Nov
11
Thinking back from the user requirement
Filed Under Blog, Cengage, Industry Analysis | Leave a Comment
Cengage has been quiet since its acquisition, so an interview with Ron Dunn is bound to bring good news. And it does – re-invented portal environments to bring Gale back into play (despite rumours of Gale being on the block) and cutdown magazine style short textbooks. User needs: they don’t want to have to handle more content than necessary, but they do want to go to finite spaces that have all you need for the assignment. Despite the problems in global education in a recession, Cengage is still in the right place, and needs to go on re-inventing itself.
Nov
9
Publishing fashionistas pursue paywalls and exit magazines
Filed Under Blog, Industry Analysis, Publishing, Thomson | Leave a Comment
You will know the market leaders by the quality of their exits. Thomson left newspapers and B2B advertising supported journals a decade ago. The people who bought those businesses are now erecting paywalls around them (Emap) or selectively diminishing them (UBM – see Paid Content for more). This may represent wisdom at the broker analyst level – and pleasing shareholders is always very important – but does it add up to a strategy which acknowledges a fundamental truth: for these players, advertising is dead and will never satisfactorily be exhumed post-recession.
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