Six Publishers Launch Joint Digital Textbooks Venture
11/6/07

The NACS Board of Trustees wants to make store members aware of a new company that has been established in the college store market. This company, CourseSmart LLC, is a venture founded and supported by six higher education textbook publishers with a stated purpose "to improve teaching and learning by providing instructors and students better exposure and access to digital course materials." The founding and supporting publishers are Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing Group; Cengage Learning (formerly Thomson Learning); Houghton Mifflin; McGraw-Hill Education; Pearson Education; and John Wiley & Sons.

Representatives from CourseSmart and one of the higher education publishers participating in this venture met with NACS President William Simpson and NACS executive staff in June 2007 to share information about the forthcoming launch of the new company. Due to provisions of a nondisclosure agreement, NACS was unable to disclose any information to its members at that time. In its recent meeting on Nov. 2, the NACS Board discussed various issues related to CourseSmart and determined the nondisclosure agreement was no longer in effect, given that information provided under that agreement was now publicly available on CourseSmart's web site. The board also decided to alert members to some developing concerns that have become apparent ever since the company launched its "beta version" web site in August 2007. These concerns include:

The landing page at www.coursesmart.com is strongly oriented toward conducting direct-to-student transactions. This is contradictory to the ongoing communications from higher education publishers regarding their commitment and desire to work more closely with college stores.

The "Basic Affiliate" program offered by CourseSmart does not provide adequate compensation to college stores for their role in aggregating course materials information and facilitating a sales transaction.

The definition of a "basic affiliate" is unclear and implies that other organizations, such as campus clubs or peer-to-peer textbook exchange sites, can become sales affiliates for CourseSmart in addition to college stores.

The lack of appropriate technology to enable "basic affiliates" to conduct localized transactions means that the actual sale and customer relationship will transfer to CourseSmart. This is fundamentally an unacceptable practice for collegiate retailers.

Given that this company is owned by six higher education publishers, the NACS Board has asked its general counsel to review the possible antitrust implications that might exist from this venture, and the potential for this business model or these publishers to exercise unreasonable control over the release and pricing of digital assets to the higher education marketplace.

The NACS Board continues to express its interest in maintaining an open and productive dialogue with executives from CourseSmart and higher education publishers with the hope that more meaningful and productive relationships can be forged between this venture and college stores.

To learn more about CourseSmart, go to:

CourseSmart LLC home page: www.coursesmart.com
For information about CourseSmart: www.coursesmart.com/aboutus
For information about affiliate programs: www.coursesmart.com/affiliateprogram

The Independent College Bookstores Association (ICBA) also recently advised its membership about CourseSmart and offered links to provide additional information. These are shared with you by permission of ICBA:

The company that built it: www.zaudhaus.com/clients/client_coursesmart.php
Part of the design team: www.linkedin.com/in/jimmygilles
Business analysis: www.outsellinc.com/store/insights/3541
Back of the house: http://wpslive.pearsoncmg.com/cmg_forms_library/0,10292,4548669-,00.html

Sound Off!

Bill Rainey (wrainey@monmouth.edu) 11/6/2007 2:20:28 PM

I was working on some next term adoptions when this came through. Maybe 1 in 5 books are on the site. Without fail, they are priced close to 50% of retail if you use a 25% margin, or just enough to be the same net for a student as if they purchase the book and then get 50% back at buyback. Good only for 180 days.

Terms of service says you may print one for your own use and can't share or sell - yeah, right! Also, no refunds after two weeks OR if you have printed 20% or more of the book, so sorry about dropped classes.

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Six Publishers Launch Joint Digital Textbooks Venture 11/6/07

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Six Publishers Launch Joint Digital Textbooks Venture
11/6/07

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