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New Distributor for Prentice Hall Press
Jim Milliot -- 3/27/00

Prentice Hall Press has an identity problem it hopes to clear up with a new promotional campaign that includes trade advertising and a new logo. The effort comes as PHP, the trade publishing arm of Prentice Hall Direct, makes a switch in distributor from Simon & Schuster, its former parent company, to Penguin Putnam, which, like PHP, is now part of the Pearson family. "Simon & Schuster did a good job for us, but we think we have a powerful publishing partner in Penguin Putnam," said Sally Wood, president of PH Direct who also oversees PHP.

PHP publishes about 60 titles annually, primarily in the business, finance, health and self-improvement segments. While the company generates some sales through the direct-mail program of PH Direct, the majority of its revenues come from the retail market. Sales have been growing at about a 10% clip annually, with revenues in 1999 estimated at approximately $15 million.

A perennial bestseller for PHP is How to Say It, which has sold more than one million copies. PHP has trademarked the phrase and has developed a number of spinoffs, such as How to Say It at Work and the forthcoming How to Say It Online. Another area in which PHP has done well is with books about leadership. The success of Cigars, Whiskey & Winning, a book about U.S. Grant's military leadership, prompted PHP to sign a number of similar titles; Patton on Leadership currently has 56,000 copies in print, and there are books in the pipeline that analyze how the leadership skills of Robert E. Lee and Queen Elizabeth I can be applied to business.

Now that PH Direct and PHP are firmly in place as part of Pearson Education, Wood told PW she is actively looking for acquisitions. Possible targets include companies that complement PH Direct's core areas as well as publishers that have a database that can be merged with PH Direct's database.

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