Wharton publishing goes digital

Last week, Wharton became the first school to launch an all-digital publishing program.

Wharton Digital Press, a completely digital publishing program, replaces Wharton School Publishing, which was launched in 2004 and primarily dealt with print.

In the fall, WSP made the decision to stop publishing in print. Bookstores were no longer buying business books, publisher and executive director Stephen Kobrin said.

“We didn’t see a need to chase a declining market,” he said, adding that “digital publishing is innovative and new. We can get a lot more out of digital publishing.”

The recent economic crisis has changed the publishing business, Wharton professor Mauro Guillén said. “Everything is moving digital.”

An all-digital press will have many advantages, including “more photographs and more opportunity for digital video clips,” Wharton professor Michael Useem said.

Another difference is that the digital e-books will be “on the shorter side,” Useem said.

We want “professionals to get the information they need in a manageable chunk,” Executive Editor Shannon Berning added.

“The way we describe the world will not differ, but the delivery will be faster and more varied,” Useem added.

WDP, like its predecessor, will target “business professionals who want to stay abreast of the changing business challenges,” Berning said.

Readers will be able to download WDP’s e-books on iPads, Kindles, phones and other mobile devices. The publishing program will also print books on demand.

Guillén said the system will be cheaper because Wharton won’t have to worry about keeping an inventory or distributing books.

WDP will partner closely with Knowledge@Wharton — Wharton’s free online publication — which will serialize, announce and sell books, he added.

WDP will publish two books in June, and Kobrin hopes to publish 20 books in the 2011-12 academic year.

To find authors for WDP, he approached Wharton professors, such as Guillén, who will publish a book on “global strategy” as part of a series on fundamentals of management.

Useem will also write a short volume for WDP — a “Checklist Manifesto” that will outline “the essential items for anybody’s leadership.”

Eventually, Kobrin hopes that the publishing program will have a majority of non-Wharton authors.

Wharton’s move represents that “the digital economy is taking over,” Guillén added.

In five years, most university publishers will have moved in this direction, Useem predicts.

Harvard Business Review Press currently publishes all new books in both physical and digital formats, Marketing Communications director Erin Brown wrote in an email. “We’ve had digital chapters available for purchase for a few years now” and “we’ve also been experimenting with enhanced e-books.”

However, Berning says print publishing will not disappear anytime soon.

“Many people do prefer print in many situations,” she said. “There will always be print publishing.”

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