McGraw-Hill Education Announces Digital Initiative

Programs will cultivate critical thinking and teach students ways to use the Internet for problem-solving

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 6/16/2009 8:04:00 AM

McGraw-Hill Education today announced the creation of its Center for Digital Innovation, a research and development center that will focus on bringing technology to elementary and secondary classrooms. The Center will be led by McGraw-Hill Education’s team of former teachers, engineers and software developers.

The Center, in Bothell, Wash., is developing digital platforms that are customized by state standards, district requirements, and individual teacher and student needs. The Center’s digital platforms will allow teachers to quickly assess a student’s proficiency level, so that teachers can alter their instruction based on the needs of each student. Programs will cultivate critical thinking and teach students ways to use the Internet for problem-solving.

Programs will address literacy, mathematics and science. Today, the Center launched two new products that will be available in August for the new school year: CINCH Project, a collection of Web 2.0 tools for collaborative learning projects, with a community-based Web site where teachers and students create digital profiles and participate in group activities; and Planet Turtle, a K-3 social network where children can interact with their peers by developing online animal-based character avatars and completing learning “challenges” that progress as their skills improve.

While college publishers are rapidly moving into digital publishing, there has been less activity at the elhi level, something MHE hopes to address with the Center. Terry McGraw, chairman, president and CEO of the McGraw-Hill Companies, said, “Our programs will be the first to create offerings based on how students use technology to bridge the gap between digital socialization and digital learning. This will help teachers, parents and students to unite around the goals of fostering growth and development; creating richer, more involved methods of learning; and more effectively addressing issues that arise.”

E-book handicap?

I recently bought a fitness e-book, enjoyed reading it on my BlackBerry Fictionwise e-reader on the way to and from work, and then moved on to finishing the print book that I was simultaneously carrying around with me. I've limited most of my e-reading to non-fiction as of yet, and didn't think anything of it until I had a conversation with my mom.

My mom, unlike myself, enjoys cooking and trying out new recipes. Since she's only into healthy cooking, the recipes in the fitness book would have been ideal for her...but I had nothing to share with her, given that it was an e-book. As a publishing professional, I understand that we want to make sharing harder, but what if I wanted to try out some of those recipes? Should I have my expensive device sitting in my kitchen while I mix and match ingredients? And what if it wasn't recipes per se, but some other interactive book that required the reader to take a quiz? How can we do this with an e-book?

I came up with two options: the publisher should either allow certain pages--i.e., those with the recipes or the quizes--to be e-mailable, or have that information available for print/download from a companion website.

Any other ideas on how to get around this e-book handicap?

More Things Digital

Mobifusion Releases New Cellphone Content Viewer

(Publishers Weekly, 5/11/2009 6:20:00 AM)

Mobifusion, a software developer of applications that deliver book content to handheld mobile devices, is releasing Mobiviewer 2.5, an upgraded multimedia platform that improves viewing and reading content on mobile phones. Mobiviewer 2.5 is a graphic user interface for mobile phones that can deliver photos, audio and graphic content from publishers (among them Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Avalon, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin) to a wide variety of handsets and OS formats, including iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, Java, Symbian, iDEN, Palm and other platforms.

Pavan Mandhani, founder and CEO of Mobifusion said the new application, “raises the bar” for mobile entertainment viewing and reading. “We're giving consumers a new made-for-mobile experience of the content they know. By delivering 'snacks' of the mobile content wireless users want, Mobiviewer 2.5 will transform the way people use and see their mobile handsets.”

E-Reader Pilot Program at Princeton University

Princeton is using the Amazon DX electronic reader to pilot the use of an e-reader in a small number of classes during the Fall term of 2009. The project is sponsored by the Princeton University Library, the Office of Information Technology at Princeton, and the High Meadows Foundation, whose mission is “to support environmental sustainability; and to support a community of human interest through collaboration, inclusiveness and common values.” A major aim of the pilot is to help determine if e-readers can cut down on the use of paper at Princeton, without adversely affecting the classroom experience.

Know Your Requirements Before Shopping for the Right CMS

(Publishing Executive, 3/20/09, by Joe Keenan)

As many publishers have found out the hard way -- i.e., wasting their time and money -- identifying the right content management system (CMS) for your business is no easy task. As a prelude to a session he'll lead at next week's Publishing Business Conference & Expo in New York, CMS Forum: Identifying and Implementing the Right CMS for Your Magazines, Han Huang, principal and founder of Counterpoint Analytics, offered up some tips to help save publishers from the frustrations of a CMS implementation gone bad.

INBOX: What factors should companies weigh when determining whether to build or buy their CMS?
HAN HUANG: The first thing to do is look at their business objective. What functionality do they want on their site? Do they want blogs/forums? Do they want polls? What kind of reporting do they want? Do they want lead reporting? Look at what their Web site is trying to do -- what their business model is.

When they work out what that is and what functionality they want -- they literally want to list it out -- then it's a question of looking at CMS companies. Look at whether the build vs. buy question is favorable one way or the other.

For example, if all they have is basic article content, one could argue that they could build that themselves. But the moment you start wanting to have blogs/forums, it's pretty rare now that one could build it themselves. But there's a proviso on this: You have open-source CMSs. So it's not always a question of build vs. buy. You can actually get an open-source CMS. There's still a cost to it, and that's in development costs to integrate it. But essentially the short of it is: Know what your requirements are, know what your budget is and then shop around for the right CMS.

INBOX: What are the outside expenses that publishers need to budget for when implementing a new CMS?
HUANG: I'd argue that most CMSs are quite intuitive from an editor's point of view. There's not a huge cost there. The most significant cost generally with publishing is the development cost itself and the managing of it. It's one thing to get the CMS, but then you've got to integrate it. One thing to bear in mind is if someone's buying a new CMS, normally they're going to be doing a site redesign at the same time. It's pretty rare for someone to say, 'I just want a new CMS,' and then not use it on the front end. They normally get a CMS because they want to change something on the front end. There's a redesign process; it's not just about getting a CMS.

INBOX: In your experience, what are some common mistakes publishers make when implementing a new CMS?
HUANG: The first one is not laying out your requirements in detail. If you do that, you've got a road map for completion. The second one is the resources -- how you manage the execution of the project. Are you resourced properly? Most publishers implementing a CMS will outsource. It's very common to outsource the building of it and the integration because there's only one upfront cost for integration and redesign, which isn't the same as doing maintenance. Managing the outsource relationship; there's definitely a skill [required] there. If you get the wrong people to implement it or there's poor communication between the core people who are buying into it and the developers through the project managers, then that can cause problems.

And then you have some technical issues going live. A typical one that causes real problems is you have editors who are using the old CMS until the day it goes live, so managing the live date is quite tricky. It can get technical, but it's difficult to do the transition to live because sometimes editors have to double enter the content into both systems. And if there are any technical problems, then that can extend out. It's very common that as you approach the live date, it gets more and more complicated to execute it well. So the live date gets pushed back.

INBOX: What are the latest trends with CMSs that'll help provide publishers tangible ROI?
HUANG: First, from a user perspective I'd say Web 2.0 functionality -- blogs, forums, reviews. For users, especially younger users, social networking and interactivity is becoming much more important. They're moving away from the idea of just reading an article. Now for most publishing companies, orthodox print publication companies, it may be too early for social networking, but a lot of their users are using social networking. That's one thing that CMSs can provide -- relatively out-of-the-box solutions for those things. You don't need to build them yourselves. You have to tweak them, but you don't have to build them.

The next is reporting systems. Publishers are realizing -- some publishers, anyhow -- how to leverage their user information online, especially if they have subscriber databases. How do they monetize it? How can they not just provide clicks but qualified leads? CMS has helped with that because you don't have to build your own login and tracking system. It's already there. So it's easier to integrate with all the other functionality. You really don't want to have to build that yourself. Those two areas are the two opportunities on the revenue-generating side.

And then the other thing on the back-end, the trend is definitely toward open-source. In the mid- to low-range CMSs, open-sourced CMSs are incredibly competitive because you're not just factoring in the buying of the CMS, you're looking at the build and the maintenance.

The ever-evolving world of "publishing"

Here are just two of the exciting developments that occurred this week in the ever-evolving world of publishing:

• Amazon Joins the iPhone App Market
• Nelson Makes Books Available in All Formats for One Price

Although personally I don't understand why Nelson is choosing to give content away free with their one-price model, unless it's to drive people to buy the print product, it's still exciting in that it shows how publishers are having to rethink the traditional pricing and manufacturing model we're all familiar with.

Although it's nearly impossible to predict the next evolution, do you have any theories? Please share.

The Perseus Books Group Launches Mobile Editions

(Book Business Magazine, 1/30/09)

The Perseus Books Group (PBG) announced its first mobile book editions. Working with Incelligence, a mobile phone application provider, PBG now will offer mobile editions of the following titles: "Wine Enthusiast Pocket Guide to Spirits," "Quit: Read This Book and Stop Smoking," "Your Pregnancy Week by Week," and a Spanish-language version of the pregnancy guide, "Su Embarazo Semana a Semana."

The new Perseus mobile editions will be available to millions of mobile users worldwide through Incelligence’s distribution network, which includes major carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile, as well as independent mobile application distributors such as Thumbplay, Jamster and ClickApps.

“At Perseus, we are always looking for ways to reach readers wherever they are with books that matter,” says Rick Joyce, chief marketing officer for PBG. “Mobile editions put must-have content always in reach …. Relationships with mobile innovators like Incelligence are all part of helping independent publishers succeed in the digital marketplace.”

The Future of Dedicated eBook Readers

(Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog, 12/30/08)

BusinessWeek recently published an insightful article called Move Over Kindle; eBooks Hit Cell Phones. After reading it I feel I need to make a confession: My enthusiasm for the Kindle has dramatically shifted to the iPhone. There. I said it. It feels good to come clean.

Don't forget that I'm the guy who was so bullish on the Kindle that I started a separate blog dedicated to it. I'm not suggesting Kindleville is going away, but I do wish I would have jumped on the Apple bandwagon earlier and created iPhoneville instead!

Think about it. Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla but their numerous missteps (e.g., proprietary model, poor inventory management, no brick-and-mortar presence, high price, lack of an innovative pricing model, etc.) have prevented them from shutting the door on Sony. Sony, for cryin' out loud...the company that completely dropped the ball in the consumer electronics world!

So now while Sony is still hanging in there just fine, thank you very much, quite a few prospective customers are starting to realize the smartphone they already own is a better alternative to a $300+ dedicated e-reader. I was a skeptic till I got an iPhone a couple of months ago. Even though the book selection is very limited in the AppStore, I'd be hard-pressed to buy a Kindle now that I have an iPhone. In fact, I had been planning to buy the next generation Kindle that's rumored to appear next year but I doubt I will now. Again, this is coming from one of the Kindle's biggest advocates!

I still don't agree with Steve Jobs and his comment that "people don't read anymore." But wouldn't it be ironic if his platform turned out to be the winner in the e-content battle? After all, he's the guy who's shown the least interest in this sector and yet he now seems to have all the momentum.

Why do I get the feeling Amazon has implemented the equivalent of a "prevent defense", playing "not to lose"? Both those approaches often lead to upsets and that's exactly what it will be if the Kindle fails at the expense of the iPhone.

New Web Authoring Tool

Since the web is here to stay, and publishing veterans can't necessarily learn all the new technology fast enough to help their companies compete, where does that leave them?

Aptara has come up with a solution, as Marketwire announced today: PowerXEditor, a user-friendly Google Doc-like web authoring tool that any publishing professional can use and that can be easily integrated into the company's current of future CMS.

Although being familiar with web basics is still necessary and helpful, user-friendly web authoring tools will help bridge the gap for those less tech savvy and will therefore keep publishing moving in the right direction.

HarperCollins to Launch Online Sales Catalog

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 5/12/2008 2:01:00 PM

HarperCollins is developing an interactive, electronic sales catalog. The catalog will offer booksellers an online tool to order books and reduce Harper’ paper output. Harper will preview the catalog at BEA later this month and will launch a beta version in six to 12 months. Harper spokesperson Erin Crum said the catalog will start with the summer 2009 list. The house will distribute a limited number of print copies as well.

The catalog will feature book covers, prices, on-sale dates, reviews and quotes, and media alerts will be updated in real time. The pages will also include links to author interviews, promotional videos and audio samples for some titles. Booksellers will be able to create lists and place orders online. Authors’ backlists will also be available.

Jane Friedman, Harper president and CEO, said, “It has been clear to me for some time that catalogs are out of date as soon as they are printed. So much of what we do today is in real time. Why not our catalogs? In addition, an electronic version reduces a tremendous amount of waste in all areas, paper, production and shipping. ”