Description:

This is a free live event. Scheduled for approximately 90 minutes.

Publishers who dismiss the use of print-on-demand technologies as too expensive may be missing an opportunity to better manage their inventory, total costs and the unit costs of books sold. This session will provide an economic rationale for more extensive use of POD services, based upon analysis and real-world use cases.

About Brian O'Leary

A publishing veteran with 25 years of consulting, management and operational experience, Mr. O'Leary is founder and principal of Magellan Consulting Partners, whose clients include major media firms as well as smaller and not-for-profit entities with significant publishing and media commitments.

The firm's practice areas include operational improvement, revenue development, market analysis and business planning. Work done by the firm most often results in both immediate and mid-term changes in processes, structures and in some cases technologies used to produce client content. For Magellan clients, Mr. O'Leary has also written several business plans to guide start-up and growth opportunities.

Prior to starting Magellan Media, Mr. O'Leary served as senior VP and associate publisher with Hammond Inc., an internationally recognized geographic reference publisher. Responsible for editorial content, database development, production and operations, Mr. O'Leary restructured editorial operations to benefit from the firm's prior technology investments. He also substantially increased the pace of the company's new-product development efforts.

Before Hammond, Mr. O'Leary directed operations at several of Time Inc.'s weekly magazines and was part of the team that launched Entertainment Weekly. He joined the firm in 1983, after earning an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Mr. O'Leary also holds an A.B. in chemistry from Harvard College.

About TOC

Driven by the Internet, technology is fundamentally transforming publishing. Creation, development, production, distribution, and consumption have all been touched by the changes and challenges that have accompanied the greatest shifts in publishing since the printing press. Which technologies are important? Which provide exciting business opportunities? And what are the strategic questions you need to consider in adopting new models?

O'Reilly's Tools of Change for Publishing division seeks to connect the people, companies, and organizations asking and answering the questions that will define the future of publishing. (TOC is a nod to the term publishing vets will recognize as referring to the Table of Contents of a book -- a deliberate choice signaling our intent to set the agenda for the future of publishing.)