Custom Publishing Is the Next Rental
2/3/12
College stores jumped on the rental bandwagon quickly to answer the demands of students wanting less expensive course materials. Now, custom publishing is making its way into the spotlight as a way to not only save money for students, but build relationships with faculty and publishers.
NACS Media Solutions, the NACS technology research and development subsidiary, said implementing or expanding custom course materials and other custom products is the best way for stores to answer student demands for cheaper course materials.
To help stores, NMS launched its Grow Custom, Grow Green initiative.
Mark Nelson, NACS chief information officer and vice president of NMS, said custom publishing, if done correctly, will lower the cost of course materials for students, increase faculty satisfaction, boost store and publisher revenues, and foster an overall competitive advantage.
Creating this relationship with faculty and publishers will keep students coming to the college store because they will get the best product available for their studies at the best price.
“Custom is a huge win for all players,” Nelson said.
College stores implemented textbook rental programs when it became apparent the time and energy to do so were worth the savings stores could offer students. Nelson said the next “big thing” in the industry is custom publishing. He noted, however, that custom publishing will not replace rentals and other programs, but complement existing programs.
“I understand if some stores won’t have a used option, they won’t touch custom publishing,” Nelson said. “They will begin to lose market share because this is where the industry is going. Custom does not by default negate book buyback or the used-book market. Many custom books can be bought back.”
NMS is partnering with the Collegiate Retail Alliance and its initiative to build a toolkit for stores that will include marketing materials and identification and dissemination of best practices to make it easy for stores to grow their custom offerings.
This is not your older brother’s faux custom publishing, which essentially involved removing the cover of a book, adding a syllabus, pulling a few chapters, and putting a new cover on it with the school’s name attached. This new “smart” custom publishing features a collection of content specifically suited to students, linked to learning objectives, and created in a partnership between publishers, faculty, and the college store.
In many instances, students are asked to purchase a textbook but will only need to use a portion of it for the class. If the faculty had worked with the publisher and store, unnecessary chapters could have been eliminated, specialized material from the faculty added, and the students would get only the material they need at a much better price.
“This isn’t just moving stuff around to create a unique ISBN,” said George Masforroll, associate vice president, auxiliary services, Broward College Bookstore, Davie, FL, and an NMS board member. “Smart custom is examining the content and determining whether it has the value.”
Masforroll met with various academic departments on his campus and asked if there was content that they could ask the publisher to remove from texts because it wasn’t being utilized.
“The publishers were very receptive because they wanted their course materials to be affordable and relevant,” Masforroll said. “The problem in our industry is that the rising cost of course materials has necessitated some involvement from the college stores.”
In order for smart custom to be successful, there needs to be agreement from all parties.
“The will comes from the folks in the business office, which is the bookstore, faculty members, and academic affairs, and you have to have publishers who are willing to aggregate content,” Masforroll said. “The faculty works with publishers on content and the bookstore works with the publisher on price. All three are working together in transparency.
“The best way to champion a program or a project such as this is, first and foremost, the bookstore has to have conversations with both faculty and publisher. Nobody is in charge of this by themselves. This is a collaborative effort,” he added.
In addition to lowering the price of course materials for students, such projects can improve faculty relations and provide value to the institution through student learning outcomes. It also opens up business opportunities, such as community-based self-publishing, which can be linked to other classroom learning objectives or community interests.
“College stores will contribute to the student success academically, while also improving the affordability of education,” Nelson said. “It’s about strengthening the alignment of the store to the academic mission it was created to serve.”
The green portion of NMS’ Grow Custom initiative is that by building the “just what you need to succeed” course materials, paper consumption can be reduced. In addition, Grow Green in this represents the proactive strategy for stores to build or regain market share and revenue while saving students money.
What makes this initiative so vital for college stores is its timing. With the economy still struggling, and college stores facing stiff online competition, it’s more important than ever to create an exclusive channel for course materials through customization.
“In our climate, we need to work with each segment of academia helping to devise a solution for the high cost of course materials,” Masforroll said. “Students will see they have advocates on campus; that people really care. At the end of the day, we can now turn and say we helped make a difference. It’s hard to say that there are any losers in this process.”
Look for more information in Campus Marketplace in the coming months, on the NMS Grow Custom, Grow Green initiative and a special announcement at CAMEX 2012 in Salt Lake City, UT.
To express interest in this initiative, or to participate if your company has a custom product, fill out the Interest in Participation Form, and NMS will provide more information.
By Daniel J. Pender
News Editor
Campus Marketplace, CM Scan
(800) 622-7498, ext. 2258
dpender@nacs.org |
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