Press

Sweet, Savage Romance On-line! Tumble Develops RomanticTimes.com, the Definitive Romance Site and Bookshop NEW YORK, NY, September 15, 1998 --Tumble Interactive Media announced today that it has developed a Web site for Romantic Times Magazine (www.romantictimes.com), the definite romance guide and one-stop bookshop. Users can purchase any of the 3,600 books reviewed on the site through a connection to the Web site for Barnes & Noble booksellers (www.barnesandnoble.com), who funded the development of the Romantic Times site. The new site contains book reviews from the last three years of the magazine, author bios, special areas for readers and writers, and a "Cover Model" section on the latest hunks. Interactive features include a searchable database of author pseudonyms (since romance authors often write under several names), message boards for romance enthusiasts, and opportunities for booksellers to network with over 1,000 independent stores to share tips on generating store traffic and increasing profits. "Since romance novels account for over 50 percent of paperbacks sold in this country, Romantic Times Magazine found a perfect partner in Barnes & Noble," said Cal Vornberger, president of Tumble. "Our challenge was to create an easy-to-navigate site that would be visited by romance enthusiasts who may be novices on the Web." To facilitate multiple purchases, Tumble created a special function allowing visitors to select several books before proceeding to the Barnes & Noble site to make the final purchase. "This is an important feature of the site," Vornberger said. "Research indicates that the typical romance enthusiast makes multiple purchases, often on impulse. Loyal romance readers often buy 20 to 40 books per month." Tumble's Director of Technology, Albert James, designed the database that manages all the information. Using Microsoft's SQL server, James created CGI and Perl scripts that allow pages to be dynamically generated. "If this were a static Web site," says James, "it would contain over 40,000 individual pages." Tumble is hosting and maintaining the site for Romantic Times and Barnes and Noble. The Web site resides on a Dell 400mhz Pentium machine with 256mbs of memory. The database resides on a separate machine. Tumble uses IBM's Network dispatcher to balance loads among several Web servers. Romantic Times can update the database and manage discussion groups remotely, through a Web-based interface designed by Tumble. Tumble Interactive Media, Inc. (www.tumbleinteractive.com) is a full-service new media development company with complete Web hosting capabilities. Based in the TriBeCa area of Manhattan, the company is known for creating award-winning interactive multimedia projects that include Web sites, CD-ROMs, and Kiosks. Tumble's clients include ABC Television, IBM, Novartis, The Hearst Corporation, Gentleman's Quarterly Magazine, Time Warner, The United States Naval Academy, JC Decaux, Barnes and Noble, and Motorola, to name a few.