Building Customer Relationships in the Digital Age

By Rachelle Cracchiolo
President and CEO, Teacher Created Materials Inc.

Educational publishing in the digital age is enabling publishers to better meet the needs of students, teachers, and administrators not just in the United States, but in the international community as well. It is also causing educational publishers to rethink delivery methods, pricing structure, and the unknown result of assigning digital rights to a school district or country. As publishers, we want to work with our customers to help them meet the needs of a very diverse student population, but we also want to make sure that we are protecting our intellectual property. Right now, there are often more questions than answers about how to do this.

Reexamining Content for the Global Marketplace

by Michael Ross
SVP, Education General Manager, Encyclopaedia Britannica

There are two strategic objectives that publishers must have as priorities today if they are going to stay competitive in this global and digital publishing environment. First, they must be able to take advantage of the cost savings that are available to them by having all of their assets in a standard digital format. Second, they must make specific editorial accommodations to ensure that their content is as suitable as possible for the global marketplace.

These are significant activities that require a frame of mind, skills, and processes that may not be in place currently in the typical publishing operation. Fortunately, there are some basic guidelines that can be followed that will significantly increase any publisher’s ability to become more efficient in producing products and better prepared to meet the challenges of a global publishing community.

Let’s look at these guidelines and identify the key milestones along the road to meeting these objectives.