1. How to Think, Work, and Win in
the Digital Global Educational
Publishing Market
Michael Ross
Senior Vice President
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Book Publishers Association of New Zealand
“The Future of the Book”
Auckland, June 25, 2009

2. What I Want to Cover
• Actual digital growth and some crystal ball
gazing
• Formats: Ebooks v online databases (and what
about print?)
• Assets: What to prepare for and how
• Distribution: Business models that deliver
• How Publishers Can Make Their Case: A Page
from the Web—Showing v Telling

4. A Few Stats About the Facts
2008 U.S. wholesale retail eBook sales were an
estimated $52.4 million, a 65% increase over 2007. --
Association of American Publishers, 12/08
88% of 552 surveyed libraries across the globe
owned or subscribed to ebooks. -- E-brary 2007
Global Librarian E-Book Survey
…Kindle-ized books now account for 12% of all books
sold in digital and print versions [on Amazon]. -
-Warming to the Kindle, Time Magazine, July 17, 2008

5. More Stats About the Facts
In Korea, E-book sales are doubling
every year and were over $200M in 2008.
In 2006 in Japan, consumers bought
331% more books on phones than in
stores. ($82M from $0 in 2001)—The Economist

6. US Trade Wholesale Electronic
Book Sales

7. Formats: Print + (Ebooks +DBs)

8. Print v Ebook

9. Ebooks v
Databases

10. A Challenge We Can’t Ignore
The Lonely
Existence of
Databases in an
Increasingly Google-
Dominant World: A
Problem for All of
Us.
How do we affect
behavior?

11. Beyond Reference in the Education Space
• Being part of the day-to-day Essentials
• Moving into the Classroom
• Being Relevant
• Providing Solutions, Not Just Information
• Solving Homework Problems
• Improving Test Scores

12. Databases/Digital
Products That
Meet Specific
Needs. . .
. . . And
going
where the
money is.

13. Mixed Media: From the Book to the Web

14. Sound Advice

15. Ready to Meet all Needs on a
Worldwide Stage
• Convergence of all media
• Deployable content in all
Media
• Go where the Markets are
• Vigilant about obsolescing
formats
• Is there something that will
obsolesce the Internet?

16. Internet2
Stay Tuned
. . . Because We’ve Only Just Begun
Thank you!