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Do you have what it takes?
Educational publishing is changing. Demand for digital content – interactive digital content – increases with each school year. Publishers are seeing seismic shifts in the marketplace that are causing ripples of change in every aspect of their operations. What will it take for educational publishers to survive?
In a recent study of the digital book publishing industry by Steve Paxhia and Bill Trippe of The Gilbane Group, the authors identified several key characteristics of publishers that have successfully transitioned into digital product developers. The study encompassed a wide array of publishers of varying sizes, market segments and organizational structure, yet all of the most successful digital publishers share these organizational and technology characteristics. Let’s look at how they apply to educational publishers.
Organizational
Technology adoption in line with business goals
Before investing in any technology solution, it’s essential to set a clear business strategy for your digital products. Do you want to include built-in assessments? Meet the needs of adoption committees in several different states? Provide a hosted solution, or simply hope to streamline your digital and print production processes with your technology? Each technology product excels in specific areas. When you know what you want to build with your solution, you can evaluate products more effectively to find the right solution for your needs.
Commitment to growth in a digital product line
In the educational marketplace, this characteristic is a no-brainer. More than any other publishing segment, educational publishing is going digital. Either commit to it, or close up shop.
Realistic expectations with an eye on metrics
While digital content is taking over the educational publishing marketplace, it is still evolving. Paxhia and Trippe found that publishers with a successful digital program keep a close eye on results. It’s essential to know how you will measure positive results of your digital development program. As the marketplace matures, will the same expectations and measurement criteria apply?
Leadership embraces the strategic goals
Successful publishers in the overall digital marketplace have key leaders with a clear vision and passion for development of digital products. Again, in educational publishing, this is sort of a no-brainer. Educators, students, adoption committees and even state governors are demanding digital content. A digital strategy must be part of your organization’s goals, supported from the top level down.
Technology
Adoption of content management technology
Content management technology makes it easy to create one set of content, yet publish many different versions. This is virtually essential to educational publishing, as it allows publishers to quickly go to market with products that meet the needs of different audiences. For example, one set of content can be easily repurposed to serve different states, and revisions are made easily in the core content to cascade throughout the editions.
Systematic and large-scale digitization of content
Many publishers have made the move to XML formatting to enable additional functionality, as well as streamline the workflow. Digitization makes content easier to store, organize, find and utilize to move products to market faster.
The bottom line … technology is essential to success in the educational publishing industry, yet it must be balanced with your business strategy and market opportunities.
Learn more about what educators want
Our free, on-demand webinar will allow you to explore what educators want in digital materials from the perspective of two respected educational technology leaders. Immediate access to the webinar “Publishing in the World of Free: Do Educators Get What They Pay For?” is available by clicking here. |
Explore what educators want in digital materials from the perspective of two respected educational technology leaders.
Download the full Organizational & Technology Characteristics section of the report here.
Follett Digital Resources’ flagship product, the Lycea Digital Platform helps publishers turn the challenges of going digital into opportunities. Designed specifically for educational publishers, it has the tools you need to find your way in the evolving digital educational marketplace. Learn more about Lycea here.
The Gilbane Group is a consulting practice focused on the strategies and content technologies employed by commercial and enterprise publishing professionals. Both Steve Paxhia and Bill Trippe have decades of experience in electronic publishing, content management, and SGML/XML and related technologies.
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