Gale’s SVP Paul Gazzolo Wants to Unlock the Publisher’s Information Vault

We're also making all of our websites responsive. Those will roll out this spring. To mobile-enable the product so that is navigable and is usable inside of a mobile format or mobile device is absolutely imperative.

I'll give you an example. Recently my daughter, who is a freshman in college and is taking a poetry course, sent the family a text about one of her assignments. She asked, "Can you look at stanza 2, line 3 and give me any ideas about what the significance of the line is?" Ultimately I asked my daughter to go to the library, find the Gale Literature Criticism Online resource, and use that to see how that poem is being interpreted. My point is we have to get ourselves in front of those students. This is where they are looking for information, from their friends, via text.

How are you beginning to spread Gale's brand globally?
We have reps across six continents. They are quite experienced at selling Gale. They are also selling other Cengage products. Now we will have those reps purely focused on Gale or Cengage, so they won't be carrying a bag full of everything. That gives us the chance to get closer to the customer -- either a consortium customer, academic institution, or school authority at the government level -- and really understand how Gale can meet those customers needs. We also want to understand from these conversations what level of localization is necessary in order for that content to be valued and consumed at a local level.

We have worked with institutions outside the U.S. before. It's not a standing start by any stretch, but they'll all be thinking about Gale in a way that they haven't before. Information is going to be coming back to our headquarters here in Michigan and we're going to be building products with the mind toward the world's consumers, learners, and instructors, not just one's here.