Publishing Now '21: Looking Forward Webinar Preview

Cev Bryerman, Publisher and EVP of Publishers Weekly, and Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer of Westchester Publishing Services provide a preview of the Publishing Now ’21: Looking Forward webinar. Hear who will be on the panel and the topics that might come up for discussion when they review a transformative year for the publishing industry and look ahead to how the business will continue to evolve in the months ahead.

Transcript

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Nicole Tomassi 0:05

Welcome to Westchester Words, Education, Ed tech, and Publishing. I'm Nicole Tomassi, and I'll be your host for today's episode. I'm very pleased to welcome two accomplished individuals to the Westchester Words podcast. Cevin Bryerman is the Publisher and Executive Vice President of Publishers Weekly and has been instrumental in keeping the publishing industry informed about the state of the business and the forces that are shaping it. Back in pre-COVID times, he found inventive ways to bring people together at in-person events to spotlight the industry, including Pub Tech Connect and the PW Star Watch event, which recognized younger professionals in the industry who show a great deal of potential, talent, and creativity. To help keep the publishing community connected until in-person events are once again possible, PW will be hosting their inaugural US Book Show, a virtual conference experience that will take place this May. For the past seven years, Tyler M. Carey has been with Westchester Publishing Services and Westchester Education Services overseeing our sales and marketing initiatives as Chief Revenue Officer. During this time, he has been a driving force in the growth of the employee-owned company, which currently provides a full suite of editorial, production, and content development solutions for more than 250 publishers around the world, helping them to bring high quality content to their customers, more efficiently, using tools like our client portal, project management system and customized workflow processes. Gentlemen, welcome to Westchester Words.

Cev Bryerman 1:35

Thank you, Nicole. I'm glad I can participate with Tyler on this podcast about COVID and the aftermath of it.

Tyler Carey 1:44

Thanks, appreciate it, Nicole.

Nicole Tomassi 1:47

Glad to have you both here today. Some of our listeners might remember that we teamed up last March shortly after the COVID lockdown began to present the work from home webinar, and then last July, we co-hosted the Publishing Now webinar. Both of these events provided a window into what was happening during what has now become more than a year of significant transformation. Cev, from your vantage point, what do you think has been the biggest change for the publishing industry during this time?

Cev Bryerman 2:16

A very good question. We've seen a lot of publishers pivot to more virtual events. And what do we mean by virtual events? They used to have author in-person events, luncheons, or at bookstores to promote their books. They've pivoted to more online virtual author events where they can get the buzz out about books. I've seen a lot more virtual participations by publishers at other events to have conversations about the books in titles. So a lot more virtual, even PW has done a lot more virtual events. We had open access to our magazine to serve the industry. We've created Zoom events with Westchester Publishing Services and other industry people . We've created Live from the Library Lounge. So a lot more pivot towards digital because there were no in face opportunities to talk about books and I feel that's a wave of the future that will not go away.

Nicole Tomassi 3:22

Very interesting. So Tyler, to kind of take it to a slightly different perspective for you, what are the challenges that publishers have been turning to Westchester for help with that they didn't before the pandemic?

Tyler Carey 3:36

Well, we've seen a lot of our clients change the ways that they're making books. So they had to adapt to the changes required by both working from home as well as changes in the supply chain itself. So we saw an increased demand for print on demand files . The surge in the sales of ePubs made a lot of publishers finally take the time, look at how they handle accessibility in their ePub. So we've seen a lot of interest in writing alt texts .The work that we've already been doing with ePub 3.0 And accessibility . And just in general, I mean, we certainly have seen a greater interest in our editorial services and the outsourcing of production work with some publishers also trying to like centralize their vendor lists so that they can have less variant workflows by focusing on just one or a handful of vendors. So for us, I mean, one of the benefits we offer that's definitely been taken advantage of over the past year is our client portal , which clients use to manage the projects that they have in place with us. So in our traditional book business and the journal business that we've been doing for decades, you know, those are the changes we saw there. Certainly within our educational group, there was a lot of growth in the creation of content for remote learning, even more emphasis on ed tech content. And also for a few years we've been offering culturally responsive educational reviews of content , to better address trends in diversity equity and inclusion.And with so many kids being at home and their parents, seeing the content that they're using in the classroom more actively , we've had greater demand for these services where our team can review content to make recommendations or even update content to make it more contemporary and more representative of all of the kids in the classroom and their needs.

Cev Bryerman 5:21

I would like to add to Tyler's comment about homeschooling and education. You know, that's something that I've seen in the last year, since COVID that parents become teachers and kids are homeschooling. We launched the digital product called School Library Newsletter. That's actually honing on reference sources for parents and education because you know , distance learning is difficult for parents holding a job and trying to teach the kids and so on. So we felt that education is something that a lot of publishers have pivoted to . There are a lot of publishers in that space, education, but I think more and more people are looking at the education market as a new opportunity for them. And we see that at PW. And that's the reason why I launched the digital newsletter for the school library market, which will maybe then shoot into virtual events going forward.

Nicole Tomassi 6:17

Thank you for adding that. So we're sitting here recording this in March of 2021, and it seems like there is at least from my point of view, a greater sense of optimism. And that's why we thought that the time might be right now to bring together a different panel of industry thought leaders , for the Publishing Now, '21 webinar. Tyler, what can you tell us about who's on the panel?

Tyler Carey 6:38

We are very fortunate once again, to partner with Publishers Weekly , on this panel and help co-host it. PW's, Vce President and Editor in Chief, Jim Milliot will be hosting the panel and moderating much like he did last summer's panel, the first in the Publishing Now series. This year's panel of industry thought leaders is really impressive. We are fortunate enough to have , uh , joining us, Dominique Raccah, the CEO and Publisher of SourceBooks, Cathy Felgar, who's the Publishing Operations Director of Princeton University Press, Tom Chalmers, who's the Managing Director of Legend Times in the UK , and Lorraine Shanley , the President of MPI Market Partners, International , which provides extensive consulting and recruitment services for the publishing industry. So with these different perspectives, any of the topics that are coming in from the registrant's right now , whether they be about supply chain, whether they be about book, manufacturing and production, whether they're about library, sales, author management , you know, we've got a bunch of different perspectives from different segments of the industry on the panel to provide different insights on how those things can be handled. So I'm really excited about the group that we have that aregoing to help move this webinar forward.

Nicole Tomassi 7:52

I agree. Cev is there anything you'd like to add from your perspective? As far as Jim, he did a fantastic job moderating it last year, so we just thought it was natural to have him come back again, but anything you'd like to add to what Tyler s aid?

Cev Bryerman 8:08

I'm actually looking forward to hearing what the panelists have to say. They all experienced a year of COVID and what they've done to pivot. I love, and I'm sure Jim will address the issues of what they learned , what worked, what didn't work, what are you going to do for the future? I'm very curious. I've heard a lot of publishers, what they're thinking of, what they're going to do for the future, like virtual shows and how th ey're g oing to meet their clients going forward. But I'm interested in seeing three experts, t alk about their own experiences and what they've learned and what they're going to continue to do. So I think it'll be very enlightening to have a comparison of last year versus this year which will make for a great conversation.

Tyler Carey 8:54

I think I'd add to that Cev, that we all wish we had a crystal ball as to where things are headed, but certainly the perspectives here from these speakers , should give us all a pretty clear picture as to how their particular segments of the industry are being affected and where things are headed. Just seeing some of the questions that have already been submitted by the hundreds of people who have already registered for this webinar, no matter which segment of the industry, you as an attendee are in, there's already questions that are being submitted for review by Jim as the moderator , addressing everything as I mentioned from, supply chain issues, printing, what future distribution looks like, sales in bookstores, sales to libraries. So there's a lot of different aspects of the industry that can be touched on here. If anything, it's just a matter of how much time we have for the webinar and how much we can cover with this really exceptional panel.

Nicole Tomassi 9:42

I agree, and I know that I'm looking forward to hearing from all the panelists on April 6th. As Tyler mentioned, Westchester is managing the registration for the webinar. And what I can tell you is that we've already had a lot of people sign up, but we do still have a few seats left. So , if you are listening and you still haven't registered, I suggest you get over to our website, westchesterpublishingservices.com to sign up and submit your questions for the panelists to answer at the end of their discussion. You can also register through our LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook pages, as well as through Publishers Weekly's website. Cev and Tyler, I want to thank you so much for joining me today on Westchester Words, to provide us with a preview of the Publishing Now, '21 webinar. And for those of you who are listening today that are interested in catching previous or future episodes, you can find us on your favorite podcasting platform. Be sure to follow us there so you could be notified about new episodes when they become available. Please share your thoughts or comments about today's discussion and tell us what content you'd like Westchester to cover in future episodes, by emailing us at WestchesterWords@WestchesterEdSvcs.com. That's E D S V C s.com. Join us for the next episode of Westchester Words when we'll be discussing another topic of interest for education ed tech and publishing until then stay safe, be well and stay tuned.

Tyler Carey 11:09

Thanks for having us Nicole.

Cev Bryerman 11:16

Thank you, Nicole, looking forward to seeing the next zoom event with Westchester Publishing Services.

11:16

Thanks guys.