Karen Brown

By Kasey Craig, Garth Saloner, A. Michael Spence
2000 | Case No. EC12 | Length 17 pgs.
This business case study describes the issues Karen Brown Hebert, publisher of Karen Brown Guides, had to assess in mid-1999 when she was considering an offer from a major online travel site to distribute her high quality travel guides over the Internet. The case describes the changes in the industry in both the online and offline world: the increasing shift of book sales away from small, independently owned bookstores to large superstores and the challenges the web presented to traditional publishers of books, magazines and newspapers. The growth of online travel sites and the web distribution of travel information by travel publishers Moon Travel Guidebooks, Lonely Planet and Fodor’s is presented along with the options available to Karen Brown Hebert at the time of the case. To make her decision, Karen needed to determine how delivery of her content would alter her existing business model, what revenues she could expect to generate from an agreement with a major online travel site, what length of contract she should sign and what other alternatives were available.
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