Troll Communications has entered into a marketing alliance with Advantage Learning Systems, a developer of learning information systems for the K-12 market, based in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
Under the agreement, starting in the spring, the two companies will jointly market Troll publishing products and Advantage's reading software through Troll's school book fair distribution channel. Schools hosting Troll fairs will be able to use fair sponsorship as a means of acquiring specially created product bundles consisting of books from Troll's proprietary publishing program and Advantage's flagship software product, the Accelerated Reader. In addition, approximately 90% of Troll's highlighted choices each month will be compatible with the Accelerated Reader.
The Accelerated Reader is designed to both motivate and monitor increased literature-based reading practice among students. Under the program, students read a book that has an Accelerated Reader quiz. After finishing the book, the student takes the quiz, which allows the teacher to gauge the amount and quality of the student's reading. Advantage has computerized book quizzes on nearly 30,000 titles from about 500 publishers. "We think this is a terrific partnership, and hope to do more with Advantage," a Troll spokesperson told PW.
The Troll agreement is just the latest deal Advantage has reached with publishers. Earlier in the third quarter, Advantage formed an alliance with McGraw-Hill through which Advantage will develop interactive computer quizzes for the M-H elementary school reading series. "We're always open to doing more partnerships with publishers who share our goal of helping students learn to read," said Advantage CEO Mike Baum.
Advantage was founded in 1986 and went public two years ago. Through the first nine months of 1999, net income was up 81% to $14.3 million, on a 65% sales gain to $62.2 million.
