Former ViacomCBS exec Marc DeBevoise tapped to lead Libby parent OverDrive
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OverDrive, parent company of digital reading app Libby, has named former ViacomCBS Digital CEO Marc DeBevoise as its new chief executive to power its next phase of growth.
Why it matters: OverDrive is already one of the largest content marketplaces in the world, but DeBevoise thinks the business has ample room to expand if it applies a consumer growth playbook to its enterprise business.
How it works: OverDrive provides e-books and digital content to the vast majority of public libraries in North America and many tens of thousands more abroad.
- Last year, the Cleveland-based firm, powered 820 million checkouts to over 87,000 libraries and schools across 115 countries.
- It charges libraries, schools and other institutions to license and distribute digital content through its marketplace, which allows consumers to access millions of titles for free.
- The company is for-profit, but prioritizes providing free content to consumers as part of its mission to expand access to reading and learning worldwide. "A more literate public is a public benefit," DeBevoise says.
Zoom in: Libby, which gives consumers access to hundreds of thousands of titles to borrow from public libraries around the world, is its most recognizable consumer brand.
- OverDrive also owns Sora, a digital reading platform for K-12 schools, and Kanopy, an on-demand streaming platform that allows consumers to access video content through libraries and universities.
- It was founded roughly 40 years ago by Steve Potash, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur, who will become the company's board chair.
Zoom out: DeBevoise will be tasked with turning OverDrive's library-focused infrastructure into a much larger global consumer platform by growing the number of readers, library card holders and users.
- While the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated OverDrive's growth, DeBevoise sees much more potential.
- Less than half of Americans have library cards, he noted in an interview. In many markets, fewer than 20% of cardholders use Libby.
The big picture: The overall share of Americans who have read a book in the past year has remained roughly stagnant over the past decade, per Pew Research Center, but the way they're reading has changed, and OverDrive stands to benefit from that shift.
- The share of U.S. adults who say they have read a print book in the past 12 months has declined from 72% in 2011 to 64% in October 2025, but the share of digital and audiobook usage has increased from 17% to 31% and 11% to 26%, respectively.
