Re: Gale buys Questia

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

Of course we will not know what Gale (a division of Cengage) 
plans to do with Questia until the company takes its steps in the 
marketplace, but I would be very surprised to discover that the 
basis of the acquisition is to have people pay for the same 
content twice.

Cengage is an exceedingly sophisticated organization; among other 
recent initiatives is the launch of a digital textbook rental 
program. The company's CEO is committed to an all-digital vision.

Among the things to look for or think about:  How many libraries 
do in fact have all the Questia titles in their collections? 
Does Questia have the rights for institutional sales to all its 
titles (Questia is an aggregator, not an originating publisher)? 
What to make of the tools that Questia brings to its content, 
which are different in kind and complexity from Gale's?

I would imagine that the acquisition model for this transaction 
covers a number of items, including expense reductions 
(overlapping infrastructure) and cross-marketing strategies.

But if I had to bet on the biggest driver (this is pure 
speculation), the appeal of Questia for Gale may be its 
direct-to-consumer platform, something that neither Gale nor any 
division of Cengage has without Questia.  If this is true, this 
would be yet another (the examples keep piling up) of a library 
bypass strategy.  Why such a strategy? Because library budgets 
are not growing and in many instances are shrinking.  Thus 
publishers are seeking other venues for their wares.

Joe Esposito

On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 7:46 PM, Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu> wrote:

> The interesting question was raised by a librarian on the 
> Chronicle blog:
>
>>I am puzzled by Gale's acquisition of Questia. On one hand, 
>>Gale sells information products directly to libraries for 
>>either year-to-year subscriptions or one-time purchases. Either 
>>way, the libraries then give their students access to the 
>>content - no tollroad charges to the student. Questia's model 
>>has always been to sign up students as individual subscribers 
>>(although they too were selling questia content to entire 
>>school districts). So what will we have. Gale selling content 
>>to libraries - and then trying to get the students to subscribe 
>>to Questia - which means the students are paying for access to 
>>the same information twice.
>
> Bottom line: What does this mean for students and academic 
> libraries that already subscribe to Gale content?
>
> *****
>
>>"Gale yesterday announced the acquisition of Questia Media, a 
>>subscription platform for humanities and social sciences 
>>content...Questia has been used by undergraduate, high school, 
>>and graduate students, and a variety Internet users; Gale says 
>>the deal extends its reach to end users and consumers....In 
>>recent months, Gale has focused heavily on this strategy, 
>>working to improve the Google PageRank of its content and 
>>services."
>>
>>http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6716946.htm
>>
>>Bernie Sloan