Audio Editions Founders Receive 2008 Audies Special Achievement Award

Linda D. Olsen
President
The Audio Partners, Inc.

Grady L. Hesters
CEO
The Audio Partners, Inc.

2008 Audies® Special Achievement Award Winners

For 27 years, as visionaries, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders, Linda Olsen and Grady Hesters have helped shape and expand the audio publishing industry. Guided by principles like “keep it personal” and “everything and everyone counts,” they have maintained a customer-centered focus while fostering market-building synergy among competing audio publishers, retailers, and vendors.

Linda and Grady first joined their friend Hal Newman in 1981 in the start-up of Newman Communications, a company that became the dominant force in audiobook retail marketing and publishing from 1981 to1987.

With Newman, they introduced 450 exclusive audio titles packaged and priced for book buyers, established audiobooks in 4,000 retail bookstores, creating the first sustained nationwide retail success for this product category, and directed the development of the award-winning Audio Editions catalog.

By 1986 Newman was 35th on the Inc. Magazine list of 100 Fastest Growing Public Companies and audio publishing had made a quantum leap to the national retail stage.

Industry veteran Jim Brannigan notes, “In the early ’80s, Newman Communications was pretty much the only game in town for retail audiobooks... the retail market Newman created is what brought the big publishing companies into audio.”

In 1987, Linda and Grady founded The Audio Partners and purchased some of Newman’s assets. They continued publishing as The Audio Partners Publishing Corporation and repositioned the Audio Editions catalog to offer consumers a full range of trade titles in all formats from all major audio publishers.

Success followed and in both 1992 and in 1994, The Audio Partners, Inc., was named to the Inc. Magazine list of the 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America.
The Audio Partners’ high standards and marketing skills have helped advance audio publishing in extraordinary ways. High points include the publication of all Shakespeare plays as a set (The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare) and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Tertiary Phase, the 2006 Audiobook of the Year. As publisher, Linda has been recognized with 38 Audie Finalists and 12 Audie Winners.

Linda is a founding Board member and officer of the Audio Publishers Association (APA), serving from 1986-1993. Grady joined the Board in 1994, and was president from 1996-1998. Together they’ve advised, mentored, and encouraged many members of our industry over the years.

The sale of The Audio Partners Publishing Corp’s publishing assets to BBC Audiobooks America last year enabled Linda to retire from active management.

Grady now focuses his considerable talents solely on the Audio Editions Catalog and Website, http://www.audioeditions.com enriching the lives of so many customers and publishers nationwide.

Together they are celebrating 30 years of marriage and enjoying their large extended family, centered on four grown children and three grandchildren.