Wiley - waaaay more than a coyote!

 

You never know where writing a blog posting is going to lead!  This morning, was engaged by a link in a Brendan McCormack tweet.  Turns out the posting is tiny compared to my addendum, a fascinated look at the parent company of Wiley Online Library.  Am reposting here for anyone interested in a USA-based company that's been thriving & driving the ever-evolving world of publishing for over 200 years.   

Here's my cut & paste:

About WILEY - can't resist adding this extensive background on the Wiley Online Library & its parent company.  Too darn fascinating!  This article on rural family caregivers was my first contact with Wiley.  Amazed to discover that Wiley is over 200 years old!  Gotta love a company whose taglines include "empowers teaching & learning" and  "enables discovery"!

Once upon a time, in a very big city in a fairly small country, 25-year old Charles Wiley opened a small printing shop in Manhattan.  Charles grew the business, with an impressive list of authors & best sellers.  Partners came & partners went, but Charles Wiley never lost his focus on innovation & keeping his eye beyond the horizon.   

 

On Charles' death, his son took over the family business.  By the mid-1800s, Wiley was a major publishing house, the first American publisher with a branch office in London.  

As the century progressed, the company's interest shifted away from fiction toward scientific, technical & medical topics.  Right place, right time, right interests - Wiley road the wave of scientific breakthroughs & technological innovations. By the end of the century, the company had branched into social sciences & business management, then just coming into its own, and gone global.   As the nation entered the 20th century, Wiley was recognized as the #1 US publisher in science & technology.  

Talk about longevity - in 1932, John Wiley's great-grandson William Bradford Wiley (aka Brad) came on board, the 5th generation to work in the family business.  Naturally, World War II & America's postwar boom meant even bigger & better things for Wiley & Sons.  In 1962, shares were offered to employees and the public - after 155 years, Wiley was no longer a private family business.  Again, right move at the right time.  

Although headquartered just across the river from the original Manhattan location, today Wiley can be found all over the world.  And - of course - still expanding.  In the late 1970s. it saw the writing on the wall & entered knowledge-based trade publishing, purchasing Ronald Press to booster its business and accounting titles.

On its 175th anniversary, Wiley expanded into business education & training, acquiring Wilson Learning Corporation, then life sciences publisher Alan R. Liss, Inc. (1989), and VCH, publishing partner of the German Chemical Society (1996). 

Fueled by a variety of smaller acquisitions, a sharpened focus on the company's strengths, Wiley entered the 21s century primed & ready to grow even bigger.  

What would the early Wileys - or even Brad - think about the impact the Internet had on their publishing company, or the effect their publishing company would have on the World Wide Web?  Even more than when the company celebrated its 200 years of still thriving business, Wiley is better positioned than ever to serve & innovate.  As I just discovered this morning, The Wiley Online Library is an incredible online platform for scientific, technical, medical, and professional 

At this point, am going to blatantly lift sections from the company's website.  It's just too well written to try to rephrase in my own limited words:

In recent years, Wiley has focused its activities increasingly on the areas of research, learning, and professional practice, with its three core businesses now named Global Research, Professional Development, and Global Education. The strategy has been supported by additional acquisitions and partnerships and the divestiture of most of its consumer brands, with the notable exception of For Dummies.


Wiley has played a leading role in important industry initiatives such as CrossRef, a collaborative venture providing key services such as online reference citation linkage in journals and other scholarly content. Wiley is also involved in the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) initiative, a collaborative effort to provide a unique identifier for each contributor to the scholarly literature.
Wiley is a founding member of the U.N.-backed HINARI, AGORA, and OARE initiatives (collectively known as Research4Life), which make online scientific content available free or at nominal cost to researchers in developing countries, as well as a founding partner in the Cochrane Collaboration's Evidence Aid project, providing evidence on interventions in the aftermath of natural disasters and large-scale health emergencies.

 

Creating Global Centers of Excellence

Since the 1990s, Wiley has seen vigorous growth and dramatic change, as the company moves purposefully toward its vision of giving customers the information they want, in the form they want, whenever they want it. In financial terms, revenue increased from less than $300 million in FY1990 to $1.8 billion in FY2013.

Over the past decade, Asia has emerged as both a dynamic market and a vital source of Wiley content. China is now the second-largest consumer of Wiley Online Library content, as well as the second-largest source of articles for Global Research journals. India, a well-established market for Wiley, is also developing into an important source of content.

In the Middle East, Wiley opened an office in Dubai in 2010 to take advantage of the region's rapid growth of higher education opportunities; in 2012, Wiley established Brasil Editora LTDA, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a global company, Wiley is able to create consolidated centers of excellence at locations sited strategically around the world and, in turn, achieve cost savings and efficiencies that make room for ongoing investments to develop the business.

Honoring the Company and Its Authors

Wiley has been honored frequently for its sustained financial success and exceptional culture. Accolades include Forbes magazine's list of the "400 Best Big Companies in America," Book Business magazine's citation of Wiley as "One of the 20 Best Book Publishing Companies to Work For," and Standard and Poor's 2006 addition of Wiley to its MidCap 400 Index. In addition, Fortune magazine named Wiley one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For," and Wiley Australia has received the Australian government's "Employer of Choice for Women" citation every year since its inception in 2001. Wiley has also appeared on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Best Workplaces for Commuters" list.


Wiley authors have received numerous honors, and Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel laureates in every Nobel prize category: Literature, Economics, Physiology/Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Peace.

Always ready to catch the next big wave, Wiley currently collaborates with TED (hard to get more cutting edge), curating  a series of talks along with  educational support materials. 

For over 200 years, Wiley has evolved to meet the needs of its customers — from letterpress pamphlets to digital apps and interactive online learning tools. The Wiley family's involvement in the business continues, now into the seventh generation. Given Wiley's financial stability, experienced leadership team, and talented workforce, the years ahead promise to bring exciting opportunities for continued growth and prosperity.

The company may be a far cry from Charles Wiley's small Manhattan printing shop, but its emphasis on quality and commitment to customers haven't changed since 1807.