Harcourt chief to head Houghton?

ORLANDO, Florida, July 30, 2003 -- The president and chief executive of Harcourt Education, Tony Lucki, asked to be excused from his contract to take an executive position with rival publisher Houghton Mifflin, according to an internal Harcourt memo that has surfaced in several news reports. The memo fueled speculation that Lucki is in line to replace Hans Gieskes as Houghton's chief executive. Gieskes resigned in June, and Houghton's new owners signaled they want to strengthen the company's education lists and perhaps even move out of trade publishing. Lucki's Harcourt Education, owned by Reed Elsevier of Europe, the third-largest K-12 textbook publisher in the United States. Lucki also sits on the board of directors of Riverdeep, an education and consumer software company. Lucki has background at Houghton. He was with the company from 1977 to 1987, moving up to executive editor of the reading programs. A complication is that Lucki's wife, Donna, currently a Harcourt senior vice president, also is being considered for a Houghton job.

HOUGH- TON MIFFLIN LUCKI

Lousy half at Pearson; brighter days ahead

LONDON, July 29, 2003 -- The Pearson media conglomerate, a major player in U.S. educational publishing, has plugged some leakage but is still losing money. Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, said expenses at the Financial Times have been cut US$21 milllion to offset a continuing advertising slump. More cuts are planned Scardino said. Sales at the Pearson Education subsidiary fell 12 percent. The Penguin trade-publishing unit suffered a 7 percent sales loss. Scardino was upbeat about the reat of the year. She predicted Pearson Education will outperform the market, noting that K-12 market growth is forecast at zero to 3 percent and college growth at 5 to 7 percent.

SCARDINO

Educational Development Corporation: Revenue rose 13 percent to $6.9 million for the company's first quarter, compared to a year earlier. Net income income grew 7 percent to $576,000. Most gains were attributed to home sales, offsetting declines at retail chains.

Pearson Education: Sales fell 12 percent in the first half of the fiscal year, compared with a year earlier, due mostly to K-12 market problems.

Scholastic: Education sales grew 3 percent to $326 million for the fiscal year that ended May 31. Profit, hurt by severance payoffs, was down 4 percent to $42 million.

Pearson wins SAT scoring contract

IOWA CITY, Iowa, July 28, 2003 -- Pearson Educational Measurement, a commercial processor of K-12 student assessments, has been selected by the College Board to provide scoring for the new SAT writing exam beginning in March 2005. Pearson Educational Measurement will electronically process the answer sheets and will score the new student-written essay. This will require the training and management of a large pool of readers who have recent experience as secondary school teachers or college faculty in the scoring of the essays on the ePEN network. The company will process more 3.5 million exams a year.

PEARSON EDUCA- TIONAL MEASURE- MENT

Terry Barrett (art), Ohio State University, wrote the preview edition of Interpreting Art (McGraw-Hill). Lailo Dawson (Spanish), University of Richmond, wrote the seventh edition of Dicho y hecho (Wiley). Kenneth Doxsee (chemistry), University of Oregon, and James Hutchison (chemistry), University of Oregon, wrote Green Organic Chemistry -- Strategies, Tools, and Laboratory Experiments (Wadsworth).

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How powerful are book execs? Not at top

Texas author tapped for Spanish project

AUSTIN, Texas, July 26, 2003 -- A Spanish professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Dale Koike, was named lead author for a new array of introductory college Spanish materials to be published by Wiley and Editorial Espasa Calpe. Dale Koike, co-author of the Wiley text Linguistica Aplicada, holds the 2002 Silver Spurs Centennial Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Texas. The author team will also include University of Barcelona faculty, who worked with Editorial Espasa Calpe to create the multimedia Es Español product on which the new course will be based.

JOHN WILEY & SONS

Holt Middle School Math now online

Scott Foresman sells EasyTech in Florida

PORTLAND, Oregon, July 24, 2003 -- The online technology company Learning.com named Scott Foresman as exclusive distributor of its EasyTrech classroom management system for Florida K-12 schools. The companies already have a similar agreement in Texas.

PEARSON DIGITAL LEARNING

Course Technology acquires Crisp Learning

BOSTON, Massachusetts, July 23, 2003 -- A Thomson company, Course Technology, bought Crisp Learning, which produces workplace training and self-improvement products. Terms were not announced. Crisp's training books and products will enable Course Technology to further the development of its Instructor Led Training solutions for corporate customers, said Don Fabricant, a senior vice president at Course Technology's Instructor Led Training Group. Crisp Learning has sold more than 20 million workbooks and media materials in its 20-year existence.

COURSE TECHNOLOGY

Joseph R. Conlin (history), California State University, Chico, wrote the seventh edition of The American Past -- A Survey of American History, Volume I: To 1977; Volume II, Since 1865, as well as a comprehensive volume. (Wadsworth). Tom Doran, executive vice president at Atomic Dog, was named president and publisher. Chief executive Charlie Wilson has left the company. Kenneth S. Saladin (anatomy),George State College and State University,wrote the third edition of Anatomy and Physiology: The Unity of Form and Function (McGraw-Hill). Beth Wray, president of the Pearson Learning Groupg, was named to the National Teachers Hall of Fame board of trustees.

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Six schools honored for student improvement

NEW YORK, July 22, 2003 -- Six schools have won $5,000 National School Change Awards from Fordham University, Pearson Education and the American Association of School Administrators: Hillcrest High School, Queens, New York First Avenue Elementary School, Newark, New Jersey Sussex Technical High School, Georgetown, Delaware Havencroft Elementary School, Olathe, Kansas John H. Williams Elementary School No. 5, Rochester, New York North Twin Lakes Elementary School, Hialeah, Florida Seventy-two schools from 24 state were nominated fpr changes driven by sharp increases in student achievement.

PEARSON EDUCATION

South-Western, RealtyU in alliance

MARION, Ohio, July 21, 2003 -- A Thomson company, South-Western, anounced an alliance with online real estate training company RealtyU to offer online continuing education courses. The alliance will provide online, pre, post-licensing, continuing education, and professional designation real estate courses to RealtyU-affiliate schools, the companies said. The alliance, said South-Western, is part of its new strategy to move into into the management and executive education market.

SOUTH- WESTERN

Cool Breeze now in Thomson tent

BOSTON, Massachusetts, July 20, 2003 -- A Thomson company, Course Technology, bought Cool Breeze Systems and its digital media education products. Steve Albanese, founder of Cool Breeze, and co-author of Pro Tools Power from Course Technology's Muska & Lipman, will expand a series of M&L's music technology tutorials and online classes. Cool Breeze has been focusing on music technology, but the software shell can produce interactive tutorials for many different technologies, Course Technology said.

COURSE TECH- NOLOGY

Where Houghton fit in

NEW YORK, July 19, 2003 -- Except for Jean-Marie Messier, who claimed a vision for a global media empire, nobody seems to have a clear vision how it all fit together. Here are the major U.S, components and their worth, mostly from Morgan Stanley valuations. All have been sold off or are in play: Music USA Network Universal Studios Videogames Houghton Mifflin Theme Parks Sci-Fi Network USA Studios USA Films $5.9 billion 5.0 billion 3.1 billion 2.4 billion Bought at $2.2 billion; sold at $1.7 billion 1.3 billion 1.1 billion 800 million 200 million

VIVENDI EARLIER ARTICLE Investor group buys Houghton Mifflin

CNN tabs McGraw as CEO of Week

NEW YORK, July 18, 2003 -- The chief executive at McGraw-Hill, Harold McGraw, was named Chief Executive of the Week on the Cable News Network financial program "Lou Dobbs Moneyline." The continuing financial success of McGraw was cited. In an interview, McGraw attributed the strong performance to a focus on three areas in which the company operates, rather than moving into peripheral areas. McGraw operates in book publishing, business publishing and financial services.

MCGRAW

Laurie Schneider Adams (art), John Jay College of Criminal Justice, wrote the third edition of History of Western Art (McGraw-Hill). Lauren Kessler (literature), University of Oregon, and Duncan McDonald (journalism), University of Oregon, wrote the sixth edition of When Words Collide -- A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style (Wadsworth). John W. Maag (education), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, wrote the second edition of Behavior Management -- From Theoretical Implications to Practical Applications (Wadsworth).

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UMass Press subsidy phasing out

Medical atlas open to Harrison subscribers

NEW YORK, July 17, 2003 -- McGraw-Hill Medical put selected cases from the second edition of Atlas of Emergency Medicine, by Kevin J. Knoop, Lawrence B. Stack and Alan B. Storrow on its Harrison's Online subscription service. Available are 188 cases, complete with 361 images, classic radiographs, microscope reproductions, and instructive diagrams.

MCGRAW- HILL MEDICAL

Smithsonian targets $1 million deficit

NEGOTIATING FOR DEVELOPMENT HELP: Mary Ellen Lepionka, a veteran development editor, lists what authors can expect of a development editor. No, a DE isn't an acqusitions editor. Nor a copy editor. But a DE is an expert at helping authors through the ropes on market, audience, organization, content, apparatus, pedagogy, authoring tasks, managing tasks, presentation, and package. LEPIONKA'S COMPLETE COLUMN LEPIONKA

School book sales slipping seriously

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2003 -- College and el-hi textbook sales this year are slipping. According to data compiled by the Association of American Publishers through May, el-hi sales were off 14.2 percent. For May itself, el-sales were 7.8 pecent behind a year earlier. Through May, college sales were off 2 percent. May college sales were down 47.7 percent. Here are data through May for genres in which academic authors do most of their work: University press (hard) University press (soft) College Professional, scholarly El-hi 15.1 percent 10.3 percent 2.0 percent 1.3 percent -14.2 percent

EARLIER DATA

Robert Bersson (art), James Madison University, wrote the preview edition of Responding to Art (McGraw-Hill). Andrew Fraknoi (astronomy), Foothill College, David Morrison (astronomy), NASA Ames Research Center, and Sidney Wolfe (astronomy), National Optical Astronomy Observatories, wrote the third edition of Voyages to the Stars and Galaxies (Wadsworth). Alex Holzman, manager of consortia sales and new media partnerships at Cambridge University Press, was named director of Temple University Press. Earlier he was at Ohio University Press.

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Many raises, bonuses for book execs

McGraw opens access to SARS data

NEW YORK, July 16, 2003 -- McGraw-Hill Professional is making up-to-date information on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) available free from its online medical reference, Harrison's Online. Mikael Engebretson, Harrison's publisher, said: "We have a proud history of meeting the world's medical information needs during times of crisis," citing earlier access provided on smallpox, West Nile virus, and bioterrorism. The SARS information is from the 15th edition of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine.

MCGRAW- HILL PRO- FESSIONAL