4 Ways To Grow A Publishing Company
eBooks, iPads, and the Kindle are changing the fundamental structure of the publishing industry. From a strategic perspective they are having the largest impact on the development and pricing of products. In other words it is affecting the "what" deeply. The "how" has not changed all that much, regardless of whether you are selling print and/or technology.
There are four fundamental strategies for a growing a company in the K12 sector because even in the best of times K12 is (mostly) a zero sum game. In 2008 I wrote a post about this competitive dynamic:
In normal times education budgets grow at 2%-5% a year. Most start-ups or new products need to grow at a huge multiple of that - 30% to 300% or even more. Mathematically in order for you to grow someone else is must lose out.We are most definitely not living in "normal times" these days. Any growth strategy in today's market is fighting gravity as school budgets are expected to fall next year after the stimulus has expired.
K12 Growth Strategies
How does a company go about "stealing" share from other players in the market? Below we look at innovation, distribution, acquisition, and diversification.
1. Innovation - This is the most obvious - if you build a better product people will flock to you while ignoring the tired offerings of your competitors.
The best example in the market today is interactive white boards which are now in over 60% of classrooms (70% is considered market saturation for most technologies). This has mostly happened over the last 5 years.
Since this platform is now ubiquitous a new innovation frontier is content for these devices like Saddleback's excellent math programs.
PCI published our award winning PCI Reading Program - the first research based comprehensive program for intellectually disabled students in decades. It is designed for today's Special Ed population, including a much higher number of students with autism. Tellingly it is a combination of print and software. This product line has seen explosive growth in a rough market.
Success requires a clear vision of market needs and how to apply new tools to those needs in an economically efficient way. Easy to say, really hard to do.
2. Distribution - Distribution is the achilles heel of all K12 start ups. If you have something innovative making more people aware of your innovative solution will drive new business. The problem is that there are 3.8 million teachers in the US and they are bombarded with marketing messages. Cutting through that clutter at that scale takes time and money.
The largest publishers have actually contracted their distribution networks in the last five years. They collapsed their supplemental teams into their core basal teams with the predictable result that the supplemental business has shrunk. There is a fair debate on how much of this shrinkage is falling demand on the customers' side and how much is publisher neglect. What is clear is that the publishers' actions have fueled the fire at some level.
This has created opportunities for mid-market players with niche distribution networks to fill the gaps at both ends - with their own products and as distributors for larger and smaller players. As I noted last fall:
"...[in the attention economy] access to expertise becomes very valuable and companies that can help their customers make informed, relevant, and effective decisions will thrive."An investor once asked me what it took to build a distribution network in K12. My answer was most definitely not what he wanted to hear - 10 years and a lot of patience. Most new companies don't think in that kind of time frame but the survivors will all tell you that the trick was a long term bloody minded dedication to the challenge. There is no quick fix here.
3. Acquisition - Between starts ups innovating new learning technologies and mature mid-market companies seeking exits Education is a target rich environment for those seeking acquisitions.
The core challenge has more to do with investor expectations for returns on capital and the speed at which the education market moves. Due to the stickiness of education solutions once they are adopted they pay out nicely over a long period of time. Put another way - the payoff is there in this market but most investors are not patient enough to earn it.
Right now the larger publishers seem to be sitting this out but people looking to enter the market - like News Corp - are active. Private Equity groups are circling as well but many probably see education as a low risk hedge rather than a core investment. The VCs are quite active - but they are investing in small innovative start ups.
One of the more interesting plays may be marrying the playbook of the PE and VC camps. Leverage the distribution muscle of an established player than can reach across the market with the disruptive innovations coming from the smaller players through creative acquisitions. Culturally and operationally there are significant challenges in this approach, but the payoff if done correctly is a dramatic reduction in the time to market for innovations at a time of disruptive change.
4. Diversification - Another approach is branching into new markets. There are opportunities in corporate learning, education systems in other countries, tutoring, trade publishing, home schoolers, etc. for publishers who currently sell just to schools.
This mistake that may company's make is underestimating both the changes in product design and the distribution challenges associated with moving into other markets.
Does your box say "program" instead of "programme"? At a minimum you will need a new box if not a complete page review and spelling update for the guts of your program if you want to sell it in the UK or Australia. Are you ready for the rough and tumble of trade publishing or corporate learning?
Moving into new markets requires sustained discipline as you learn the rules of the road and a willingness to invest over a long haul. If you are looking for a quick hit don't waste your time on this approach.
Summary
If you are thinking about how to grow your business (rather than just holding on in tough times) then some combination of the four approaches outlined above is where you will probably end up. Your vision, access to capital, and discipline will determine what the right mix is for your company.
I've probably missed some obvious alternative to the four core growth strategies outlined above. Feel free to drop me an email or comment and we'll update the list.
I just got back from two weeks off, really off as in "I read 6 books" off.* The whole family sat on a chilly island in the Northwest and just let the old mazooma roll in. I highly recommend it.
There is a profitability model for companies promoting themselves on
What could be nerdier than a huge


The International Reading Association's 
Are trade shows rising from the dead? Last week at
OK - admit it, trade shows are fun. Sometimes traveling to a distant city, circulating with your peers, and dining out on the company can be a kick. You are learning too - about competitors and about your customers. The deadlines around a trade show can produce drama and tension, and some people thrive on that.
Trade Show Economics
Internet Marketing Economics

Coming to Orlando from Wisconsin in January, I expect warmer weather. I didn’t expect 50 degrees to be greeted as a warming trend. And when I saw the conference center adjacent to my hotel was hosting a
Mike Baum
How is the marketing mix for companies that sell to K12 schools evolving? At a time when we are experiencing an explosion in the number and type of marketing programs we are also seeing rebalanced budgets and a consolidation among the large support organizations. The economic downturn has only accelerated these trends - it isn't responsible for them.
Traditional Marketing Still Rules
In Conclusion
I’ve enjoyed your posts on the
Second, the selling power of story is a direct result of how our psycho-emotional-behavioral system responds to stories. After thousands of years of an oral storytelling tradition, we are hard-wired to respond to story in specific ways. After millions of collective bedtime stories and many millions more stories told for entertainment, humans have developed both a longing to hear stories (which supports the Hollywood film industry), as well as a calming and accepting approach to story. One effect of this conditioning is that stories allow buyers to bypass the somewhat irrational emotional defenses often triggered during a sales interaction.
If you want to be taken seriously in the age of social media you have to
What set me off this time? In the San Antonio Airport this morning a promotional announcement about the Riverwalk made reference to "Tex-Mex Cuisine." 



Products designed for the classroom must meet the needs of teachers first. If students are the primary users of your instructional materials this may sound a little backwards - but it isn't. Teachers can make or break your product before a student ever sees it.
The Solution
Do you need to pick a target market when entering the education market? One of the true signs of a rookie is a business plan built on selling to 
Rookies in the education market make a set of common mistakes. There are five concepts you need to grasp about selling to schools that will help you avoid execution error as you enter the learning market. Consider these the iron laws of marketing to public schools. Accept them, nay embrace them, and your job will be easier.
Piping hot education related blog topics served here! The debate over formative assessment, the top 10 sites for educational games, crowd-sourcing the next great novel, controversy around Microsoft's new ads, the relationship between quality and advertising, and a hilarious spoof of Politicians all get the nod this week.

Powerpoint slides are "glance media" just like billboards. Today's post by Garr Reynolds at
Schools are inundated with paper and instructional materials at this time of year. Those of us who build education products and create marketing collateral should be cognizant of is how wasteful so much of this is.
Education technology bloggers have been a busy lot with NECC 08, end of school year, and lots of new products to play with. Here are just a smattering of some of my favorite posts from the past few weeks. Enjoy.

NECC remains the premiere education technology event of the year, the launch pad for the following school year, and the best place to do business with your customers and your partners.
ISTE's National Education Computing Conference (NECC) 2008 is in full swing in San Antonio. 
If these weasels really wanted to deliver on this promise here are a couple of things they could do to live up to it.
By Charlene Blohm, President
Charlene Blohm is the President of C Blohm & Associates a full service Public Relations firm focused on the education market.

Blog years and dog years have a lot in common. They go fast, take constant care and feeding, and bring companionship and warmth into your life. Dogs force you to get up and move your body, blogs force you to get out and work your mind.
8. Links and visual cues bring a post alive. Having quality links to support your arguments (or provide alternative viewpoints) adds credibility. Picking a graphic that amplifies the message also helps a lot. There are tons of 
Marketing departments have tried to control brand identity with years of research and oceans of ink (and pixels). But the concept that a company can control its brand is a myth and it always has been. At best a company can contribute to its brand identity, but in reality that identity is created by the market. That identity includes not just the nice polished stories pumped out by Marketing, but all the crappy and in between stuff that happens when product meets customer.
Later in the day 




Teaching metaphors, the role of school in society, bad (i.e. wrong) press for video games, glitz vs. content, banned books, racism in games, phishing games, and monkeys at the keyboard. All featured on this weeks roundup!
When was the last time your organization made some really hard choices about focusing on very specific customers? Are you willing to say "no" to be more focused? Are you #1 in the niche you have defined or are you trying to be something to everyone and limping along?
On a sail there are dozens of tiny strings, tell-tales, woven into the fabric that show how the wind is moving across the face of the sail. This allows the sailors to trim the sail for optimum performance. As a metaphor this works perfectly for the concept we are after here. We can’t see how our customers think, but we can observe decisions they have already made to get a sense of it.
The National Education Computing Conference 
It really is this simple - but simplicity is difficult for most companies. You must put the time in up front to get the promise nailed down and then you have to sustain your focus on it long enough for the market to believe you.
Lee Wilson is President & CEO of 