News

August 5, 2019

Thank you for thinking of us. We appreciate the outreach of so many of our clients, business partners, and friends today who inquired about the safety of our K-12 team in our Dayton office. Westchester is saddened by the senseless tragedies that took place over this weekend by our office. As many of you know, our K-12 office is located in The Oregon District in Dayton and we are incredibly thankful that our team is safe. We deeply grieve for all who are affected. Please keep our Dayton neighbors in your thoughts as we all begin to heal.

Our offices are open and we remain dedicated to your projects, and we appreciate you keeping our Dayton neighbors in your thoughts as the city begins the healing process.

For more information about the Oregon District – please visit their page here: http://www.theoregondistrict.org/

#DaytonStrong

June 25, 2019

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

Westchester is continually reviewing feedback regarding our Client Portal. The Client Portal, our no-cost online system for project management, is currently in formal release v. 2019.C.05, but a small, new feature was added this weekend that may make your life a little easier if you are a client with many live projects or articles in the Client Portal at once. Meet the ability to indicate “Priority” projects in your dashboard.

How does the new “Priority” Star work? In the Header of the Dashboard you will see a new Star icon next to “Action”. The Star is next to each job you have showing on your Dashboard as well.

This star will allow you to flag a job as a priority for you only.

So, if you have a priority project that you are focusing on, click the Star next to the job and it will change to red. You can then sort on the Star in the header, and all your jobs you flagged as priorities will show at the top of your Dashboard list.

Here are some screenshots to put more context to the above:

Click the Star next to a job and it turns red.

Sort on the Star in the header bar, and it will sort all Star jobs to the top.

This and other new features will be covered in the new User’s Manual we will be issuing in July.

Lastly, congratulations to Heidelberg UK for winning the Stationers’ Company Innovation Excellence Awards for 2019. Tim Davies, Managing Director of Westchester Publishing Services UK, represented Westchester at today’s awards ceremony, where The Client Portal was awarded a certificate for being shortlisted for the Customer Experience category. Congratulations to all our fellow nominees and to Heidelberg for the win!

Do you have suggestions for new features in the Client Portal? Call your account manager or Contact Us to share your feedback and ideas.

May 22, 2019

Welcome to the Westchester Publishing Services Client Portal version 2019.C.05, now more user friendly and feature rich to improve your productivity as publications move through the workflow. And as always, our Client Portal is Free for Westchester client projects. Later this year, you will be able to use our Client Portal for publications you manage entirely in-house (certain conditions will apply).

Enhancements include:

Improved Dashboard Timeline
Enhanced UI Rollovers
Sortability
New Data Export Options
and added Upload/Download Capabilities

Contact us to learn more about how the Client Portal can help you better track and manage your editorial and production projects with Westchester.

April 29, 2019

by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

Westchester is proud to be celebrating 50 years of providing publishers with quality pre-press services. The ways that content can be delivered and accessed are more numerous now than at any other time since Gutenberg invented the printing press, but our primary mission continues to be ensuring that we consistently deliver excellent customer service and finished files to our clients on every project we handle. Read on to see some of the significant moments that began our golden anniversary year:

Westchester turns 50!

Westchester began operations in 1969, and during the past 50 years the company has grown and evolved into what is currently the only U.S. based firm whose exclusive business has always been as a provider of pre-press services for publishers. We shared the celebratory news in the February 18 edition of Publishers Weekly, which also included this letter from President and CEO, Paul J. Crecca.

Macmillan U.S. extends contract with Westchester

In late March, after reviewing a number of options for handling their book composition requirements, Macmillan Publishers signed a new agreement with Westchester to continue providing U.S. managed book composition services for virtually all of their U.S. trade titles. We’re pleased that this long-term partnership which began nearly 30 years ago in 1992, will continue to grow stronger in the years to come.

London Book Fair

Members of the Westchester management team from the United States and United Kingdom returned to the Olympia this past March for London Book Fair. It was a busy three days of appointments with clients, prospective customers, and publishing industry friends. London Book Fair also provided the ideal backdrop to raise a celebratory glass to 50 years of success. Take a minute to enjoy some of the highlights in this installment of Travels with Tyler.

International Studies Association Conference

The month of March had a double meaning for our international ambassador of publishing services, a/k/a Chief Revenue Officer, Tyler M. Carey. He received a few more stamps in his passport as he made his way from London Book Fair, to Toronto, Ontario, for the 60th Annual International Studies Association convention. Catch up on highlights of his Canadian trip in this bonus edition of Travels with Tyler.

Westchester UK website

The UK office in Stratford upon Avon is off to a very strong start. This past February, we launched the new Westchester Publishing Services UK website to help publishers based in the UK and Europe learn more about the various editorial and typesetting options we can provide for their publications. Take a look around and let us know what you think!

Meet Tim Davies

If you’re a reader of our blog, you may be familiar with the profiles we publish periodically focusing on key personnel within the Westchester organization. In this recent post, we introduce you to Tim Davies, Managing Director of Westchester Publishing Services UK.

SXSW EDU 2019

In March, Westchester K-12’s Kevin J. Gray and Tim Cross attended the SXSW EDU conference in Austin, TX. Between appointments with clients and prospective customers, they had the opportunity to listen to sessions led by thought leaders and innovators in the education field. Read Kevin’s conference summary.to learn some of the conference highlights.

A positive ripple effect

A presenting sponsor of the SXSW EDU conference this year was Chevron, who is also a corporate partner of DonorsChoose.org, an online platform where public school teachers are able to submit funding requests for their classroom projects. Find out how receiving a gift card to DonorsChoose.org at the conference became the catalyst for a new initiative being led by our K-12 team.

Unfamiliar becomes familiar with award-winning

Westchester K-12 is now officially an award-winning team! The graphic novel Unfamiliar, an original work for middle grade readers that was conceptualized and created by our colleagues in Dayton, recently received an award from the Dayton area chapter of the American Advertising Federation. Take a look at this video, for a behind-the-scenes peek at some of the different steps involved in creating a graphic novel.

It’s easy to stay informed about the various conferences Westchester will be attending throughout the year, or learn more about our editorial and typesetting services by visiting our websites (westchesterpublishingservices.com, westchesterk12publishingservices.com, and westchesterpublishingservices.co.uk). You can also subscribe to our blog, or contact us to find out how we can become your trusted partner in publishing.

April 18, 2019

We are extremely pleased to announce the addition of Walter Henderson Jr. to our already top-flight editorial content development team at Westchester K-12 Publishing Services. Joining Anne Riccio, Supervising Editor for ELA & Humanities, and Dave Bailis, STEM Content Director — Walter adds the extremely important element of English Language Training (ELT) to the team’s capabilities.

Walter’s background and experience in ELT is extraordinary. He holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics from Georgia State University. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Walter studied linguistics in both France and the United Arab Emirates. In the 2000s, working for the U.S. Department of State, Walter taught English Language Training to U.S. Embassy teachers in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Chile and Ecuador. Also in the 2000s, Walter was a classroom instructor/professor of the English language in Atlanta, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and Ecuador, and also led the development of ELT course materials for many of the same organizations at which he taught.

From 2007-2010, Walter was dedicated to ELT content development and publishing for Cengage Learning. Then in 2010, he became an independent contractor in ELT content development for clients including National Geographic Learning, Cambridge University Press, Macmillan Education, and Pearson Education, just to mention a few.

Walter Henderson Jr. brings unmatched personal credentials in ELT, along with a wide network of ELT talent who are available to assist in the completion of essentially any ELT program that your product line-up requires.

Get in touch with us to find out how Walter can help you create fantastic ELT programs for English Language Learners from pre-K, K-12 and adult levels on both digital and print platforms.