Thomson Companies Make Niche Buys
by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/19/2004
Two Thomson Corp. companies gained new titles in small deals made over the last two weeks.
Delmar Learning acquired 49 career and reference books from Career Press. The acquired titles include 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions and 101 Smart Questions to Ask on Your Interview, both of which were written by Career Press founder Ron Fry. Also part of the deal were seven titles in the Master Math series and five books from the Five O'Clock Club. Delmar's Dawn Gerrain said the company will make some of the content available in different formats, including online and DVD.
Fry said he will use the proceeds from the sale to expand into new categories under his company's Career Press and New Page Books imprints. Under the Career imprint, the company publishes in the career, business, reference and personal finance categories, while New Page is devoted to New Age books. Career plans to publish 75 new titles in 2004.
Thomson's higher education unit bought 44 criminal justice titles from Copperhouse Publishing. The paperback titles will be added to Thomson's college criminal justice list published by its Wadsworth division. Many of the books will become part of Thomson's Advantage series, which offers college students texts that are below traditional hardcover prices.
