At the 9th Annual Education Industry Investment Forum (March 26-28), more than a hundred investors and entrepreneurs gathered to learn more about the current state of the $300B education market. As always, technology was the glue that binds.
Sparknotes’ Dan Weiss joined HM’s Craig Bauer and Beth Aguiar, VP of Apollo’s University of Phoenix, to talk about “The Publishers’ Perspective: Identify Challenges in Publishing and their Impact on Schools to Protect your Investments.”
Aguiar, who runs Phoenix’s publishing “rEsource” program, said that she was “eating her words” on ebooks. They have arrived, she announced, by which she meant that they are now interactive, multimedia-rich, and pedagogically effective. She cited specific examples of publishers that have begun to integrate educational ebooks with other material (online tutorials, online assessments etc.) so that they can work together seamlessly. Wiley, for instance, has a series with National Geographic, Visualizing Human Biology, that allows readers to see different aspects of the human body as they read about it–with automatic assessment and feedback.
Weiss agreed that with government dollars shifting to the district level, publishers are forced to build custom solutions more locally and thus expensively–making digital and ebooks an essential component for textbook publishers. Weiss also talked about how the tweaking of Sparks’ search engine optimization has resulted in high rankings for some of its titles. For instance, key in “Hamlet” on Google and the first entry will be the Sparknotes version. Noting too that publsihers are not likely to pass along any savings on educational titles to consumers, he discussed the advent of advertiser-supported books and book sites.
CAMEX – The Campus Market Expo – sponsored by NACS, is notable for two things: the lack of book exhibitors (publisher’s row has now shrunk to around ten or so die-hards, many with microscopic booths), and the lack of attendees in general. The ratio of vendors to bookstore badges has grown diproportionate, but unlike BEA there’s no one else there. So despite a rumored record attendance (what the CAMEX website refers to as a “Tropical Success”) in Orlando this year, the aisles seemed thinly populated–though all agreed that it was up from last year’s lackluster Houston event.
But eyebrows were raised at a publisher’s roundup meeting when NACS supplied an attorney to keep the discussion within the bounds of antitrust laws. The main subject was Thomson’s internet site ichapters.com, where students can buy chapters and textbooks directly from the publisher and where applicable a percentage flows to the referring college e-bookstore.
Absent that, the merchandise “spirit” wear and spirit gear ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime, with everything from Pets First–a small booth that featured all sorts of doggie spirit wear: sweaters, neckerchiefs, bowls, etc., to a faux tiffany-glass fire screen complete with a customizable school’s crest on it.
