Newark, NJ—Marking the largest distribution of tablets in New Jersey’s history, Audible Inc.—the world’s largest seller and producer of digital spoken-word entertainment—distributed 2,000 brand new tablets to high school students on Thursday, with plans on giving away a total of 15,000 tablets to every Newark high school student and their teachers.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Interim Superintendent of Newark Public Schools Robert Gregory and East Side High School Principal Mario Santos joined Audible Founder and CEO Don Katz at East Side High School as the company marks its 20th anniversary and its tenth year in Newark.

The Audible “Project Listen Up!” initiative, launched in late November as a collaboration with Newark Public Schools to incorporate spoken-word content into the district’s curriculum, has expanded in 2018 with distribution events at district and public charter high schools across Newark.

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The initiative provides all participants with free Audible membership that includes a bundle of 150-plus “recommended reading” titles identified by Newark educators and Audible experts.

"It's an amazing and gratifying thing that we can do this today," Katz said. "Words are power. Words are also music. The mayor knows this because he grew up in the house of one of the great American writers," he said of the mayor's father, Amiri Baraka, a well-regarded writer of poetry, drama and fiction.

Audible—a subsidiary of Amazon—moved to Newark in 2007 and is one of the fastest growing private sector employers in Newark.

In a 2015 Rutgers Magazine article, Katz noted his desire for Audible to be a part of Newark's revival.

“Audible moved to Newark to help accelerate the comeback of a great American city,” Katz said. "We have added hundreds of employees who are thriving in a city at a historic tipping point.”





To drive the city's comeback and attract tech companies to the area, Newark Venture Partners was created in 2016 to assist entrepreneurs wanting to set down roots down in the city. The partners, which include Audible, Prudential Financial, Dun and Bradstreet, among others, invest in seed companies and support their growth and development.

"People are beginning to move to Newark," Baraka said, noting several tech companies that have chosen Newark as their home base in recent years. "Innovation will come out of high schools like East Side."

Gregory lauded the initiative as well as East Side High School's progress over recent years.

“This school epitomizes what we are able to do in this city,” Gregory said, noting the transformation of the school over the last 15 years. “This shows Audible's commitment to Newark students.The best way for Audible to celebrate its tenth anniversary is to hand these out to students. It’s a great day for us.”

Along with the Amazon Fire seven-inch 8GB tablets equipped with Alexa and headphones, students and teachers will also receive 12 credits to download and own any of the 375,000-plus titles in Audible’s library of digital audiobooks and other educational programming.

At year’s end, all recipients will keep the content, tablets and headphones.

Some scientifically-verified benefits of listening to literature for developing readers include critical listening, increasing vocabulary and building foundational skills for listening, speaking and writing.

Learning to listen at a high level is also a predictor of learning to read at a high level and has been shown to improve students’ enjoyment and interest in literature, according to studies.

Audible content includes more than 375,000 audio programs from audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers and business information providers.