The US-based all-you-can-eat digital subscription service says it’s been profitable since 2017 and that it brings in about $100 million in annual recurring revenue, with more than 1 million paying subscribers. In 2018, CEO Trip Adler told Publishers Lunch (subscription required) that Scribd’s growth comes “primarily from converting people who come to the site to look at free documents,” with the subscriber base growing by about 50 percent each year.
Scribd has many different partners, including a subscription bundle with The New York Times and an audiobook publishing program in the US and Spanish markets. The company also recently acquired SlideShare. Learn more about the potential IPO.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
