Case Study: Gibbs Smith Moves to Digital Publishing in Record Time

Gibbs Smith Education a publisher specializing secondary school social studies textbooks, needed to find a way to move to digital publishing quickly to meet the requirements of school districts, while ensuring they met the curriculum standards set by each state.

“We needed to meet the needs of schools who want the option of print or digital,” said education sales and marketing director Corine Sayler. “We knew schools were not buying as many printed texts as they used to.”

As a company that prides itself on Pulitzer nominated authors and meticulous attention to grade level-appropriate content, Gibbs Smith wanted to move to digital publishing in a way that preserved the levels of quality editorial and graphic design that had been so successful in print. Gibbs Smith also recognized that selling material in a digital format would open up new sales opportunities and revenue models, and was determined that any digital effort should be carried out on their own terms and to their own standards, to maintain control over their content and audience relationships.

But with a thinly stretched staff, the risk of developing ebook publishing software in house was too high so they began a search for a digital publishing platform partner. Tizra was the platform of choice based on factors including:

Tizra’s ability to achieve the digital transition quickly
Gibbs Smith’s ability to maintain direct control over development, both before and after launch
Tizra’s proven track record of successful deployments

“Tizra helped us transition to digital content in a timeframe others said was ludicrous,” stated Sayler. “Tizra never said no, they were flexible, adaptable and responded positively to our needs.”

In a matter of months, Gibbs Smith went from a print-centered company to one with a vital and growing new digital product line, which is every bit as much a part of their identity and mission as the books they’ve been publishing for 40 years.

To learn more, read the entire Gibbs Smith case study here.

Are you looking to move to digital publishing? Let us show you how Tizra can help.

Comments

What Einstein Taught Us About Searching Inside Publications

When the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein went live on Tizra a few years ago, it was a huge step forward. Suddenly, anyone anywhere could search and access the output of one of the 20th Century’s great minds…from love letters to breakthrough articles that changed how we think about the nature of time and space. But the project also showed the limits of traditional tools for searching within large, complex publications. These limits sparked a collaboration with Princeton University Press and Einstein Papers Project editors, which this year resulted in a dynamic new search interface, which we’ll be demonstrating in a Webcast Friday, December 15 at 1pm ET . The interface not only makes it easier for Einstein researchers to home in on relevant content on both mobile devices and desktops, it points the way toward faster, better searching within a wide range of publication types, from reference books to periodicals, technical documentation and standards to textbooks. Click To Re

Behind the Screens, Pt. 2--Customizing Site Design in Tizra Publisher

If you’ve seen some of the sites created with Tizra Publisher, you know how different they can look. But how does this happen? In this second in our series on the Tizra Publisher web based control panel ( first post here ), we’ll show how easy it is to completely re-skin and restructure an Tizra Publisher site in a matter of hours. First, a little slideshow of some recent results: As in the first post, we’ll use the eat.shop guides from Cabazon Books as our example. Founded by a graphic designer, Cabazon has a strong visual identity and has done a great job reinforcing it across its print and online properties. Step 1: Pick a design While Tizra Publisher does provide pre-made templates for publishers to customize, Cabazon already had a site design they were happy with, and wanted to carry it over to the new online books site they were building on Tizra Publisher. Screens from the preexisting design they wanted to match: Cabazon’s original eat.shop homepage. Origin

Optimizing eContent Sales: 5 Strategies for Monetizing Content

Targeted promotions and content bundle upsells are two ideas to test in optimizing sales. This is the third in a series of blog posts based on our webcast, "10 Factors to Consider when Developing your Digital Publishing Strategy." You can still watch it in its entirety here: So far we have talked about the importance of understanding your audience and whether or not to sell direct . Today, we investigate the various monetization strategies publishers utilize. The entire publishing industry has been experimenting with pricing and delivery models, from the Netflix-like subscription services offered by Oyster and Scribd, to bundling of ebooks with print editions, to chapter-at-a-time sales and more. Yet no single pricing model has emerged. What does that tell publishers? It means that you need the flexibility to experiment with your pricing strategy and adapt quickly to market fluctuations and demands. You will need a commerce and delivery solution that supp

Tizra Blog

Search This Blog