Merriam-Webster

Gold Ink Winners, Hall of Famers Honored at Banquet in Chicago
November 1, 2006

Hundreds of industry executives turned out Oct. 16 to honor North America’s finest print production projects at the 19th Annual Gold Ink Awards Banquet in Chicago. Attendees also witnessed the induction of four new members into the Publishing Executive Hall of Fame, including David Pelkey, Merriam-Webster Inc.’s director of manufacturing and a 21-year veteran of the graphic arts industry. More than 1,500 pieces were entered into 45 different categories for the 2006 Gold Ink Awards, and the gala—held during October’s Graph Expo at McCormick Place—recognized the winners for their achievements during a cocktail hour and dinner. Each of the Hall of Fame inductees

The Definition of Success
October 1, 2006

Merriam-Webster is a household name when it comes to dictionaries. In fact, its dictionary is said to be the second best-selling hardcover book in American history next to the Bible. So it might be surprising to find out that behind this book is a manufacturing department of just one: David Pelkey. Pelkey, Merriam-Webster’s director of manufacturing, oversees the manufacturing of all printed materials for the company. “I do all of the paper purchasing, warehousing and inventory management, and I also have a hand in distribution,” he says. Pelkey’s name may not be as well-known as the dictionary he helps produce, but this year, after

Call for Speakers for National Publishing Conference
September 29, 2006

The Book Business Conference and Expo is inviting applications from publishing executives to speak at the 2007 conference, to be held March 5-6, at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. This prestigious event draws thousands of publishing industry executives from around the country and features sessions on publishing management; production, manufacturing and workflow; and sales, marketing and distribution. Speakers at the 2006 conference hailed from many of the industry’s leading publishing organizations, including Merriam-Webster, Scholastic Education, HarperCollins, Thieme Medical Publishers, Oxford University Press, Houghton Mifflin, Knopf Publishing Group, Wiley, Simon & Schuster, Random House, and many more.   Publishing executives interested in speaking at the

The Doers and the Out-Dones
May 1, 2006

“Like it or not, we have to embrace complexity,” said Merriam-Webster President and Publisher John Morse, during the 2006 Book Business Conference and Expo (story on page 10), addressing “Book Publishing: the New Business Model.” I don’t know about you, but when something I am working on seems too complex, my first inclination is to stifle the pain that has begun to fester around my eyes and move on to something I can get done quickly. Complexity means time. Time I just don’t have. But when it comes to today’s publishing environment, the complexities can seem so mammoth that the festering, behind-the-eyes pain and inclination

Book Business Conference‘Strikes Chord’ With Publishing Executives
May 1, 2006

Not even a George Clooney sighting could disrupt the 2006 Book Business Conference and Expo, which took place March 20-22 at the Hilton New York. The celebrity was filming his latest picture just feet away from the conference’s registration area and—predictably—attracted all sorts of ogling from attendees and passers-by, but it was the conference and expo that were the stars of the week. Much like the industry it serves, the conference found itself in an unprecedented state of evolution when it kicked off on Monday, March 20. In its 10th year and amid revolutionary changes in the world of book publishing, this year’s conference

ref•er•ence pub•lish•ing n :industry segment faced with dramatic change
May 1, 2006

It used to be that an encyclopedia salesman knocked on your door in hopes of selling you the latest 12-volume series of books brimming with factual information about everything from binary cell division to Benjamin Franklin. And your only option for finding the definition of onomatopoeia used to be to lug the dictionary off the shelf and thumb through its pages. Those days are, to some extent, history. As a result, reference publishers face significant challenges—reflected in a significant drop in new titles released in 2005—as they strive to adapt to new trends in the market. Paul Kobasa, editor in chief for World

To Infinity and Beyond
August 1, 2005

Publishers, distributors and e-retailers expect the advent and growth of smart phones and multifunctional personal digital assistants (PDAs) to stimulate the growth of the young e-book market. Yet, no matter how young or how small the market is, publishers have made a commitment to e-books and are anticipating the market will take off. The size of the e-book market in terms of revenue is based on the number of available titles, publishers' revenues or the revenues generated by e-retailers. For example, the New York-based International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), formerly the Open eBook Forum, reported in its "eBook Statistics" for the fourth quarter

Cross-Media Masters
December 1, 2003

The 11th edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary introduces a significant innovation in dictionary publishing. For the first time, the popularly priced standard edition of the dictionary is not a print product alone. Each copy is bundled with a CD-ROM edition and a one-year subscription to Merriam-Webster Online, a premium Web site offering exclusive access to the online edition and other reference sources, all built atop the same database. Nothing like this has been done before in dictionary publishing, and for good reasons, known as "the three C's": cost, cannibalization, and cross-platform development. Cost for a dictionary is usually thought of

Technology is...
December 31, 1969 at 7:00 pm

What makes the Book Business Buyer's Guide different from other buyer's guides out there is that it provides a great deal of editorial context for the technology listings. From "The Nut's & Bolts of Ebooks & Apps" to "The Ecommerce Imperative" we hope to provide perspective on how these technologies fit into the greater business strategy.