Over the past few months, Amsco School Publications, Inc. has been mentioned in several national publications, blogs, and on educational Web sites. We think that our blog followers might be interested to see what is being said about us.
E-Commerce News.com January 24, 2012
The iBooks Profitability Puzzle
By Erika Morphy
MacNewsWorld Part of the ECT News Network 01/24/12 5:00 AM PT
Apple's new iBooks textbook market saw lots of activity over the weekend as users downloaded 350,000 copies of books, according to Global Equities Research. If iBooks catches on in a big way, it'll certainly be profitable to Apple. But whether it will be a good deal for authors and publishers has yet to be determined.
Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iBooks textbook initiative, launched just last week, has clearly struck a chord in the market. Ditto its accompanying textbook authoring tool, iBooks Author. Both have taken off at a significant pace, according to a report by Global Equities Research.
More than 350,000 textbooks have been downloaded via iBooks over the past three days. In addition, there have been more than 90,000 iBook Author downloads. iBook Author is a free authoring tool to create textbooks for Apple iBooks.
A Big Impact
The numbers seem to indicate many students and educators at least interested in seeing how Apple wants to break into the market. However, as the ramifications of the textbook store and authoring tool become clearer, some industry observers are having second thoughts as to whether this would be a good thing.
For starters, textbook publishers could find their margins squeezed, perhaps uncomfortably so. As Global Equities notes in its report, more than 50 percent of textbook industry revenues come from the sales of introductory books.
Then there is the lock-in for authors that use Apple's authoring tool. Migrating to other platforms is simply not an option, at least with this current platform.
Global Equities Analysis
Global Equities' initial take on how publishers will fare in the system is that they will in fact make more money selling an iBook textbook priced at US$14.99 versus a traditional printed textbook priced at $125.
That is because 50 percent of the textbook industry consists of used books, which deliver zero revenues to publishers. Also, the textbook supply chain is a complicated one, consisting of distributor, wholesaler, retailer and finally student. At each step the markup is between 8 percent to 15 percent, for a total of between 33 percent to 35 percent -- excluding actual distribution costs.
Conversely, the cost of an iBook production is 80 percent less than a print product. Global Equities declined to provide further details.
Some publishes of textbooks, though, disagree with Global Equities' assumptions, not to mention its math. Larry Beller, owner of Amsco School Publications, told MacNewsWorld the firm has been offering its own e-books for roughly a year and a half. Pricing for the two products -- print and e-book -- must remain roughly the same in order to provide revenues for the authors, he said, which are compensated differently than authors of fiction or non-fiction books.
"With Apple's platform coming out we will have to rethink some of the numbers, but it won't be a significant difference. It can't be." He added that there is still an important print market for college students -- and especially elementary and high school students -- that won't go away even if this platform becomes popular.
An iOS-Only Tool
For others, the authoring tool is the one that raises the most concern. For instance, writers who use iBooks Author to write books they intend to sell may only distribute them through Apple's services.
"There is a lot about this tool that I don't think authors will realize at first," Brad Wheeler, a professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business and the university's vice president of IT, told MacNewsWorld.
"Apple is a very innovative and profitable company so you can bet what is most important to them with this program is how to make a profit," he said.
Keeping authors on the Apple platform is one way to do that. "Whether that sticks remains to be seen, but I think for the foreseeable future they will have a profitable run of this for a couple of years, until the market broadens," he explained.
U.S. News & World Report January 23, 2012
Teens Should Learn Personal Finance from Parents, Teachers
By Laura McMullen
January 23, 2012
Most high school students don't spend their time fretting over mortgages, stock prices, or their 401(k) plans, but they are at an age when smaller financial responsibilities start creeping into their lives. Many teenagers earn allowances and begin working part-time jobs, so they need to make decisions about what to do with their money.
High school students "also begin to have a lot more of a social life," says Margaret Magnarelli, senior editor of Money magazine and author of the textbook Per$onal Finance. "They might have a car and access to shopping and restaurants. And if they don't have a car, they want a car."
Teenagers often have many desires, but they must figure out how to allot their money for the things they want, says Magnarelli, who believes the first step to their financial understanding should be taught by parents.
"When you're shopping, and your child says, 'I want X item,' you can put that item into context," says Magnarelli. "Ask, 'what would it take for you to save up to buy that? How many hours of your part-time job would it take to achieve that?"
Parents can also help their kids understand financial responsibilities by being transparent with their own money decisions, says Magnarelli. For instance, she says parents can say, "We are not able to go to Spain for vacation this year, because if we did you couldn't go to basketball camp. So we're going to the New Jersey shore instead."
Other ways parents can teach financial responsibility include helping their kids set up a bank account and playing online stock market games, says Magnarelli.
Teachers can also play a huge part in preparing students to make financial decisions, says Magnarelli, even if the school doesn't offer a personal finance course.
"It's a practical skill that fits nicely into a lot of [curricula]," she says. "These kinds of lessons can be incorporated into other topics easily and smoothly."
Magnarelli explains that a math teacher could show compound interest, or an economics teacher can talk about finance on a micro level. One of the teachers who reviewed the Per$onal Finance book brought newspaper clippings into class and discussed personal finance that way, she says. He would show an article about a car accident, for example, and ask how an incident like that would affect the students' money decisions.
Financial lessons taught by both parents and teachers will go a long way in helping high school students in the future, says Magnarelli.
At this age, she says, "There are a lot of responsibilities that are building into what's going to be a bigger responsibility as they graduate from high school—whether they're going into college or whether they're going off into the working world."
After high school, Magnarelli says, students will have to think about how much money they make, how much of that income goes toward taxes, and how the rest of the paycheck will cover rent, food, entertainment, and other expenditures.
"They're probably not conscious of that yet—of the financial commitments that are coming up—but that's why it's important to be teaching them these skills about managing the money that they have now."
See how your school stacks up in our rankings of Best High Schools. Have something of interest to share? Send your news to us at highschoolnotes@usnews.com.
Huffington Post January 24, 2012
Personal Finance Education: Teens Can Learn To Manage Money From Parents, Teachers
The Huffington Post republished Laura McMullen’s article First Posted: 01/24/2012 11:45 am
Tech News World January 25, 2012
The iBooks Profitability Puzzle
Republished the article by Erika Morphy from MacNewsWorld Part of the ECT News Network 01/24/12 5:00 AM PT
HowtoLearn.com January 17, 2012
Personal Finance: A Financial Literacy Program For Teens
Posted By Pat Wyman On January 17, 2012 @ 6:00 pm
At present, only nine states have any sort of program to assess students’ financial literacy and less than 20 percent of teachers feel equipped to teach classes in the subject, according to a recent study by The President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability.
Even worse, the report found that, “Lack of financial literacy is widespread in the United States and Americans, including students, are worse off because of this. Low levels of financial literacy appear to be tied to higher rates of being ‘unbanked,’ higher levels of indebtedness, lower rates of wealth accumulation, and lower rates of retirement planning.”
In order to educate teenagers, AMSCO School Publications, Inc. has created Per$onal Finance, a high school textbook designed to teach American students everything they need to know to live fiscally responsible lives, including:
How to set financial goals
Researching and planning a career
How to understand banks
Where to save and where to invest
Using credit wisely
Why young people need insurance
This comprehensive book guides young readers by breaking down complex financial matters into small, easily digested bites. It explains what goes into – and comes out of – a paycheck and why that matters. It shows how to balance a checkbook and make a budget that works. It explains when you should – and when you shouldn’t – apply for a credit card.
In addition it backs it all up with a glossary that clearly explains economic terms that befuddle even adults. “An education in managing your personal finances is your ticket to economic freedom,” says Irene Rubin, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, AMSCO School Publications.
There is a movement underway to combat our nation’s problem with financial literacy, but experts agree it must start with our children.
Boys and Girls Club of America, Junior Achievement, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts have all begun classes, camps, projects and badges designed to teach young people financial literacy. Per$onal Finance takes it to the next level by making financial literacy available to every high school student in America.
AMSCO School Publications is dedicated to providing high quality, inexpensive textbooks and support materials to the educational community. They offer course texts, review, and test prep books that reflect national and state standards for curriculum and assessment, as well as a growing list of books aligned to the intent and the specifics of the Common Core State Standards.
Wheeler is appreciative of Apple's entrance in the market, however, along with other digital book initiatives in the education space to address the high cost of textbooks, including a digital book initiative at Indiana University.
"In my mind that is most important development: Finally after years of high prices, thanks to these emerging digital models, we are seeing progress."
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