Blurb Acquires Key Talent from Graphicly to Accelerate Ebook Innovation and Development

Blurb gains deep digital+graphical expertise, doubling the size of its ebook team

San Francisco, Calif.— May 27, 2014 — Blurb, the indie book and magazine publishing platform, today announced that it has hired key members of the former Graphicly team, including Graphicly’s co-founder Micah Baldwin. Graphicly was an early pioneer in ebook creation for illustrated books, such as comics, graphic novels and children’s books, delivering rich tools and services to market. The team is joining Blurb immediately, and will significantly accelerate the company’s development of ebook and graphic publishing.

“This acquisition of incredibly relevant talent will help us advance our vision of 21st century authoring,” said Eileen Gittins, Blurb founder and CEO. ”What self publishers need now is the ability to focus on the creative aspect of authoring, with output automatically generated for all relevant ebook formats, as well as print output.”

Blurb is hosting a coming out party featuring its latest offerings for self-publishers during the publishing industry’s largest US event, Book Expo America, in NYC on May 28. The company will preview its new ebook offerings and distribution partnerships as well as share insights into what’s upcoming from Blurb for both digital and print self-publishing.

“After spending four years working on digital publishing, it became clear that we were telling half the story,” says Micah Baldwin. “Print is not dead, it’s wildly important in the natural growth of creators, but it too is only half the story for self publishers now. Combining the best in class print platform from Blurb, with all the ebook learning the Graphicly team has accrued over the past four years, was just too compelling an opportunity to pass up.”

Blurb was recently honored as the 2014 recipient of the Eastman House Corporate award and is in the middle of its most exciting year since its founding. In the past two months alone, the company has taken over HP’s MagCloud operations, announced BookWright – its new precision ebook/print authoring tool, rolled out seamless integration with Amazon distribution, plus new capability for volume purchases -- offset print, warehousing, and fulfillment services.

BLURB CLARIFICATION: We appreciate the great coverage that TechCrunch provided for this release, but, as has been corrected on other sites across the web, we’d like to take this opportunity on our own site to clarify that Blurb did not acquire the Graphicly company (meaning their products, customers, revenue, technology, assets, etc.) but rather hired some of the former Graphicly employees after their Board closed down the company and let their staff go.

About Blurb®
Blurb® is a self-publishing platform and creative community that enables individuals to design, publish, share, sell, and distribute photo books, trade books, and magazines in both print and digital formats across the globe using its free, innovative book creation and layout tools. Founded in 2005 by Executive Chairman, Eileen Gittins, Blurb has nearly 2 million independent book authors worldwide, resulting in 3.9 million unique book titles, with more than 14 million units shipped to 80 countries around the world. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and can be found online at www.blurb.com.