Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones Indexes’ US Index Data Business

The existing collaboration between Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones is to be expanded.
Reuters’s Elektron has been selected to power Dow Jones Indexes, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Elektron will provide a data solution designed to ensure ‘scalability, robustness and performance’ for Dow Jones Indexes’ real-time US index-data business.
For more information see the press release.

Simba predicts STM publishing trends

Simba Information’s latest report Global Professional Publishing 2010-2011 predicts that the global market for professional publishing will grow by 3% in 2012.

The report analyses the global market landscape for STM, legal and business information, breaking down the key trends by publishing activity, segment growth drivers, market size and market share growth.

Key trends identified in the report include:

• Open Access is driving experimentation with new pay models
• Publishers are looking at ways to enhance and add value to content and investing more in software development, search and indexing technology and workflow solutions
• Publishers are still searching for the right approach to copyright protection

The report, which costs $3195, is available from Simba Information.

The Business Information Survey 2012

The 22nd annual Business Information Survey throws interesting light on many of the key information/knowledge management challenges faced by corporations. It is based on in-depth interviews with 22 senior managers in a wide range of industrial sectors, conducted in December 2011 & January 2012. As in previous years, this is a qualitative survey which is designed to produce a readable, narrative account of strategic factors affecting these services and some of the hard choices that are having to be made in a taxing business climate.
This year's respondents are, on the whole, cautious about the likely fortunes of their companies and of the information/knowledge and research units they run. However, there is considerable evidence that they are tackling their managerial challenges with realism, imagination and gusto.
Some of the issues covered by the Survey include:
1. Resourcing: how content and staffing budgets have fared.
2. Progress on the integration of external and internal information
3. The affect of the exponential growth of users' mobile digital devices on information delivery and service support
4. How these information managers handle the issue of working with partners, third parties, individual contractors - and the implications for licensing, vendor relations and support
5. Do they encourage collaboration by managing explicit/tacit knowledge, knowledge silos, communities of practice & systems such as Sharepoint?
6. How does severe organizational turbulence such as from a merger or de-merger affect the IM/KM culture and task?
7. How have their relations with Vendors changed including content licensing, negotiating and service supply issues?
8. Are they using outsourcing and/or offshoring for any IM/KM functions?
9. Search and data mining capabilities in the respondent companies.
10. Are the analytical skills of IS/KM staff being enhanced?
11. What position is the IM/KM function in the company's value chain and how can it add more value?
12. How important are workflow systems in globally distributed information services?
The Business Information Survey 2012 will be in Business Information Review, 29 (1), 2012. Keep an eye out for it on the Sage Publications website and through tweets and alerts nearer the time of publication.

Allan Foster
Information Industry Consultant

allan.foster@gmail.com

Thieme expands ebook library

Thieme, the German STM publisher is to expand its ebook library.
New titles will cover anatomy, dermatology, neurology and toxicology. The website offers users offline viewing and personalised accounts. The ebook library covers every aspect of the medical school curriculum, offering students, researchers and clinicians access to full colour, illustrated textbooks.
More information available from the publisher’s website.

Pearson profits up 72%

Pearson has reported its pre-tax profits in 2011 increased to £1.15bn. E-book sales at Penguin have doubled. Revenues in the FT Group increased by approximately 7%. and profits went up by 27%. In the US, the numbers of digital subscribers to the FT has now outstripped print subscribers.

For more detailed analysis see Guardian.co.uk