Insights at a Glance
from Garrett Kiely, director, University of Chicago Press (UCP)
Best management tactic: I’m working to ensure that management’s motivations are transparent. Everyone in the organization should have an understanding of not only what the press management is doing, but why it is doing it. This understanding empowers people to think and act creatively.
Biggest challenge as director: Understanding and working with the culture of the press and the university, getting to know an active backlist that includes material that has been in print since the late 19th century, and dealing with the realization that I can’t run across the street to my old deli on Fifth Avenue.
Keeps you up at night: The rapidly changing landscape of scholarly communications, including open access, digital distribution and the role of the university press in this world. As the largest American university press, Chicago has an obligation to play a leading role in this arena, and I am committed to doing so.
Currently most focused on: Making sure that the press employs technology in the best way possible to serve our customers, the international academic community and the information needs of our staff.
UCP’s biggest strength: A rock-solid commitment to disseminating the highest-quality information. This suffuses all of our activities: from book and journal acquisition through editing, production, sales, marketing and distribution. This focus on our mission has been what has impressed me most in my fi rst months in the job.
Fastest-growing product or segment: All areas of the press will achieve record or near-record sales growth in fi scal 2008. We’re excited about many of our books that have reached a wider audience as well as our expanding journals portfolio. Our distribution center continues to expand, and provides the highest-quality service. In addition to supporting the many technology changes we have made in our journals division, we will also be expanding our other digital offerings. Finally, we are well into the revisions to our fl agship publication, the “Chicago Manual of Style.” The 16th edition will publish in print and online—simultaneously for the fi rst time—in 2010.
