C. Blohm & Assoc. Honored as Top Communicators

AEP member C. Blohm & Associates (CB&A) has been been recognized as a Top Tech Agency by more than 500 journalists in PR SourceCode’s fourth annual Top Tech Communicators survey.

PR SourceCode surveys more than 500 technology and business journalists to honor the “best of the best” in tech PR. This year, C. Blohm & Associates was honored among the top small PR firms among the IT industry, which is a great honor since the survey recognizes PR professionals from across the IT industry, not just education.

For more information, visit the C. Blohm & Associates web site.

Zaner-Bloser Discusses the Current State of Handwriting in TIME Article

AEP member Zaner-Bloser, one of the premier publishers of research-based reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and vocabulary programs, was featured in a recent issue of TIME magazine. The article, “Mourning the Death of Handwriting,” discusses the changes in penmanship, the cursive alphabet, and whether or not the computer has contributed to the decline of cursive writing.

Sound off below and let us know what you think about the current state of cursive writing.

Shakespeare Squared Awarded the Prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility

Shakespeare Squared, AEP member, was named a winner of the 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility, distinguishing the employer as a leading practitioner of workplace flexibility in Chicagoland and across the nation. Shakespeare Squared is receiving the award for the second year in a row.

The Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility are part of the When Work Works project (www.whenworkworks.org), an ongoing initiative of the Families and Work Institute, the Institute for a Competitive Workforce (an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), and the Twiga Foundation. Through When Work Works, these partner organizations provide research, resources, and recognition to employers nationwide and share the results of research on creating effective and flexible workplaces for the 21st century.

Read the press release from Shakespeare Squared.

Mining Social Media for Market Intelligence

Janet Eden-Harris, Vice President, Marketing, J.D. Power and Associates, spoke at the 2009 AEP Summit about how publishers should gather information and interact with customers on blogs, chat rooms, and other forms of new media. Here are highlights from her session, “Mining Social Media for Market Intelligence.”

Using social media to gather market intelligence is about listening in on the conversation. Whereas the traditional method for gathering data was doing a survey—asking the customer questions and hoping they would answer back—new media marketing involves finding people who are already discussing your products or areas of interest online. The power has shifted to the consumers, and they want to tell you what they think on their own time and in their own way.

Hall of Fame Portrait: Michael Ross Part 3

On December 3, 2009, AEP will induct Nelson B. Heller, Ph.D., MDR; Michael Ross, Encyclopaedia Britannica; and Pleasant Rowland, Rowland Reading Foundation and American Girl into the Educational Publishing Hall of Fame. Here in his third installment, Michael Ross, Senior VP, Education General Manager for Encyclopaedia Britannica, discusses the greatest challenge facing educational publishing in the next five years.

The market for educational materials will remain highly segmented. This is an enormous challenge for publishers because the direction for effective and profitable products will not be clear. Lack of clarity will be pervasive in both the adoption and non-adoption states. Decision makers will remain confused about how much print they will want and what kind of electronic products they need. They will also lack the experience and tools for evaluating electronic products and how to determine an electronic product’s true value and effectiveness.