Publishers' Outlook 2012: The Industry's Next Bold Move - Page 5 of 17

By Brian Howard

Driscoll: Gosh, I think Wolters Kluwer maybe five or six years ago started doing customer-insight work. So, we spend a lot of time going to the workplace of our users. … It's a more ethnographic kind of research, but we actually watch what they do and how they use our content. Because we found that people say they do something, but don't even realize what they're doing.

Howard: What do you see as the biggest challenge and/or opportunity for WKH?

Driscoll: In terms of opportunity, it's twofold. All of the trends in healthcare support the need for continuous learning, and more people who need to learn and be trained. I guess the challenge would be that, because it is a hot space, there's more and more competitors, so we just have to keep on our toes. But because we're actually the oldest continuous publisher in America—Lippincott has been around for well over 200 years—we have a very strong brand, a really strong relationship with customers and a deep knowledge of what they need. So I guess I'd put that on the opportunity side. The challenge is just figuring out what's coming next [laughs]; there are so many rapid advancements.

Maureen McMahon

President and Publisher • Kaplan Publishing

Founded in 1938, Kaplan is one of the premier names in higher education and professional test preparation materials and courses. With the launch of Kaplan Labs, a division dedicated to product development and testing, Kaplan is focusing on the synergies between print and digital products. Maureen McMahon spoke with Book Business from her office in New York.

Brian Howard: What do you see on the horizon for Kaplan Publishing?

Maureen McMahon: One of the things that I am most excited about … is having access to user metrics. … Right now, you send a print book out into the world and you never actually know if someone starts the book and finishes it, if they jump around, … read it for an hour every night … [or] over the course of many months, if they highlight certain parts. … So we're starting to deliver more of our course materials digitally, and … able to start to use that information to make better materials for our students.