Westchester Publishing Services

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The Year of Working Remotely: How Westchester Supports our Clients

Client Portal

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

As we reach the anniversary of the beginning of the Pandemic “Lockdown” back in March 2020, two Washington Post articles caught my attention. One about the hindsight that can now be applied to the tragic impact of the COVID-19 virus on the world, which was far greater than any of us could have anticipated, and another about how conferences and events are trying to adapt to restart in-person industry meetings this year as hope around vaccines and recovery begins to take hold.  It was exactly a year ago that Westchester temporarily closed its Danbury location, hoping to have staff return expediently once it was safe.  A year on, nearly all of us are continuing to work from home, with only select staff going into the office as needed to tend to billing and postal needs.  As vaccine distribution improves, we look forward to more formally reopening our operations in Danbury and Dayton in the States, Stratford upon Avon in the UK, and Noida and Chennai in India.

The pandemic quickly impacted all of us and the ways we engaged with our clients to support them evolved rapidly.  We realized that our history and expertise working distributed, globally, could help many of our clients who were newer to navigating the distributed or “work-from-home” model. Our marketing team quickly brought together clients and industry figures for a webinar to talk through their approaches to the challenges that hit us all immediately. On our website, we set up a Work from Home resources page, curating articles and other useful information to help people adapt to this new way of working.

Many of our clients were experiencing similar challenges within their operations, prompting us to create video content to address those issues, including:

You can find all of these and more video content on the Westchester YouTube channel.

We’re all continuing to consider what’s next for the publishing industry. On April 6th, Westchester will again partner with Publishers Weekly for the industry thought leader webinar, “Publishing Now ’21: Looking Forward”, featuring insights from Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks, Cathy Felgar from Princeton University Press, Lorraine Shanley of MPI, and Tom Chalmers of Legend Times.  I invite you and your colleagues to join us for this free webinar, and engage with these publishing experts on questions about all aspects of the industry and supply chain that are affecting you.

Westchester remains committed to helping the Publishing Industry with its changing editorial and production needs, and continues to pivot and address individual workflow needs for our clients, to help each client in their areas of greatest need. Stay connected with us through our webinars, video content, and our recently launched Westchester Words podcast, featuring short, impactful conversations on topics specific to the publishing industry. Contact Us to discuss your challenges, and how Westchester can help you.

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer
I hope the Summer is going well for you and your team, all things considered. Things have been very busy at US employee-owned Westchester Publishing Services despite the headwinds caused by the pandemic within our industry.  We are editing and typesetting more projects for our clients this year than in any past year.
Related to the challenges in our industry, though, I wanted to make sure you received the outcomes from the “Publishing Now” webinar that we co-hosted with Publishers Weekly last month. We were fortunate enough to have stellar speakers from Princeton University Press, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Ingram, and the Book Industry Study Group on our panel, and the feedback to their insights about the supply chain and state of the industry was very favorable.
In case you missed the link to watch the webinar or read the post-webinar assets, you can access that info here.
One outcome for Westchester coming on the heels of the webinar is that many of our clients are engaging with us about different ways of working together. From an increased interest in using our Client Portal to having us handle different types of editorial or production tasks besides those we have handled for them before, we are finding our clients leaning on Westchester more and more for support in the current climate. 
Let me know if a quick call about any new ways we can help you would be helpful.  Be well.

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

If you were fortunate enough to be in Central London, tonight, you would have had the opportunity to attend another great BookMachine event, this time focused on book production.

Our friend and partner, Andy Wilson, Principal of Media at Dropbox, spoke at the BookMachine Unplugged session tonight as one of the panelists presenting on how publishers can use new technology tools to improve their production processes. He discussed how publishers are working with Dropbox to accelerate their workflows, and shared case studies – including one about Westchester’s Client Portal, which integrates the Dropbox API and platform.

We were grateful for this opportunity for our friends at Dropbox to highlight the benefits of cloud collaboration, and talk about our use case in particular.  In case you haven’t seen the Client Portal before, it is a secure, web-based project management tool that helps publishers obtain real-time status updates about their projects in production and share project assets securely between authors, publisher staff and other key project stakeholders.  Westchester Publishing Services provides this platform at no cost to our clients on projects managed through Westchester’s editorial or production operations around the globe.  Contact Us to learn more about how the Client Portal can help you minimize your effort in managing your projects, and give you greater transparency into where each project is at each step in its workflow with Westchester.

by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

The calendar is winding down to the final days of the year, the decade, and Westchester’s 50th anniversary in business. It has been a really exciting year on many fronts, so join me to revisit some of the special moments during these past twelve months:

WESTCHESTER TURNED 50!

There was definitely a golden glow here at Westchester because, throughout the year, we were celebrating the significant achievement of being in business for half a century. The anniversary celebrations began with our appearance on the cover of Publishers Weekly’s February 18th issue, a profile article in the March 4th issue that helped us build a strong momentum heading into the London Book Fair, along with an article about our UK expansion in the Publishers Weekly Show Daily on March 12. We also hosted a stand party to toast our milestone anniversary with our friends and colleagues in the publishing community, where a wonderful time was had by all in attendance.

WESTCHESTER UK PROFILED IN THE BOOKSELLER

We have counted several UK-based publishers as loyal clients across the years, and realized we could do a better job of serving them and other UK and European-based publishers by having a more physical presence within the market. The Bookseller took note of our successful expansion efforts in this article (may require log-in to view) that was published in May, shortly before the British Book Awards.

NEW AGREEMENT SIGNED WITH MACMILLAN

In March, we signed a new agreement with Macmillan to continue the productive relationship our companies have enjoyed for more than a quarter-century. While Macmillan is no longer based in the iconic Flatiron building, we will always have fond memories of visiting the staff at their famous headquarters. Shortly before relocating to their new downtown digs this past summer, CEO John Sargent penned this article for Publishers Weekly about what it was like to work in this unique building.

 

UNFAMILIAR WINS AWARD

Great things were happening in our K-12 division as well in 2019. In the first quarter, the hi-lo graphic novel reader Unfamiliar, which was conceived, written, designed, and produced by our talented team received the Silver Hermes Creative Award from the Dayton, Ohio chapter of the American Advertising Federation. This video takes you behind the scenes to learn how the project went from concept to publication.

CLIENT PORTAL RECEIVES ACCOLADES

Unfamiliar was not the only award-winning initiative for Westchester this year. Our Client Portal, the secure, user-friendly, functional project management platform publishers want to incorporate into their pre-press production workflow was also receiving its fair share of positive attention. In May, The Stationers Company, the London-based guild for the media and publishing industry, shortlisted the Client Portal for their Innovation Excellence Awards, and in October, we presented about our Client Portal at the Rutgers Design Thinking program board meeting. In November, our partnership with  Dropbox – who worked with us to enhance the Client Portal’s capabilities – was recognized with a first-place win at the Bookbuilders of Boston NEPCo (New England Publishing Collaboration) Awards.

The video below, which was produced in partnership with Dropbox explains how we were able to incorporate the functionality our clients required into a beautifully designed platform that is easy for publishers to use.

CONFERENCES AND CLIENT MEETINGS

In addition to London Book Fair mentioned above, in 2019, members of the Westchester staff were busy criss-crossing North America and Europe meeting with clients and prospective partners at numerous trade shows and events, engaging in productive discussions with our think tank, university press, and legal clients. Westchester attended events as varied as SXSW EDU, ASU/GSV, the International Studies Association, British Book Awards, Association of University Presses, Frankfurt Book Fair, and FutureBook.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Last spring, the Westchester K-12 team started a program, where each month, one staff member funds a public school project that is trying to secure donations through the DonorsChoose website. Each selection is truly personal, and they have funded classrooms from New York, to California, and cities in between.

YEAR IN REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WESTCHESTER K-12 TEAM

Recently, I asked members of the Westchester K-12 team to share some insights with me about a project or event that they were involved with during this year that was particularly meaningful for them. You can read their thoughtful responses in this blog post.

TIME FOR 2020 VISION

As we get ready to welcome both a new year and decade, we’re looking forward to several exciting events. In January, Westchester K-12’s Walter Henderson, Jr., begins his two-year term on the ETIN (Education Technology Industry Network) Board of Directors, and he will also be representing Westchester K-12 at the BETT Show in London.

We also have plans to exhibit or sponsor at several conferences, including London Book Fair, and the ASUGSV Summit. Visit our Conferences and Events page to learn where we will be and if you’re planning to attend one or more of these shows, be sure to make an appointment to meet us to discuss how we can be your trusted partner in publishing.

We look forward to seeing you in 2020, and talking about the many effective solutions we have to help you with your content development, editorial, and production needs. From everyone here at Westchester Publishing Services, best wishes for a happy holiday season and a wonderful start to the 20s!

Always be up to date with everything that’s happening at Westchester by following us on our LinkedIn pages for Westchester Publishing and Westchester K-12, watching Westchester on YouTube, and subscribing to our blogs for the latest information about us. We would love to hear from you, too! Drop us an email at any time with your questions or to discuss your publication requirements.