The McGraw-Hill Professional group will expand its business and medical book operations, revamp its computer book program and speed the creation of new digital products under a realignment implemented earlier this month.
As part of the reorganization, Philip Ruppel, who had been publisher of the trade group, has been named group publisher for all of the professional division, which now includes M-H's consumer, business, education, medical, science, engineering and computing titles. Keith Fox, president of M-H Professional, said he expects the total output of the group to stay at about 1,000 titles.
The company has targeted business and medical publishing as two areas where Fox looks to increase title output. The business segment in particular, Fox said, could see "dramatic growth" over the next six to 18 months as the book group partners with other M-H companies, such as Standard & Poor's and Business Week, to develop new products. He said no decisions have been made regarding possible category eliminations.
M-H Professional's computer operations—now including McGraw-Hill/Osborne, which was merged into the group late last year—will publish about 100 books in 2005, Fox said, down from a peak of more than 150. The computer book group's orientation will also change, moving toward more consumer-oriented titles and titles "that have a longer shelf life and are more evergreen," Fox said. The Osborne name will continue on certain titles, while others will carry the McGraw-Hill Computing tag.
M-H Professional's digital efforts will now be centered in a new unit, McGraw-Hill Digital, which will be led by Michael Hays, formerly head of the old STM division. The unit will repurpose the company's print content as well as content licensed from other publishers for use in a variety of electronic formats, including online, Fox said.
To support the new editorial structure, a new centralized marketing group has been created, led by Lynda Luppino. Fox is searching for a group sales director, following the departure of Michael Rovins, who had led the sales group.
