Springer

A “slow, but steady decline” is how Rhonda Herman, executive vice president at reference publisher McFarland & Co. Inc., characterizes the market for reference books. “We are cautious about sales and will feel lucky if sales remain flat.” The reality of an economic downturn is starting to sink in—McFarland’s volume is flat, Herman says, “but actual income is down 2 percent. The reason for this is that we are experiencing higher than normal overstock returns, which is not surprising in this market.” Both direct and indirect costs are hitting the bottom line at the Jefferson, N.C.-based publisher. Higher fuel costs are forcing up the

As an early adopter of e-book technology, Springer Science+Business Media has distinguished itself as a digital leader in the science, technical and medical (STM) market and the book publishing industry as a whole. As more and more publishers are now adopting digital distribution strategies, the Germany-based Springer Science—which offers the largest STM e-book and journal collection—continues to move forward and expand the possibilities of e-commerce. Olaf Ernst, Springer’s president of eProduct management and innovation, spoke with Book Business Extra about Springer’s experiences in the e-book market, and what he refers to as the “second e-book wave.” Book Business Extra: E-books have been

When the “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” series decided to go global with its newest edition, “The Remarkable … Revealed,” the company took a chance by tweaking the typical foreign publishing model. Rather than licensing full publishing rights, as many publishers do, Ripley chose to handle printing and work directly with foreign distributors. “We’re finding that, with licensing, [foreign publishers] don’t [always] have the commitment we do,” says Norm Deska, executive vice president of intellectual property, Ripley Entertainment. “We’re looking to better establish our brand with a high-quality annual book, and the only way to do that was to do it ourselves.” Ripley, whose

When your stock-in-trade is information that drives innovation, people expect you to be on the leading edge. And so it is with the scientific, medical and technical (STM) publishing sector. While the STM market faces similar challenges to the rest of the publishing industry, its willingness to embrace electronic platforms and develop innovative revenue streams has positioned it well in the face of new competition brought about by the expansion of digital media. “The biggest challenge has been mastered, and that is the transition from paper to electronic for STM content,” notes Derk Haank, CEO of Springer Science + Business Media, the world’s

Coutts Information Services—-a book-supply, collection-management and shelf-ready services provider-—has announced an agreement with Stanford University. The Stanford University Library has acquired collections of eBooks from Coutts, to be hosted on the MyiLibrary platform. MyiLibrary.com is an Ingram Digital Group company, a global provider of digital content accession, storage, management and delivery services to publishers and other content owners. The acquisitions include approximately 7,000 titles from Oxford University Press, 3,000 Cambridge University Press titles and more than 12,000 titles from Springer. “This groundbreaking arrangement will send a strong signal to the academic library community that eBooks have entered the mainstream of book acquisition

Springer Science + Business Media does not view Google Book Search as a detriment to its business, but rather as a valuable marketing tool for its popular science, technology and medical (STM) titles. Paul Manning, vice president of book publishing for Springer, attributes much of the recent growth of the company’s back catalog of older titles to its participation with the controversial program. With more than 30,000 titles available in Google Book Search, the publisher saw more than 1 million views in a one-month period, and 20 percent of its “buy this book” clicks on the search were for titles older than 10 years

In the ever-changing world of multimedia and shoppers who expect things at the click of the mouse, e-commerce solutions are in high demand. “These days it’s so important to give your Web customers a great experience,” says Jim Morse, president of Morse Data Corp. To do so, it is important to select solutions that fit your company size, scope, staff and budget. The following advice from several e-commerce solution providers can help guide you through the process of deciding which product works best for your company. “A publisher should analyze the cost of not only the development of a solution, but the manpower

Embracing the promise of a bright digital future, the world’s second largest publisher of science, technology and medical titles recently introduced a new program allowing for unlimited electronic access to thousands of its titles. In June, Springer Science+Business Media announced the launch of its eBook Collection program -- an online collection of more than 10,000 -- during the American Library Association convention in New Orleans. According to Ray Colon, the global manager of Springer’s eBooks, the daunting task to digitize every title Springer publishes each year, as well as a substantial back catalog of thousands of titles, began in January 2005. “The position was taken at the

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