Westchester Publishing Services

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Westchester Wrap-up – Spring 2018

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by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing and Conference Manager

Maybe it sped by due to how busy we are here at Westchester, but spring has bloomed into summer. Join me for a quick rewind of some of the key events that occurred during the months of April, May, and June at Westchester Publishing Services:

London Book Fair 2018, and Guildhall

Several members of our management team were in attendance at the 47th Annual London Book Fair in April. The Book Fair provided us with the opportunity to affirm our business growth in the UK, formally launching Westchester Publishing Services UK, with Managing Director, Tim Davies. It was a productive event for us, and our preparations are already underway to return next March.

While in London, our Chief Revenue Officer, Tyler M. Carey was bestowed the prestigious honor of the Freedom of the City of London by the Stationers’ Guild. A unique benefit granted by this recognition is that he can now legally drive a flock of sheep across London Bridge. If you don’t believe me, you can read more about it in this blog post.

An alphabet soup of conferences

In addition to London Book Fair, Westchester staff attended several conferences and trade shows this spring throughout the U.S., including NCTM(National Council for Teachers of Mathematics), CSE (Council of Science Editors), SSP (Society for Scholarly Publishing), BEA (BookExpo),  SIIA(Software and Information Industry Association), AUP (Association of University Presses), and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). We catch our breath in July and August but as you’ll see from our Conferences page, the pace picks up again in September with Publishers Weekly StarWatch, IPG Autumn Conference, and The Bookseller Children’s Conference.

Publishers Weekly Whitepaper, and Dropbox Partnership

Westchester sponsored production on a whitepaper that was published and distributed by Publishers Weekly in April, with in-depth analysis about how publishers of various sizes and types are able to effectively scale their programs through the use of prepress vendors. Following on this successful venture, Dropbox shared news last month about the work they do with companies in the media and entertainment vertical, including publishers and vendors. We also had an informative Q&A session with George Baier IV, from Dropbox, which provided a useful perspective on this topic.

Westchester continues to grow

By providing quality products and services to our valued clients, our business has grown and flourished over the past several years. To further ensure accounts continue to receive the high level of support we pride ourselves on, we recently welcomed Keri Goldberg to our sales and marketing team in the role of Business Development Manager. Current and prospective clients alike will find Keri’s background in publishing to be helpful as they consider prepress solutions for their particular needs. Westchester is also looking for editorial and production talent as various areas of the company expand, visit our Careers page for more information.

Westchester K-12 Summit

Our K-12 Services team held their annual summit at their Dayton, Ohio headquarters to strategize on how to build on the successes of the past year to achieve continued forward momentum. Having the entire team – who are located throughout the country – come together in one location was beneficial for all involved. It gave our staff an opportunity to discuss the student books, teacher’s guides, assessments, leveled readers, and other projects that the teams have been working on. It also allowed them to explore the expanded capacity and additional service offerings they are now able to provide clients as a result of hiring additional staff earlier in the year.

Summer Reading

Reading isn’t a seasonal pastime, but it seems especially enjoyable to read the latest bestseller or a book from the stack on your nightstand during the somewhat more carefree days of summer. My colleagues and I shared a few of the books we plan to read this summer, along with recommended reading lists in this recent blog post, in case you’re searching for ideas. Happy reading, and enjoy the rest of your summer!

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by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

Though it took a long time getting to the East Coast this year, I really enjoy the spring season because it’s a time of optimistic renewal that generates a positive attitude in almost everyone. As all of us at Westchester look ahead to the events that will be taking place over the next few months, I hope you’ll take a moment to catch up on a few of our highlights from the first quarter of 2018:

Westchester K-12 opens office in Dayton

The Westchester K-12 Publishing Services division began the year by completing their move into an office located in downtown Dayton, Ohio. As Kevin J. Gray, Managing Director, K-12 Publishing Services noted, “Dayton is a perfect location because of the deep well of educational publishing talent in this region and its proximity to the midwest offices of many of the publishing houses Westchester K-12 serves.”

Westchester and Learnosity form an alliance

In February, Westchester announced we’ve entered into an agreement with Learnosity, an assessment platform firm based in Ireland. Westchester K-12 Publishing Services is the first company to join Learnosity’s newly created Custom Content division, providing a beneficial resource for educational publishers who need content creation services along with a flexible assessment platform which can integrate with their current systems.

 

Hitting the road, Westchester style

The year got off to a busy start, as we headed out to sponsor and exhibit at conferences including ALPSP UP Redux, IPG Spring Conference, and PubTechConnect. If you’re wondering where Westchester will be this spring, keep reading…

 

Where in the world is Westchester going now?

Westchester recently attended the London Book Fair, and highlights from this trip can be found here. Other shows Westchester is sponsoring or attending in the coming weeks include NCTM (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics) at the end of April, in Washington, DC, the Council of Science Editors conference in New Orleans at the beginning of May, and the Society for Scholarly Publishing conference in Chicago later in May. Visit the Conferences and Trade Shows page on our website to see a complete listing, and subscribe to our blog so you can be up-to-date about all things Westchester!

 

Turning a new page

In March we bid a fond farewell to Lynn Taylor, who expertly led our Journals division over the last several years. Lynn decided to retire so she would have more time to enjoy with her family and friends. While Lynn will be missed at Westchester by colleagues and clients alike, the Journals division is now in the equally capable, and competent stewardship of Celeste Bilyard, Production Manager, Journals Services.

At Westchester, we welcome the opportunity to meet with clients and prospective partners throughout the United States, the UK, and beyond. If you’re interested in learning how we can help you more effectively manage editorial, design, and production requirements like we have done for your peers, please contact us to find out more.

Plugging in: Insights from the CSE and SSP 2017 Annual Meetings – by Guest Blogger Tim Cross

As I mentioned in last month’s blog post, spring is a busy time of year for meetings.  I’m a firm believer in the importance of plugging in and recharging, and my recent travels to both coasts for important conferences within the scholarly and scientific communities allowed me to connect with colleagues, peers, and the pulse of current trends in scholarly publishing.

I was in San Diego in late May to attend the Council for Science Editors conference in San Diego, where as co-chair of the Mentorship Committee along with Ken Heideman, I had the privilege of launching the new CSE Mentorship Program. This initiative is designed to help meet the needs of members seeking opportunities for growth and knowledge-sharing in scholarly publishing and editing. Interested individuals are paired with a mentor who will provide guidance through a combination of group activities, webinars, phone calls, and in-person visits over a one-year period. Feedback and recommendations will be gathered from all participants to make further refinements to the program. I look forward to seeing how the mentors and mentees will benefit from their participation in this exciting collaboration.

At the end of May, I traveled to Boston for the Society for Scholarly Publishing conference. While there, I moderated a session with panelists Anna Jester and Michael Jon Jensen about the evolving needs of publishers in the 21st Century, and the role service providers such as Westchester Publishing Services have in striking the proper balance as a partner with our publisher clients. The session was well received and there were thoughtful questions posed by the attendees.

Conference Topics in Common

There were a number of important topics covered at both meetings, from varying perspectives. The most significant highlights for me were:

  • The pervasiveness of piracy and the challenges that libraries and publishers face in fighting piracy, protecting researcher privacy, and streamlining access to content at institutions while balancing concerns for copyright and the potential for data breaches
  • The emergence of open access monographs and other innovations in scholarly book publishing that work toward aligning this channel of publication with research and academic journals
  • The need for agreed-upon standards and cross-industry collaboration between stakeholders in the management of data repositories and publication, metadata, persistent identifiers, and funding and Open Access requirements
  • Ongoing trends in Open Access journals, peer review, publication ethics, revenue models, and other aspects of the scholarly publishing endeavor that continue to be front-and-center issues of importance and interest to attendees

My colleagues and I realize the importance of active engagement with the scholarly community.  By having regular conversations, meetings, and involvement at conferences, a service provider like Westchester Publishing Services is able to better understand the challenges and goals publishers are contending with, allowing us to be a more effective partner in helping them fulfill their mission.

If you attended either the CSE or SSP conference, I’d love to hear from you. Which speeches or sessions did you find the most helpful and informative for you? Drop me an email at: tim.cross@westchesterpubsvcs.com to let me know. Also take a moment to visit our Events page to see the conferences Westchester Publishing Services participates in throughout the year, and if you think there are ones we should be adding to our schedule, contact us!