Random House appoints digital chief

The Random House Group, the publisher, has appointed Jonathon Davis, former Sony BMG vice president of digital marketing, to the new role of digital publisher.

Davis will be responsible for developing and rolling out digital publishing projects for the publisher’s authors, imprints and series brands, across all digital platforms.

His appointment comes at a time when Random House has launched a series of digital initiatives, including the launch of the ‘browse and search’ widget in April 2008; the creation of a digital warehouse which will store every book written by a Random House author and marketing activity on Second Life, MySpace and Bebo; the launch of rbooks.co.uk.

At Sony BMG, Davis developed the company’s digital business, working with artists such as Will Young and Dido and signing deals with Nokia, O2, 3 Mobile and iTunes. Prior to Sony, Davis worked for Warner Brother Records and in 1999 co-founded the UK’s first digital download business, iCrunch.

Random House has also revealed its Audiobooks department will become part of Random House Group Digital, as the Group looks to expand its audio list and build on the popularity of downloadable audiobooks.