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The Stationers’ Company

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by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

Regular readers of this blog may be aware of my participation in The Stationers’ Company, the City of London’s livery company – or guild – for the publishing and media industries.  For myself and the other US-based members of The Stationers’ Company, the inability for us to travel to London for Company events has been disappointing.  Nonetheless, the Company has invested a great deal of energy and no shortage of resources in keeping programming viable via Zoom.  Frequent webinars and presentations about the state of the industry, new projects that members are working on, as well as the odd night or two of virtual pub trivia have kept us connected with our friends and colleagues in the UK.

Recently, I had the great privilege of participating in an interview hosted by the Master of the Company, the Right Reverend Stephen Platten. Platten was educated at The Stationers’ Company School, a since-closed school that had been run by The Stationers’ Company. He went on to serve in the clergy, including a role as the last Bishop of Wakefield for the Anglican Church. In his retirement, he has been increasingly active in the Company, leading the Company through the expansion and upgrade of the historic Stationers’ Hall in Central London. You can see our discussion in the YouTube link below.

If you have an interest in The Stationers’ Company and want to learn more about its efforts in the UK, US, and the rest of the world to connect publishing professionals, please use the Contact Us form, and I will get back to you promptly.

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

BISG logoWestchester Publishing Services is proud to share that we recently became a member of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). BISG works to provide solutions that will positively impact on two or more parts of the publishing supply chain, which in addition to publishers, includes packagers like Westchester, printers, distributors, and companies that collect, use, and analyze the data and metadata that are critical to the success of the entire supply chain.

Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer for Westchester said, “Joining BISG is a long overdue commitment from Westchester Publishing Services to the publishing industry.  The work that Brian O’Leary and the BISG board and committees have done to advance the business of making books is critical to the stability and growth of the publishing industry.  Westchester has participated in discussions around workflow and industry trends in an unofficial capacity with BISG for some time, but with the pandemic’s impact on publishing, we see the importance of playing a more active role in one of the industry’s most critical organizations.  We encourage all publishers to explore the BISG.org website, the white papers on different aspects of our industry, the research produced by BISG’s member committees, and join the discussion.”

Brian O’Leary, Executive Director of BISG shared this regarding Westchester Publishing Services becoming a member, “We’re happy to welcome Westchester Publishing Services to BISG. Our members work collaboratively to solve problems that affect two or more parts of book publishing, improving revenues, and reducing friction between trading partners. At a time when we’re challenged to find new ways of working together, BISG provides an important way to identify and address industry issues through standards, best practices, and new approaches.”

The work of BISG is advanced through the work group committees staffed by volunteers from member organizations who strategize solutions that will benefit the larger publishing ecosphere, helping the industry to remain strong and grow more adept to handle the challenges of publishing and disseminating printed content in ever more myriad formats and distribution channels. To learn more about the work BISG does and to find out how your company can become a BISG member, please visit their website.

by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

The staff at Westchester’s locations around the world are continuing to work remotely for their health and safety as well as that of their families. During this time, they have also been providing additional guidance for our customers as phases at other points in the publication project lifecycle are being impacted as a result of world events.

Regardless of whether we complete our work in an office or our homes, what remains consistent is our unwavering commitment to provide our clients with excellent service on every project they send to us. Read on to learn how each of our business units worked in various ways to support the evolving needs of our clients and industry colleagues during Spring 2020:

English language learning webinar

As students around the world shifted to a home-based learning environment practically overnight, one group requiring extra support were English language learners. Students learning an additional language benefit from in-person instruction that helps them obtain important communication concepts. Westchester Education Services’ Walter Henderson, Jr., moderated a webinar with language teaching experts in April that focused on how to support the needs of these students, and shared quality online language-learning resources that students could use while continuing their studies remotely.

Conferences Transform into Virtual Events

Event organizers who had in-person conferences planned for the spring had to make quick decisions, shifting from physical meeting spaces for delivering keynotes and conference content to platforms like Zoom and Skype. Chief Revenue Officer, Tyler M. Carey, wrote a blog post detailing how conferences serving the academic and university press sectors, including ALPSP UP Redux and AUP adjusted their content and delivery methods to keep their members informed.

How Westchester Supports Publishers

Download Services Checklist

Over the last four months, you’ve likely had to adapt some of your publication processes as a result of your staff working from home. Westchester has experience with creating workflows for our clients based on their project requirements, and we’ve received many inquiries about handling tasks that are further upstream or downstream in the editorial and production process. Read this case study about how we designed a custom workflow for West Margin Press, and review our services checklist to see all the ways that Westchester can help you.

 

Westchester Education Services participate in two SIIA panels

The Software and Industry Information Association (SIIA) Education Technology Conference originally scheduled for two days in June, was another conference that revised its format to virtual sessions, which took place over the course of three weeks in May and early June. Westchester Education Services President and Chief Content Officer, Kevin J. Gray, was the moderator for the session, “Haven’t We Seen This Before? Lessons Learned”. The knowledgeable panel of education industry experts provided guidance to the audience about what is working with remote learning and where improvements are needed to support students and their families. Kevin was also a panelist for the session “Product Paths to Support Learning”, that explored how educational publishers and ed-tech providers are adjusting their products and services to meet learners where they are in remote learning environments. (SIIA login may be required to view sessions)

Use the Client Portal to streamline project management

Having an easy to use, secure project management platform that helps you see the status of every project and each asset associated with it can save you from the hassle of lots of emails, and phone calls to track important information down while you and your staff are working remotely. This video overview of the key features of our award-winning Client Portal shows how efficient project management can be. After you watch it, get in touch with us to learn how it can be customized to your requirements.

IPG Virtual Spring Conference

Like the US, the UK conference calendar was upended, most notably with the London Book Fair completely scrapped for 2020. The Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) Conference originally planned as a one day event at the beginning of May transitioned to a 2 day virtual conference hall at the beginning of June. Westchester Publishing Services UK was an exhibitor at this first of its kind event for the IPG. Prior to the conference, UK Managing Director, Tim Davies, shared a video to IPG members about how Westchester supports independent publishers in challenging times and potential longer-term impacts for the industry.

Westchester Education Services forms DEI Committee

The need for increased representation in the publishing industry is very topical due to current events, and something that Westchester has been incorporating into our recruitment efforts for staff and freelance resources for a longer time. In March, the Education Services team unveiled a DEI Mission Statement that includes action items for creating and nurturing a diverse talent base. In June, we announced the formation and membership of a DEI Committee, who are responsible for developing goals and guiding the strategies to ensure an inclusive and equitable working environment for everyone. Later this summer, we will be hosting a webinar about measurable steps that publishers and ed-tech providers can implement within their business. While we still have more ground to cover in our own organization to achieve full equity, we believe it is important to work together with our industry partners so we can all develop best practices that help everyone attain this goal.

An out of this world Nibbies

The British Book Awards, known by their nickname the Nibbies usually holds a formal gala event to recognize publishers and authors that have had a significant impact on the British publishing industry during the previous year. Westchester Education Services sponsored the Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year category which was awarded in late June, While we couldn’t be there in person to congratulate the winner, having an astronaut make the announcement is a pretty cosmic way to share the news. Watch the publisher shortlist and winner announcement in this video, courtesy of The Bookseller.

Stay connected with Westchester

Stay in the know about the different products and services Westchester offers, including topical webinars by following our LinkedIn pages for Westchester Publishing Services and Westchester Education Services. To make sure we’re delivering content that’s relevant, take this one-minute survey to let us know what topics you would like Westchester to provide presentations about.

Everyone at Westchester hopes that you, your family and your colleagues will continue to stay safe and in good health. Our entire team stands ready to help our customers, our partners and others within the industry with editorial, production, and project management tasks related to your publishing program. We invite you to give us a call, send an email, or visit our website to learn more.

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

virtual conferenceUniversity Presses have been key partners of Westchester Publishing Services for decades, and were a primary impetus for us to launch our Domestic Full Service operation in Danbury, Connecticut, our India Direct Full Service operation in Noida, India, and our UK operation in Stratford upon Avon.  From Cambridge, Massachusetts to London, England to the campuses of small state universities and large research, land grant private universities, Westchester works with each partner to identify the right editorial and production options to support our partners with books and journals ranging from simple monographs to complex, 4-color textbooks.

Usually, this time of year, I’d be just wrapping up my Spring travels to England for the London Book Fair and ALPSP’s biennial UP Redux conferences, where the university presses we support gather globally to discuss the state of the industry, efforts to improving diversity at presses and within the voices represented in their lists, considerations for printing and distribution, and more.

With the pandemic impacting travel and business, many of our partner organizations are innovating and re-purposing content that had been intended for presentation at conferences as virtual meetings or webinars.  Last week, ALPSP debuted the first in a series of free webinars to substitute for the canceled UP Redux conference, with the first session focused on Open Access, titled “Monographs, open access and public policy: UKRI OA consultation 2020.”  Speakers included: Sarah Faulder (Chief Executive, Publishers’ Licensing Services), Richard Fisher (Vice Chair, Yale University Press), and Helen Snaith (Senior Policy Advisor, Research England).  A recording of the session is provided here, and key topics included the current state of the UK open access policy, trends around open access at university presses and in scholarly publishing, and the general state of affairs for university presses at this time.  I highly recommend checking out the above recording and the pending Q&A info that will be posted at the same link soon.  Upcoming webinars will cover balancing a press’ mission and money, as well as more topics on open access following the UK’s review period of its open access policies.

AUP also wisely chose to move its annual conference to a virtual model.  Keep your eyes on this page for news about the format of the virtual event to be held in June.  We’ll miss the chance to visit our friends and colleagues in person in Seattle, but are confident the program will be as engaging as the typical AUP annual conference.

Other organizations have been putting together compelling virtual meetings, including recent sessions from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Copyright Clearance Center about how publishers and content organizations are looking beyond the current crisis to new opportunities around their content, Digital Book World’s “DBW.fm” session tomorrow about the “three-headed monster” of audiobooks, podcasts, and voice assistants, and other industry groups’ state of the union types of sessions about how the pandemic is impacting segments of our industry from printing to distribution and more.

Westchester will also soon be launching a new video about our Client Portal – and how it can help you manage your Westchester projects while you work from home.  We also have webinars planned for the next two months about the topics our clients are raising not just about our services but about the industry in general.  Stay tuned!

What virtual meetings have you found useful?  How are you considering the impact of the pandemic on the university press space?  Contact us to talk about trends you’re seeing, and any thoughts you have on how our industry is evolving.  My colleagues and I look forward to hearing from you.

Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

We are only four months into the year, but it’s clear that 2020 will be profoundly transformative. The coronavirus pandemic has had far-reaching impacts on the way our clients and colleagues conduct business that was unimaginable a few months ago. Westchester’s global workforce has transitioned to a distributed model in order to fully support our clients’ needs as they respond to rapidly evolving changes within the supply chain.

Below are several ways that we have worked with our clients and the industry, prior to and during the crisis.

Publishing transitions to working from home

In mid-March, recognizing the seismic relocation every company was experiencing at nearly the same time, we hosted a webinar that gathered together several publishing industry professionals to share their insights and useful ideas about ways publishers could help their staff – some who had never before worked from home – transition to a distributed workforce. You can watch the video presentation or download the slide deck and a printout of all the questions that were answered during and after the webinar. We have also curated a resources page with links to a variety of informational and educational content for you and your family.

Westchester K-12 gets a new name

In early January, we shared the exciting news that Westchester K-12 Publishing Services had changed its name to Westchester Education Services. This new name is a more accurate reflection of the expanded range of product development areas that our team is able to provide support in for educational publishers and ed tech companies. Along with the updated name comes a new and improved website.

BETT 2020

Tim Davies, Kevin J. Gray, and Walter J. Henderson, Jr., at the WES BETT BoothLater in January, Westchester Education Services attended the BETT Show which took place at London’s ExCeL Convention Centre. Our team members from the US and UK enjoyed having the opportunity to meet with education publishers and ed tech companies from across the globe and share information with them about the various ways we could help them conceptualize and bring their projects to market. Kevin Gray, President and Chief Content Officer, prepared this blog post of conference highlights.

West Margin Press

West Margin Press logoMint Editions is a recently launched imprint that is part of Ingram’s West Margin Press, and one of the newest client publishers Westchester has begun working with. As we do with all of our more than 200+ clients, we listened to the needs the Mint Editions team expressed and worked with them to customize an effective production approach that met their requirements. As West Margin’s publishing director Jennifer Newens shared, “It has been a wonderful experience working with Westchester on our book production needs for these titles!” Let us know how we can help you with the editorial and production phases of your publication process.

Denise Hart appointed at Westchester Education Services UK

In early March, we announced the appointment of Denise Hart as Operations and Project Lead at Westchester Education Services UK. Denise has extensive experience and expertise in UK educational publishing, having previously been Content and Operations Director at Rising Stars / Hodder Education; latterly advising UK educational publishers in her role as an independent Publishing Operations Consultant. Working with Tim Davies, Westchester’s UK Managing Director, Denise will be supporting Westchester Education Services UK in its continued growth in both the UK and international educational and ELT publishing sectors, as well as its work with EdTech companies worldwide. Contact Tim to arrange a convenient time to discuss your product objectives and how we can help.

Westchester Education Services DEI Mission

Nilofer and Jalen at UD Career Fair Winter 2020Nilofer Ali, Westchester Education’s Resources Manager has been very busy during the past few months. February brought the announcement of a partnership with Dayton Young Black Professionals, intended to increase awareness of career paths for publishing in the Greater Dayton area. Shortly after that, Nilofer and Jalen Turner, a University of Dayton student who also interns with Westchester, participated in the campus Career and Internship Fair to bring attention to the opportunities in educational publishing. If you haven’t visited our website recently, I encourage you to see the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion section and review the resources that Nilofer has compiled with the intention to foster a dialogue within the educational publishing industry about this important topic.

Westchester Supports UK Book Trade Awards

Further expanding its extensive sponsorship programme, Westchester Education Services UK announced its sponsorship of a key category in both of the two most prestigious 2020 UK book trade awards programmes:

  • The Independent Publishers’ Guild Award for ‘Education Publisher of the Year’.
  • The British Book Award for ‘Academic, Professional, and Education Publisher of the Year’

Keeping you informed with relevant content

We host webinars periodically, including our next one on April 28 that will be moderated by Walter J. Henderson, Jr., Senior Supervising Editor of ELT at Westchester Education Services, about supporting the needs of ELT students while they are out of school. Complete this 1 minute survey to tell us what topics you would like Westchester to provide more information on.

 

All of us at Westchester hope you, your family, and your colleagues will continue to be safe and in good health. As a business that has worked alongside publishers on their evolving publication needs for more than fifty years, we remain ready to help our industry partners. Our entire team is available to help our customers — along with anyone else in the industry with editorial, production, or other tasks related to your publishing program or online content. We invite you to give us a call, send an email, visit our website, or follow us on LinkedIn to remain connected during these unprecedented times.