Tizra Blog

The annual CESSE conference (Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives) has historically been focused on high-level strategy, so when we headed up to Quebec City for this year’s I wasn’t sure I’d be hearing a lot about publications. But I was surprised at how many discussions—both in the sessions, and in the hallways—revolved around issues that publications really are central to.  The issues themselves are nothing new… Recruiting, engaging and retaining members Building organizational branding and identity Finding effective value propositions for members and prospects at all points in their careers And of course, adding revenue streams What’s new is that we’re seeing more and better ways of using publication content to address them.   For example, associations can recruit, engage and retain members by meeting readers where they are, making it easier to find publication content in Google and social media, and reducing the barriers to samplin...

A post over at the No Shelf Required portal highlighting a new  whitepaper  from  Oxford University Press recently caught our eye .  Navigating Research examines  "how users seek contextual information and guidance for areas of scholarship as they conduct research, and how reference resources can support their work.” Key findings of the paper,   include, among others (bolding ours): recognition of ‘reference’ as a specific category is declining and users are not likely to identify ‘reference resources as those belonging to a distinct category research needs of today’s researchers are moving away from basic factual information and terminology (for which free online sources are used) resources offering guidance to a field of study retain appeal as a ‘bridge between introductory materials and specialized research publications'” resources offering guidance to a field of study are also used to support work in interdisciplinary fields use of ref...

ACCESSE17  - the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives - takes place in Québec City July 25 - 27, and Tizra will be there! Well, our own Abe Dane will be there, facilitating a new session during Thursday’s breakfast called the  Reciprocity Roundtable . Abe will be leading a discussion on the category of “relevance” - as in an association’s relevance to members, their professional development and career advancement. Roundtable attendees can expect to learn the power and practice of reciprocity; find solutions to issues while focusing on contributing to others; build relationships and trust with colleagues; and learn about and help one another. All that and breakfast, too! You’ll find Abe and other early risers at 7am in QCC – Room 200B, with roundtable sessions beginning at 7:30 am, and ending at 8:30 am.

We recently came across the post, " Digital marketing scales and that could create new opportunities for capable publishers " by Mike Shatzkin of The Idea Logical Company While written with trade publishers in mind, it has some good news and helpful takeaways for niche-market, mission-driven publishers -- especially those who are Tizra users. The post puts a spotlight on publisher Open Road Integrated Media's success with discount pricing and vertically-focused digital marketing campaigns, and their continuing expansion as a marketing services provider for competitive publishers. Open Road offers those competing publishers visibility for their niche titles in its highly target-marketed newsletters, reaching an ever increasing number of niche readers. In a win-win arrangement, those publishers reach more potential readers, and Open Road is able to share news about additional relevant titles - making their newsletters even more valuable for the readers. Open Road...

Why has this gathering of digital publishing mavens expanded beyond its origins as a simple software user conference?  Following is a brief Q&A with Tizra's founders. Why did decide to put on a user conference… and why have you kept at it? We'd been to a ton of publishing conferences, and felt they were light on the central know-how needed to build direct connections with audiences. If you think about it, that's exactly what our customers do day in and day out, and we felt there was the opportunity to do something that would not only help people to use Tizra more effectively, but would help them to be better publishers. So we put the idea out there and got a very encouraging response. More important, the reviews AFTER the first conference were unanimously positive. Every single person who went said they’d do it again. In the second year, more than twice as many organizations participated, and we got similar reviews. That told us it wasn’t a fluke. So now th...

“Tizra’s support for cutting-edge web design was a key factor in our decision. They enabled us to achieve a modern, mobile-first user experience that fits our profile as a technology leader.” --Troy Martin, VP Operations, ABC-CLIO Tizra API's enabled complex, faceted search. With more than 8,000 eBooks already published, and a steady flow of 30-40 new releases every month, ABC-CLIO was well established as a leader in digital publishing. But their homegrown eBook platform wasn't keeping pace. They knew they were in a race to meet increasingly high user expectations, particularly as content consumption shifted to tablets and mobile devices. Initially, they considered leveraging their own outstanding in-house technology team to rebuild the site, but careful financial analysis revealed they'd get better value if they went outside. After surveying a field of 13 vendors they decided on Tizra .  Key factors included... Support for advanced, mobile-first d...

The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), recently published an article called " What Keeps Healthcare Association Executives Up at Night? ", based on focus group data from its Healthcare Community Committee. The research highlighted concerns that we've been hearing for a while, including... Associations need to identify non-dues revenue models Members are looking for healthcare associations to provide answers and information Associations have a critical need to for assistance in curating healthcare-related information and delivering it to members. Associations need agility to respond to a changing healthcare landscape that is difficult to predict. These are exactly the kinds of concerns that are driving the adoption of agile digital publishing methods by a growing list of organizations, like the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons , International Association for the Study of Pain and American Society of Health System Pharmacists .  With tools l...