People Magazine

Pat Schroeder Closes the Book on Her Time With the AAP: A Q&A With the Outgoing President of the Largest Association for Book Publishers
April 3, 2009

As a congresswoman, Patricia S. Schroeder pressed presidents and legislators for welfare, women's rights and military-spending reform. Then, during her 12-year term as president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), she planted seeds for battles against copyright infringement and illiteracy. The next role she plans to grow into is retirement, usually the proving ground for gardeners and grandparents, in a way that may incorporate cultivation of a different sort.

Streamline Your Workflow—and Maximize Your Content—With XML: Hachette Book Group's Phil Madans on the benefits of using XML to move from a print-centric to a content-centric workflow.
March 19, 2009

Beyond the printed book, many opportunities exist for publishers today to repurpose content in various formats and to increase exposure via online search marketing. However, if it is impossible to tag a book for search engine optimization, or adapt a book from a print to an electronic version, without copying, pasting and reformatting 100,000 words, then publishers could waste a significant amount of time and money in pursuit of these opportunities.

The Power of Podcasting: Bantam Dell Director of Internet Marketing Ken Wohlrob on how offering free content helped "Faefever" debut at No. 3 on The New York Times Best-seller List.
December 5, 2008

In preparation for the release of "Faefever," the third installment of Karen Marie Moning's “Fever” paranormal thriller series, Bantam Dell decided to utilized a varied set of promotional tools. Regular installments of a free podcast containing the full audio of "Darkfever," the original book in the series; a mass-market paperback release of "Bloodfever," the second entry in the series; and online excerpts of the first few chapters from the new title all helped push “Faefever” onto The New York Times Best-seller List.

HarperCollins Profits Plummet
November 7, 2008

HarperCollins parent company News Corp. reported its fiscal first-quarter results, including a $33 million decrease, from $36 million to $3 million, in HarperCollins' operating income compared to the same period last year. Last year, the $36 million in profits represented a 35-percent decrease from the year before.

The Importance of Finding Your Niche: A Q&A with publishing veteran Richard E. Abel
October 24, 2008

Richard E. Abel is a publishing renaissance man. From establishing publishing companies and owning his own bookstore to founding a book marketing and distribution company and writing his own works, Abel has had his hand in nearly every area of publishing. At age 83, time has not put a dent in his passion for the industry, even after his cardiologist’s advice to slow down after his third heart attack led him to sell Timber Press, the Portland-based horticultural niche publishing house that he started 30 years ago. Abel will receive the Publishers Association of the West’s Jack D. Rittenhouse Award at the organization’s

Insights at a Glance
October 1, 2008

What is your best management tactic? “People are the key to success. Build a team with diverse strengths, whose members are committed, goal-oriented and embrace change.” What is key to building collaboration among departments and vendor partners? “Recognizing the value of co-workers and business partners, being open-minded and willing to compromise, and always being fair.” What’s the best cost-saving tactic you (or Scholastic) has implemented? “One I’m most proud of is developing a lower basis-weight paper for one of our major book formats. It was truly a collaborative effort on the part of the mill, printer and Scholastic.” What keeps you up at night?

Digital Directions: The Third Rail
September 1, 2008

Like many parents of elementary-school-age children, I spend a fair amount of time around trains. Steam, cog or narrow-gauge, I am no stranger to the iron horse. Perhaps that explains the frequency of my use of railroad metaphors. This column is no exception. To realize the full potential of digital technology in product development and marketing, content organizations will continue to evolve over a long period of time. This journey can be represented as a railroad track with parallel rails. These rails are necessary to move forward and stay on course. But unfamiliarity with the track can have deadly consequences. The First Rail:

The Future of the Supply Chain Is (Almost) Here
September 1, 2008

Imagine this scenario: A pallet of books arrives at a distributor’s warehouse. It is scanned, allowing the system to keep track of the location of every book as the shipment is robotically de-palletized, stored and machine-prepared for shipment to retailers. Arriving at the point of sale, cartons are scanned at the door and all contents entered instantly into inventory, with special-order customers notified automatically that their book has arrived. Customers and employees can then discover with the click of a mouse exactly where a book is located in the store, and inventory, even at the largest bookstores, takes no more than 20 minutes.

Your Staff, Not Technology, Will Set Your Company Apart
September 1, 2008

Most of us have worked with both good and bad staff throughout our careers. Some are bang-your-head-against-the-wall awful. I remember one associate editor I had who was invariably late with his articles. The really bad part was that he didn’t give a hoot that it would impact the magazine, the readers or even other staff members. One time when I asked him, “Do you have your article?” he simply said, “Nope.” When I reminded him that it was past the deadline, he raised his hands and shoulders in a shrug. (Needless to say, we mutually agreed that the job was not for him.) Another

Marketing Interview: The Move Toward Fluid Content
August 1, 2008

The Web is an ever-changing animal. Keeping that in mind, the most successful online marketing executives must think in the future tense: coming up with inventive, original ideas to help publishers stay ahead of the game. Jeff Yamaguchi, associate director of online marketing for Random House Inc. division The Doubleday Publishing Group, is one such innovator, and he fills us in on a little secret—that the future tense is not enough. In June, Yamaguchi launched Doubleday’s newly revamped Web site, which uses a WordPress platform to simulate the look and usability of a blog while maintaining Doubleday’s integrity and standards as a