DK to expand on-line publishing

Publisher Dorling Kindersley is set to expand its on-line design team following last week’s decision to post entire books on the Internet.

DK Online managing director Alan Buckingham says he is recruiting an on-line head of design and two senior designers for the in-house creative team in London, and does not rule out the possibility of more design group collaborations where appropriate.

He continues: “A lot of the lessons we learned from making CD-ROMs over the past eight years has prepared us for our on-line work. This initiative is about supporting the retail proposition and selling more books.

“The books we do put on-line are scanned versions of actual books and we think this will encourage people to buy more of the real thing, on-line or in-store.”

Buckingham adds that although DK will continue to grow its in-house design staff, opportunities for outside collaboration on production and packaging will continue to arise, particularly with overseas groups.

DK has just relaunched its own website, www.dk.com, which includes a home shopping facility. It was designed in-house.