and Fulbright and Old Dominion fellowships comprise Dr. Kofflers first-rate academic career, and provide an ideal foundation for his new role in expanding the humanities and social sciences content for the worlds largest online library.

Questia, with subscribers in 187 countries, is the worlds largest online library and research service. Questias subscription-based online service offers each user a personal copy of a college-level library of more than 49,000 complete books, more than 390,000 journal, magazine, and newspaper articles and a research toolkit that enables them to interact with the books and articles like they would in the physical world, but far more efficiently and conveniently. The tools include a feature that automatically creates citations and bibliographies in seven formal citation styles, a highlighter and notation tool, and project folders to easily organize multiple research projects.

Questia provides an innovative route into the coveted student market and a new revenue stream for university and commercial publishers. Since most publishers with digital content in the Questia online library are compensated on a page-view basis, each time a user accesses a page, a publisher receives a royalty payment for that page-view. This model enables publishers to capture additional revenue from existing, backlisted, and out-of-print titles while building brand awareness that increases hard copy sales.

Questia is also committed to protecting the intellectual property of its publishing partners. The digitization of each title is high quality, and the electronic versions mirror the print versions to maintain book structure and original pagination. Users cannot download books or articles and are only able to print one page at a time. All titles are stored in the Questia protected database and are served to the user one page at a time.

"I welcome the challenge of bringing my knowledge of publishing and my experience with colleagues in the field to an undertaking that will change the way students in higher education approach the underlying tasks of research and writing," said Richard Koffler, Director, Publisher Relations, Questia Media, Inc. "The growth potential for the company is huge, and the territory ahead, largely uncharted," continued Koffler.

We are delighted that Richard is joining the Questia team," said Troy L. Williams, president and CEO, Questia Media, Inc. He is widely recognized as extremely knowledgeable of the publishing industry and will provide us with invaluable expertise. Questia achieved a cash-flow positive position just over a year ago, and we are now undertaking a substantial expansion of our library collection. Richard will be instrumental in helping us achieve this goal," continued Williams.

To learn more about Questia and how becoming a publishing partner of Questia can help your company generate additional revenue streams, please visit http://www.questia.com/aboutQuestia/aboutPublisher.html or email Dr. Koffler at rkoffler@questia.com.

About Questia
Founded in 1998, Questia Media, Inc., launched its revolutionary online library in January 2001, with powerful search and writing tools created specifically to help students do better research and write better papers. Questia provides unlimited access to the full content of an extensive collection of books and journal articles, as well as a wide range of tools, including highlighter, markup, automatic footnotes and bibliography builder. For millions of students and researchers, the Questia SM service enables them to efficiently research and compose papers at any time, from virtually every connected corner of the world. Based in Houston, Questia is delivering on the true promise of the Internet by providing access to a wealth of human knowledge.

Visit www.questia.com for more information.

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