Literacy news

Spinebreakers website to relaunch

5 May 2010

Originally set up in 2007, Puffin’s Spinebreakers website provides a platform for teenagers to discuss books online. The site is unique because it is run by the teenagers themselves, with a core editorial team of 10 teenagers supported by 100 teen contributors from across the UK. Content is created by members and includes multi-media book reviews, alternative book endings, blog posts and jacket designs.

Two and a half years after its launch, the site now attracts between 10,000 and 15,000 visits per month. To capitalise on this success the website will be developed into a fully interactive social network.

Anna Rafferty, Digital Marketing Director for Penguin has stated that the new website could also have the potential to integrate with other sites such as Facebook. In a move to attract more teenagers to the site, new developments include partnering with Island Records in an initiative designed to allow teenagers to discover new music.

Penguin states that Spinebreakers is not a sales site and books featured on the website are not exclusively from their own collection. However, Anna Rafferty does believe there is a correlation between future sales and titles rated highly on the site.

She says:

"This is about letting the teenagers know what is being released and what's hot. Bookshops are not always their natural habitat… Teenagers are passionate, political and opinionated and as a society we tend to underestimate them. Hopefully, Spinebreakers doesn't fall into that trap."

To read more please visit The Independent or The Bookseller

Tags: Reading Champions, Reading Connects, Reading The Game, Words for Work, Young People

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