Pearson, one of the best-established British publishers, has announced a shift in its business model, which will focus on online publications and subscription revenue.
This company has had a very successful run on the international market, specializing in textbooks for US higher education institutions. According to John Fallon, CEO of Pearson, the company is going to work towards increasing both product value and revenue by focusing on online textbooks. The implementation of this plan is going to start in the United States.
Users will have to subscribe to a platform, in many ways similar to Netflix, to gain access to the electronic version of textbooks and publications. The benefit for customers is that all electronic books will be updated as necessary, to include advancements in the academic field, while traditional paper editions will be updated less frequently.
Pearson on-demand textbooks
Pearson’s decision to completely shift towards digital publications is not only going to boost the company revenue but also provide access to many more potential customers. The company’s market research has revealed that online platforms and marketplaces, like Amazon, form the majority of their competition.
The customer-base changes with different generations, and children born at the beginning of the century are now going to university. This current generation is looking for online versions of publications, rather than scanned versions of print textbooks.
Another important factor is the on-demand and global access to Pearson publications. This new business model will make research and online higher education courses more achievable, as up-to-date academic literature will be available on-demand.
Pearson is a world-famous publishing house, which has taken a serious interest in academic literature in recent years.
