HarperCollins Publishers today announced that it will roll out a new global publishing system, one of the largest undertakings of its kind to be implemented by a trade publisher. Global Product Manager, developed in partnership with Publishing Technology, will enable HarperCollins to unify editorial, marketing and business data around the world, widening the reach of its print and digital publications in its core target markets.
By integrating systems and assets across the globe, the new centralized system will provide the company with the long term infrastructure needed to maximize its extensive catalogue of books, e-books and apps. It will transform the way staff view, manage and share product information throughout the publishing lifecycle.
Built on Publishing Technology’s advance platform, Global Product Manager will empower HarperCollins staff to explore current and future content delivery types and business models, while enabling better metadata management that will improve the discoverability of its products. Other expected benefits include:
• Greater visibility, consistency and reliability of product data
• Best-in-class metadata maintenance to drive marketing strategies
• Ability to better leverage rights, aggregate content and create new business models
• Robust scheduling and tracking capability to monitor cost and performance
• Improved relationships with retailers and authors through improved access to data
• Best-practice sharing of information across geographical regions
The system will be rolled out first in the US, followed by the UK and subsequently Canada, Australia and to the Christian Publishing Division through 2013.
“It is our responsibility to provide our authors with the broadest possible reach through our global print and digital publishing platforms, regardless of where their books originate and what format they take,” said Larry Nevins, Executive Vice President, Operations. “Global Product Manager will elevate our publishing capabilities by focusing on the content first, thus enabling the flexibly to adapt to various formats depending on the needs of the business. Publishing Technology, with its international business view and strong systems make them the right partner on this project.”
George Lossius, CEO, Publishing Technology, said: “This is an exciting project and it is very refreshing to see that HarperCollins, which has already established itself as cutting edge in its approach to technology, being so visionary and strategic in its efforts to evolve alongside the digital publishing landscape. It is essential that information providers don’t just consider today’s challenges but future-proof their business. Putting digital products at the core of publishing activity, rather than as a bolt-on, is one of the key features of Global Product Manager, so it will be the perfect tool to support HarperCollins ambitious growth and development plans.”
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About HarperCollins Publishers:
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children’s Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at www.harpercollins.com
About Publishing Technology plc:
Publishing Technology is the world-leading provider of content solutions that transform business. We cover the publishing process from end to end with content systems, audience development and content delivery software and services. Combining our unmatched publishing knowledge, global operations and perpetual support model with our advance operations system, ingentaconnect scholarly portal, pub2web custom hosting platform and Publishers Communication Group (PCG) sales and marketing consultancy, we offer the industry’s only full spectrum of solutions to help publishers move their content forward. Listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, the company operates jointly from Europe (Oxford) and North America (Boston and New Jersey), with local offices in Brazil, India, China and Australia. Assisting 400 trade and scholarly publishers for over thirty years, Publishing Technology solves the fundamental issues content providers face.
About advance:
The advance system is a publishing operations software package supporting product and relationship management, contracts, rights, royalties, permissions, content monetization and fulfillment. Built on 35 years of industry expertise, advance is a strategic investment providing a flexible, modular solution that is product agnostic, cost-effective and optimized for digital publishing. With advance applications, publishers can manage processes from end to end, maximize all revenue streams, and transform from print to digital business models.
