In Uncertain Times, a Publisher Pushes Digital Transformation

Educational content conference shows industry challenges

For one night in fall 2010, Key Curriculum Press , a niche educational publishing company, turned its California office into a museum of its own struggles to show its employees how to save the business.

Rooms in the office were transformed to give employees different experiences based on the status of the company, which had reached a turning point. In one room, employees talked to high school students about changing studying habits as music blared and magazines were laid around to represent distractions. Another room was completely dark and filled with mist to illustrate that the company had ignored economic and educational trends.

Key's sobering realization that things were quickly changing in a long-unchanged industry was one shared last week in Washington by many attending the Content in Context conference, an annual meeting of educational publishers. Publishers large and small were joined by technologists and entrepreneurs; conversation focused on iPads, the threat of free digital content, and globalization as much as it did curriculum. Key was among several companies asked to tell stories of transformation...