World Book

I have just returned from the Publishing Business Conference & Expo in New York (full coverage begins on page 10) and couldn’t help but feel that this year, more than ever, there was a sense of camaraderie, a message of “We can do this. Look at all the opportunity out there.” In an interview for this issue, Jane Friedman, president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide (see the story on HarperCollins on page 18), said, “I think that, in the past, publishers have been afraid of change. … What we’re all seeing now is that experimentation is necessary, and … everybody is facing the

Chicago-based World Book Inc., a publisher of reference products for adults and children, has announced the launch of World Book Mobile, a broad-based licensing program that will extend the volume of licensed content the publisher is making available to mobile application developers and distributors. World Book Mobile will feature content from more than 90 World Book titles. “World Book has a tremendous amount of content,” says Paul Gazzolo, president. “World Book Mobile is a logical extension of our digital content strategy enabling us to work with leading mobile application providers to deliver accurate, authoritative information wherever and whenever consumers want access.” Mobifusion Inc.,

he idea is pretty straightforward: Release a book, create a Web site to go along with it, and, voila, you’ve got yourself a surefire marketing tool. Just putting something on the Web is no guarantee of success, however, which may be why, for many publishers, this simple formula ends up having a lot of variations. Book-companion Web sites—portals providing access to authors, blogs, online forums, games, contests and other multimedia offerings—play a significant role in the world of online book promotion. Standing at the intersection of traditional, publisher-designed marketing strategies, author-driven promotion and self-perpetuating “viral” marketing, thoughtfully planned book-companion Web sites offer

Check out these highlights of recent book publishing post changes throughout the industry. World Book: Patti Ginnis has been promoted to chief marketing officer, reporting to World Book President Paul Gazzolo. Ginnis was previously senior vice president of sales and marketing for Encyclopedia Britannica. She also served in product management positions and was instrumental in building the company’s e-commerce presence. Ben Hinton has been appointed as managing director of international sales. He will be responsible for leading World Book’s digital product strategy. He was previously employed by Thomson Gale. Harry N. Abrams: Steve Tager has been appointed publisher. Tager is currently senior vice president,

Paul Kobasa, World Book vice president, editorial and editor in chief, chats with Book Business EXTRA! about World Book Kids, the new interactive Web-based tool aimed at younger students and their educators that the company recently released. Book Business EXTRA! -- With the vast array of information available online, what has kept a reference publisher, such as World Book, relevant to computer-savvy children and young adults in recent years? Paul Kobasa -- There is a massive amount of content on the Web--so much so that it can be difficult for students to find the discrete information they need. That’s a leading reason why students continue

Content is still king in book publishing. The challenge to publishers today is to move, manage, exchange and manipulate that content in the most efficient and profitable ways. In the age of new media, publishers must be able to accept content from external sources, traffic it through all the pre-publishing phases and then be agile in the way they output it, so that it’s cost-effective but also meaningful to readers. As with any new technology, publishers should evaluate software solutions with these basic considerations in mind: Functionality: What solutions out there have the types of capabilities your company needs? Once the field has

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

Last year, nearly 3,700 book publishing professionals from across North America convened in New York City for BookTech, the only event focused on the latest technologies and techniques in the book and e-book publishing industry. The total attendance surpassed the previous year by 21 percent, and was demonstrated by a packed exhibit hall, crowded keynote address, and standing room only conference rooms. The event featured industry experts from leading companies such as Microsoft, Adobe Systems, ContentGuard, The Lehigh Press, The Mazor Corp., Simon & Schuster and World Book, among others. Leading publishers spoke of hot topics like ASP's, e-book formatting, marketing and distribution,

Every day, 100 million Internet users conduct more than 200 million information searches at Web sites like Yahoo!, yet traditional books have almost no presence in this new information exchange. A new e-property, the sBook can change this imbalance while creating an entirely new subscription revenue source for publishers. Quality online information Today, 97 percent of Internet users visit the Web to search for some bit of information. Log on to AOL or another ISP (Internet Service Provider), type in a few keywords and get a list of several dozen possible Web sites that may or may not contain the information you're seeking. If the goal

When Junior Achieve-ment hosted its 1999 annual golf tournament in sunny California, participants walked away with more than just a sunburn and a pleasant memory. Instead of the status quo (and often forgettable) t-shirts, key chains and mugs, personalized books were given as tee prizes to commemorate the event. The Golf Gods Are Laughing: The Confessions, Obsessions and Insights of a Golf Addict by Robert Bruce Woodcut was the chosen book, and De-Hart's Printing Services was the chosen maufacturer. Woodcox's book was originally published by Seven Locks Press in Santa Ana, CA, a small publisher and distributor of approximately 38 titles a year.