The fundamentals of publishing – creation, marketing, and delivery of research and reference content to global audiences – accelerates in complexity year after year. As a result, it is ever more difficult for non-commercial organizations to stay competitive (or even viable) in the absence of relevant operating scale. As a small number of very large commercial publishing organizations continue to expand their efficiencies through acquisitions and consolidation, will independent publishers survive? Or are we headed for a future where all publishing operations are managed exclusively by large commercial organizations?
Please note that this was a closed session, so the recording will not be shared.
Brian Crawford • American Chemical Society
Brian Crawford, Ph.D. is the President of the Publications Division of the American Chemical Society, the world’s leading non-profit publisher in the field of chemistry and its allied sciences. Dr. Crawford holds general management responsibility for both the Society’s portfolio of more than 50 peer-reviewed journals, and the magazine publishing operations of the Society’s industry-leading news periodical, Chemical & Engineering News. He oversees all editorial, digital strategy, new product development and production staff based in ACS offices located in Washington, D.C. and Columbus, Ohio, as well as marketing and sales operations located throughout the US and abroad. Experienced in subscription journal, book, and new media publishing, Brian has more than 30 years of experience in the STM information industry, with both not-for-profit professional society and commercial publishers.
Thomas J. Easley • American Medical Association/JAMA and the JAMA Network
Tom Easley is a senior publishing executive specializing in digital transformation, with experience in editorial, production, product development, sales and marketing, and general management. At the AMA, Tom heads up the publishing program and the flagship brand, JAMA, and is a member the AMA senior management team. Before joining the AMA, he previously served as the Publisher and Managing Director at The New England Journal of Medicine. He has experience in both professional and consumer publishing, in both global publishing houses and start-up companies, including Time Inc., Times-Mirror, Elsevier Science, and Madison Publishing. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Jayne Marks • Wolters Kluwer Health
Jayne Marks is Vice President of Global Publishing and Product at Wolters Kluwer Health Research, Learning & Practice, based in Philadelphia. She has responsibility for managing the Lippincott William & Wilkins portfolio of 300 medical, nursing and allied health journals and book programs in education and professional development. Jayne also leads product development for the growing Wolters Kluwer portfolio of innovative digital information products for both healthcare professionals and students, including the new acquisition, Firecracker, which is an engaging study planning and test prep tool. Prior to joining Wolters Kluwer, she was Vice President and Editorial Director at SAGE Publications, managing over 350 journals, a reference publishing program, and had responsibility for new online products. Jayne has held publishing director positions at Nature Publishing Group and Stockton Press, managing broad journal portfolios.
Ann Michael • DeltaThink
Ann Michael is CEO of Delta Think, a consulting and advisory firm focused on innovation and growth in membership organizations and scholarly publishers. Ann has worked with clients to gain insight into their customers’ needs, define their strategy, build their product and services portfolio, implement new tools and technologies, and develop new skills and expertise. She is an ardent believer in data informed decision-making and was instrumental in the 2017 launch of the Delta Think Open Access Data & Analytics Tool. Ann is a Past President of SSP, an NFAIS Board member, a Board Director at Joule (a CMA company), and a contributor to the SSP’s blog, The Scholarly Kitchen.
Alix Vance • GeoScienceWorld
Alix Vance is CEO of GeoScienceWorld (GSW), where she has led the strategic expansion of GSW’s products and services since 2011. Founded upon a database of prestigious geoscience journals with GeoRef data, GSW’s family of products and services has grown markedly to include a thriving eBooks program, map-based and specialized search capabilities, and a Society Services Program for scientific and scholarly publishers. Alix has worked in nonprofit and commercial publishing sectors as COO at The Center for Education Reform, Executive Director of academic and professional reference publishing at CQ Press through its sale to SAGE, and Vice President at eBook Library-EBL prior to acquisition by ProQuest. Alix is an active speaker and volunteer in the scholarly and academic publishing community and serves on the Board of Directors of CHORUS.