Infotoday Blog Archive

Rossella Proscia, Marketing Director, Gale Cengage, notes that in their partnership with Financial Times, The Economist, and The Times (of London), the company has discovered a “fortunate niche.”  By providing primary source materials to financial researchers–including digitizing and offering backfiles of key publications–they have hit the nail on the head and answered a current market need.

Watch the video to learn more about the Gale Cengage strategy.

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Gale Cengage is showing The Financial Times historical archive at its stand (#526) in London

See also:  Barb Brynko’s post, below, on the archives

The market for medical information is a bright spot in STM markets, according to Karen Abramson, President and CEO, Medical Research, Wolters Kluwer,  Though other parts of the industry may have seen a decline last year, Wolters Kluwer actually experienced growth in the health sector and projects growth going forward in 2010.

At the Online Information show, the Wolters Kluwer team hopes to meet with customers and partners and carry on discussions started a few weeks ago at the Frankfurt Book Fair, close deals and look for new business, says Andrew Richardson, Managing Director, Europe and V.P. of Business Development for Wolters Kluwer Health.

Watch the video to hear more about how vendors view conditions in libraries and why Wolters Kluwer had success in a down market.

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You might also be interested in seeing a video on the Wolters Kluwer site where Karen discusses the vertical search solutions the company is demonstrating from its stand (#512) in London.

The SpringerMaterials innovation team (Dr. Thomas Mager, left)

While the buzz about Informa’s bid to buy Springer Science + Business Media was making headline news, Springer’s crew at Stand 410 was busy with the debut of its latest product, SpringerMaterials.

Scientists, researchers, and engineers can now access the 400-volume Landolt-Börnstein series with a single keystroke. Billed as “the world’s largest resource for physical and chemical data,” SpringerMaterials—The Landolt-Börnstein Database brings the print collection’s rich content into one easy-to-access online platform (91,000 online documents, more than 1 million literature citations, 165,000 substances, and 3,000 properties).

The core of the SpringerMaterials database is two-fold, according to Thomas Mager, vice president of reference and database publishing at Springer. “First, we wanted to build a user interface with a search engine, and second, we wanted to make the content findable,” he says. The content is actually annotated, he says, with a content layer on the screen that has an added “ghost or shadow world” overtop that includes a thesaurus, metadata, and deep indexing to offer quick, easy search capabilities. “The feedback from our customers who were involved in the trial has been overwhelming in a positive sense,” says Mager.

Users can search in several ways: via a Google-like search box, an advanced search tab that creates a Boolean search term automatically as the user sets up the parameters, or a color-coded periodic table. User-friendly speed typing also suggests terms and available content during a search; results also include text surrounding the search string to provide context, and faceted results display offerings in key subject areas (molecules and radicals, crystallography, etc.). There’s also a REACH tab to provide instant info for EU regulatory documentation.

And as for the buzz about negotiations between Informa and Springer? Yep, they’re true. Eric Merkel-Sobotta, executive vice president for corporate communications, confirmed that negotiations were ongoing, “but not exclusive … we’re currently in talks with several parties.” Stay tuned for more developments.

London Online begins with Day 2 of keynotes, conference sessions, and news about product developments on the exhibition floor. Information Today, Inc.’s roving video crew will continue to conduct on-the-spot interviews, so look for highlights of these interviews on this blog as we focus on state of the industry.

As in yesterday’s blog, two information industry experts shared their insights about the past year and what lies ahead, and today, we continue our report on the state of the industry from a financial perspective along with an industry analysis.

The commentary from our panel of experts has been excerpted from the front-page article in the December issue of Information Today, which is also available at www.infotoday.com.

Scott Peters
Managing Director
The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. In the third quarter of 2009, there were 466 M&A transactions worth $16.4 billion across the media, information, marketing services, and technology sectors, as tracked by The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), the U.S.-based media investment bank. Two markets actually saw growth in M&A activity in 2009 over 2008—the mobile and education sectors.

However, overall transaction volume fell 30%, while deal value declined 42% through 3Q versus the same period of 2008. While the number of announced deals is on par with 2005–2006 levels, the total deal value is on pace with 2002–2003 levels.

The key catalyst that drove the downturn in the M&A market was the virtual shutdown of the credit market starting in the summer of 2008, as U.S. total debt reached an all-time high of 368% of GDP at the end of 2008, according to Ned Davis Research, Inc. By comparison, the debt-to-GDP level stood at 265% before the Great Depression and had trended in the 160% to 180% range for most of the 20th century. In short, the country was overleveraged, and as a result, banks were hesitant to lend. …

Reheating Sectors Drive M&A
The most active M&A markets covered by JEGI have been Education Information, Technology & Training; Marketing & Interactive Services; Mobile Media & Technology; and Online Media & Technology. Together, these four sectors accounted for 337 deals or 72% of the transactions announced and 87% of deal value ($14.2 billion) in the 3Q.

Given strong growth forecasts for online advertising in the years ahead, interactive and mobile categories continue to see active M&A. According to Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM, global internet advertising will climb 11% to $64.7 billion in 2010, accounting for 15% of all global measured ad spending, up from a 13% share in 2009. Meanwhile, global mobile advertising is expected to climb 19% to $3.3 billion in 2010.

A recent Yankee Group Research, Inc. report estimates that nearly 7 billion U.S. smartphone application downloads will generate $4.2 billion in revenue by 2013, up from $343 million in 2009. With the number of U.S. smartphone users set to quadruple to 160 million by 2013, the Yankee Group describes the anticipated market growth as a gold rush. …

M&A Outlook
JEGI expects the following dynamics to influence an M&A market recovery: M&A activity will build on marketplace confidence; M&A valuations will continue to grow stronger; credit markets have begun to rebound; strategic companies that must reinvent/retool models will acquire; and private equity firms will be preoccupied with overleveraged portfolios.

Overall, the M&A market has begun to turn, and JEGI anticipates healthier deal activity for the balance the year, especially in the fast-growing media and information sectors, with strategic acquirers leading the way.

John Blossom
President, Senior Analyst
Shore Communications, Inc.After a whirlwind of economic adjustments in 2009, enterprise publishers, content technology companies, and their clients are hoping that the belt-tightening this year will set the stage for renewed economic health in 2010.

On the media side, the rapid acceleration of online content consumption and the rapid shift of advertising budgets to online venues spells good news for online revenues, but it also means that sinking traditional print revenues will be less likely to carry online publishing efforts that are not mature enough to manage their futures on their own. Micropayments, subscriptions, and other premium access models will try to fill the gap, but the success of premium mobile content-serving applications suggests that consumer spending on content may not all go to traditional publishers. At the same time, steps by business and scholarly publishers to leverage social media as a publishing platform will become far more serious in 2010. …

In the enterprise markets, parallel trends are challenging publishers that are seeing librarians with budgets already cut to the quick having to adjust to reshaped enterprise priorities. The other shoe to drop for enterprises will be a continuing reprioritization of collection acquisitions and more emphasis on consortium purchases and project-oriented content acquisition and billing.

Enterprises are also focused more on integrating content from multiple disciplines into services that can drive their revenues from product and service innovations more effectively. Much of the excitement in enterprise publishing will be with content integration and visualization services that aggregate content from multiple sources into decision-making platforms, making advanced search, categorization, and collaboration tools. It’s no longer about just searching in the enterprise: Search is now an editorial and data harvesting tool that feeds sophisticated display and analytics applications. The rapid rise of enterprise-ready cloud computing services underscores the importance of publishers being able to curate a wider array of content to support decision making. …

While Apple has gained attention in 2009 from the success of its iPhone, expect 2010 to be a year in which Google becomes more of a clear successor to Microsoft as a default global publishing platform in the enterprise and media markets. With its web-centric approach and long-term view of who needs to be served by content technologies, Google is well-positioned to challenge the world as a new kind of cloud-oriented content juggernaut in 2010. … If you thought the “Content Nation” activated by social media demonstrated impressive power in 2009, wait for a turbulent 2010 that will begin to expose just how much the center of power in publishing has shifted into the hands of audiences everywhere.

At day’s end on Tuesday, the rapid fire of champagne corks popping signaled the start of the official celebration of the publishing partnership between Gale, part of Cengage Learning, and the Financial Times.

Gale Cengage Learning rolled out its exclusive Financial Times Historical Archive 1888–2006, a coup for researchers and historians who now have easily searchable access of 119 years of global business and financial news in 790,000 newspaper pages. “Users can see the actual pages with all the articles, advertisements, and even the tombstones,” says Mark Holland, publisher director at Gale Cengage Learning. “Best yet, the essential businessman’s paper is completely searchable,” right down to the ads and market listings.

Updates to the collection will be added every year, says Alison Parker, content syndication director of the Financial Times. Parker, who says the news is targeted to “the C-suite,” added that the Financial Times is the only non-U.S. newspaper delivered to the White House every morning. The webpages of the Financial Times Historical Archive 1888–2006 are the signature salmon-pink hue, of course, equipped with a scrolling timeline along the bottom of the page that provides a quick search of highlights for each year. With Gale Cengage Learning’s reach into libraries in every country around the world, says Rossella Proscia, marketing director of Cengage Learning EMEA, the archives are poised to help researchers worldwide.

As for that signature salmon-pink paper? Parker says that one day in 1993, the FT was printed on white paper and circulation figures dropped nearly 50%. So the tradition reigns.

Mary Ellen Bates is an independent information professional having one heck of a busy year.

This year’s high demand for outsourced information services, she says, may have a positive affect on the future demand for information services and information professionals in-house, once the downside economy turns up-side again.

She also comments on the future of fee-based information services and discusses the characteristics of next-gen Info Pros now entering the workforce.  Watch the video.

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It hasn’t been the worst year for information professionals working in companies.  Their down-sizing took place prior to the big recession, observes Anne Caputo (DowJones), President-Elect, SLA (a.k.a., Special Library Association, but that could change any day now, as a vote on a new name is pending.)

Market opportunities also exist, Anne says, for companies offering information services and solutions.  But money isn’t freely available for just anything.   Products need to fit a high-level corporate objective, or the costs need to be able to be passed on to clients.

The outlook for corporate information professionals?   A name change is possibly also in order.  Sadly, an MLS doesn’t cut it anymore, says Anne.  Better would be an MBA.   And if you’re smart, you’ll get yourself imbedded in a place other than the corporate library.

It’s best to hear it in her own words.  Play the video.

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Not all is bleak in this economy, at least not if you’re an independent information professional.

Marcy Phelps, president, Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP), explains why the market is actually bullish for researchers like herself and other AIIP members all over the world.

Watch the first in this three-part series of videos, in which  Marydee Ojala, editor ONLINE magazine, discusses current conditions and the job outlook for Info Pros.

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As London Online 2009 officially opens its doors this morning, watch for Information Today, Inc.’s roving video crew on the exhibition floor. We’ll be conducting on-the-spot interviews that will appear in this blog during the conference covering the state of the industry from myriad angles.

In yesterday’s blog, we kicked off the commentary about the state of the industry with two information industry experts who shared their insights. Today, we’re featuring two other experts who are offering their perspectives of the past year and what lies ahead.

The commentary from our panel of experts has been excerpted from the front-page article in the December issue of Information Today, which is also available at www.infotoday.com.

Janice Lachance
CEO
Special Libraries Association (SLA)
In recent months, I have spoken to groups of librarians and knowledge and information professionals all over the world. Whether I am in Albany or Ahmedabad, Milan or Albuquerque, if I close my eyes and listen, I am hearing exactly the same thing: The traditional specialist librarian is becoming an endangered species. Corporations, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and universities are on the hunt, attempting to identify nonessential functions and positions they can cut.

At best, many special libraries are experiencing severe budget cuts that challenge their continued ability to deliver the knowledge organizations need in order to make effective decisions. At worst, these libraries—digital and brick-and-mortar—and the valuable professionals associated with them are disappearing.
Exacerbating this unfortunate trend is the misperception that in the digital age, librarians and information professionals are little more than book stackers and (expensive) human search engines. The tragedy is that special librarians are uniquely qualified to deliver what organizations will need most to recover from these hard economic times: actionable knowledge.

In the recovery from this recession, knowledge and information professionals have a timely opportunity to take action and show they are more than relevant—they are indispensable to successful organizations.

Ed Keating
Vice President, Content Division
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)
Economists believe we have passed through the low point of the current global recession. So what does that mean for the digital paid content industry? Because of the length and depth of the downturn, the digital content industry has fundamentally changed. Segments will be impacted unevenly as some markets shed thousands of workers that they will never rehire, while other markets have lost readership to free online substitutes. Try answering the following questions and determine how they apply to your content:

Q: Are your users looking for “good enough” or “perfect” information?
A: It used to be said that in order to succeed in the information industry, you needed to provide timely, accurate, and comprehensive information. As the price for these products increased through forced bundling and other tactics, consumers sought out substitutes that offered most of what they needed. Customers might trade off some content or functionality for a substantial drop in price. Would you rather provide a CUSIP (Committee on Uniform Security Identification Procedures) license or an EDGAR feed?

Q: Are print and digital managed as separate departments?
A: If they are, you are in big trouble. The same customer reads both print and online content. Organize your editorial, sales, and marketing accordingly. Otherwise expect to suffer through channel conflict and the pain of keeping people on the payroll who still think the internet is a fad. Would you rather be The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal?

Q: What containers are being used to deliver your content?
A: Newspapers and magazines still revolve around the concept of a page, and this is also the metric used for some websites. In the age of Twitter, wikis, and blogs, this notion seems quaint at best. Businesses that are truly poised for success have studied customer workflow and deliver their services via software. Reed Elsevier and Thomson Reuters provide countless examples across different market segments.

I’d venture that content providers in the legal, scientific, technical, and financial spaces will emerge well-positioned after the recession. They tend to provide lean-forward, customer-engaging information that drives a transaction. Moreover, many have started to integrate user-generated content into their offerings because of their decades-long strength in licensing, assimilating and delivering content. Also, because their chosen delivery scheme has migrated from print to electronic to software, they are poised to enjoy years of strong renewal rates and cash flow.

Stay tuned for the final installment of “Weathering Turbulent Times” in tomorrow’s blog.