Belinda Hobbs

Belinda Hobbs has spent the past 6 years in Japan transforming Harlequin’s biggest market outside the US from a traditional print publishing company into a future-oriented content driven company. Belinda has not only overseen double-digit growth of Harlequin Japan’s bottom line, but has transformed the business so that over 30% of turnover is now from digital revenue streams.

Having successfully leveraged Harlequin’s brand and women’s fiction content in both print and digital formats, including launching manga versions of Harlequin’s famous romance novels and working on major content deals with Softbank Creative Corporation and Nintendo, Belinda is well versed in the challenges of constantly changing resource requirements associated with an ever-growing digital business.

Harlequin Enterprises Ltd, head-quartered in Toronto, Canada, is the world’s leading publisher of entertaining women’s fiction and is the 2009 recipient of the Publishing Innovator of the Year Award thanks to the company’s market-leading digital media strategy.

Speech: Managing a Web Business: Successful Transitions

In this session we will cover the transition from a traditional business model to a web-based one. Critical topics as budget allocation, practical market research, changes in human resources, new partnerships and driving new business models.