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Seven Key Drivers Affecting Change in the Business of PublishingThis article is the third in a series recapping the themes and issues most relevant to the future of the educational publishing industry, as told by the slate of expert speakers at the 2007 Educational Publishing Summit. This installment focuses on Monday's second general session, "Big Picture Thinking," which looked at four key areas of change within the industry: The Business of Publishing, Curriculum, Schoolhouse Demographics, and Educational Technology. In order to succeed in the publishing industry of tomorrow, companies need to perceive change from a macro standpoint rather than as a number of smaller, unrelated developments. This was the overall message of Michael Ross's portion of "Big Picture Thinking," the second general session at the 2007 Educational Publishing Summit. Ross, who is Senior Vice President of Business Development at Encyclopedia Britannica, highlighted seven key drivers that are affecting--or will affect--educational publishing as a business. 1. Market value-shift from content "creation" to content "context" - Ross posed the argument that delivery of content is becoming just as important--if not more so--than the content itself. If the content is not presented in a fun, entertaining, relevant, and accurate way, he said, it is lost on students who have grown up immersed in technology and surrounded by information. Publishers must find new ways to capture and maintain students' attention and must also act as a funnel for quality content, making it easy for students to find the right information at the precise time they need it. Ross also stressed the emergence and increasing importance of personalized content, or content that is relevant to each individual member of the classroom, a sentiment echoed by Michael Jay in the session's final panel presentation. "It's not about creating microcurricula, it's the ability to give the educator the type of skills they need to be able to adapt the curriculum and be able to handle the student who's taking a slightly different path," said Jay. 2. Preparation of content in all media for all formats - Companies must be able to migrate their content to all platforms--print, CD, DVD, the web, and whatever other media the future might hold, said Ross. In business terms, this means money, resources, and competency. Most companies will not be able to turn out products across all platforms on their own, so this creates a need for strategic partnerships and opportunities for product development companies. 3. Technical competence and creativity - Today's workplaces call for designers, developers, writers, and marketers with different skill sets and the ability to adapt, said Ross. "You can't silo your staff meetings; people have to move around and have to be able to adjust and know what other departments are doing," he said. "This is not only necessary for successful products and effective ad campaigns, it's great for the personal skills of your staff as well." 4. Licensing versus creating - "It costs a fortune to develop content, and it costs pennies to license it," said Ross. "There's a cost/benefit ratio going on there that we really need to pay attention to." Ross said licensing content is something that all companies must keep in mind when thinking about their business. He also stressed the importance of finding the right content, having the ability to negotiate, and having the willingness to accept "alien" content, or content that has not been produced in-house. 5. Outsourcing - Ross regards outsourcing as a necessary and important part of today's publishing industry. He said the first step in entering any outsourcing relationship is getting internal buy-in from everyone in the company because anyone at any level in the organization has the ability to halt an impending outsourcing deal. The next step is deciding what to outsource and what not to outsource. This involves knowing your options, recognizing what will really make a difference, and recognizing your core competencies. Once you take an inventory of all that, you'll have a better idea of what needs to stay in-house. 6. Identifying licensing/publishing partners on a global scale - Today's companies exist in an open world, said Ross, and we need to take advantage of the resources that exist on a global scale. "We can't do it all if we want to leverage our assets and focus on our core strengths," he said. 7. Utilizing new and multiple forms of distribution - "Distribution is the biggest thing we do," said Ross. "Unless we get this right, everything is wasted." He pointed out that distribution is multifaceted, and if companies don't know how to take advantage of every channel available to them, they need to find people that can help them. Some examples of today's distribution channels highlighted by Ross included: - website delivery of both digital and physical content (utilizing the web as a bookstore) - personalized websites - consortia selling - statewide and long-term contracts - nontraditional ways to find funding For more information on publishing at a global level and producing content for the digital age, download a sample chapter of Michael Ross's book, Publishing Without Boundaries: How to Think, Act, and Win in the Global Market, at http://www.AEPweb.org/pdfs/specialoffers/Chapter1.pdf. The next article in this series will cover trends in market demographics as presented by Dr. Jennifer House of RedRock Reports, and Dr. Sari Follansbee's ed-tech trends.
Questions, ideas, or in need of more information? Please contact Stacey Pusey at 302-295-8349. |
To request slide presentations from this or another Summit session, please contact Doug Ferguson. For more information on the 2007 Educational Publishing Summit, you may visit the Summit pages on the AEP website.
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