ATG Interviews Liz Mason, VP, Gale Product, Gale Cengage Learning Katina Strauch Against the Grain, [email protected]
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Against the Grain Volume 28 | Issue 4 Article 19 2016 ATG Interviews Liz Mason, VP, Gale Product, Gale Cengage Learning Katina Strauch Against the Grain, [email protected] Tom Gilson College of Charleston, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Strauch, Katina and Gilson, Tom (2016) "ATG Interviews Liz Mason, VP, Gale Product, Gale Cengage Learning," Against the Grain: Vol. 28: Iss. 4, Article 19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.7463 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. ATG Interviews Liz Mason Vice President, Gale Product, Gale | Cengage Learning by Tom Gilson (Associate Editor, Against the Grain) <[email protected]> and Katina Strauch (Editor, Against the Grain) <[email protected]> ATG: Liz, you’re a fairly recent arrival ATG: One comment that has been men- at Gale but you’ve had extensive experience tioned about Gale is that the products are in the industry. Can you tell us about your frequently not scholarly/academic enough. prior background? How long have you been Comments? at Gale? What is your remit? LM: We really value feedback like this, LM: I joined Gale in May 2015, so I have and also value having an open dialogue with just celebrated my one-year anniversary. At our customers. Gale has evolved from the Gale I currently oversee the U.S. product orga- print reference publisher that many customers nization, including our content strategy, devel- know us as. Today, we’re focused on being opment and production teams. Within Cengage, an education partner for libraries, including Gale is run as a stand-alone business, so I work academic libraries. closely with others on the Gale management Many of our products are created specifi- team including marketing, sales and operations cally for academic customers. Gale’s digital leaders as well as our international colleagues. archive program is put together under the Prior to coming to work at Gale, I held guidance of one or more scholars prominent multiple leadership positions at LexisNexis, in the relevant field of study. For multi-part focused on segment leadership and product archives, we work with a board of advisors management. I’ve also worked at two start- to shape the program broadly, and then ups, most recently at a weather data start-up insights from our sales and marketing teams. with subject-specific scholars on inclusion that applied Big Data techniques to historical Once we have a solid product concept, driv- criteria for individual archives within the weather data. en by customer need, we will do market testing program. In many cases we are working ATG: About a year and a half ago, Gale to validate the concept, through a combination from an established bibliography, as was also brought on board a new Senior Vice of focus groups, surveys, and ethnographic the case for ECCO and American Fiction. President and General Manager overseeing studies. Depending on the amount and type of The monographs, manuscripts, ephemera the entire business. It looks like Gale may be new content needed, we may form an advisory and newspapers/magazines contained within undergoing some significant changes. Can board, recruit faculty to write and peer-review, an archive are useful for undergraduate re- you give us the inside scoop on what’s been and work with licensing partners. Content searchers as well as seasoned scholars. We happening? How does this position interact metadata and curriculum alignment decisions partner with renowned institutions such as the with yours? are integral parts of the development process, British Library, National Archives (Kew), LM: Yes, Gale has brought several new as they drive significant value. As we move Cambridge University Library, Canadian leaders on board as our business evolves, and into development, we follow an agile devel- Lesbian and Gay Archives, American Anti- as our customer needs evolve. Paul Gazzolo opment cycle. The product manager sits with quarian Society, New York Public Library, joined as Senior Vice President and General the developers, content engineers and designers Harvard Law School Library, and Yale Law Manger in November 2014 and is charged with and they move the project forward in sprints. School Library (just to name a few) to bring overseeing all operations and strategy for Gale After a sprint, the new iteration will be shown essential documents to scholars, creating new across the globe. Paul asked me to join his to customers for feedback and any course cor- and unique opportunities for research. team of direct reports last year. rection. As we near release, content is indexed Similarly, for our imprints Macmillan and Growing our global business is a key fo- and final QA (quality assurance) is completed. Scribner’s, we have an academic board that cus for Gale and Paul also recently brought It looks very orderly when I lay it out that recruits other academics to write college and on Terry Robinson, Senior Vice President like — in practice, there are many twists and graduate level original scholarship that is then and Managing Director, overseeing all of the turns, and many steps happening in parallel! reviewed. Gale International business. Terry is based Speed is important, but we don’t want to miss Our recently released product, Gale in Dubai, where we recently opened an office. important insights from the team along the way, Researcher, is created by academics. Gale Terry has been instrumental in helping the so there is a constant balancing act. Researcher features scholarly content aligned company establish a presence in key regions I do think we have a great way of borrowing with the scope and sequence of introductory such as the Middle East and Asia. from best practices in product development college-level courses. Organized by discipline, ATG: As someone who plays a key role in across a number of industries, and I think one each content set is further segmented into rel- bringing new information products to market of our strengths is the use of shared space. evant series and topics covering foundational what can you tell us about the process? How Not just in the team rooms, but also in that we and fundamental concepts within a survey does it work? Is there anything unique about have a substantial majority of the team all in course. Each series of topics is overseen by the way Gale does it? our office in Farmington Hills, which allows a series editor who is a scholar in the area LM: The process starts with the customer for spontaneous collaboration. We just held an of study. All of our contributors, including and deep knowledge of our customers’ strategic all-day Hackathon this week that has resulted editors, have been vetted by an editor in chief goals, workflows, and pain points. Recently, in some excellent new concepts. (George Esenwein, PhD), who is overseeing I made some substantial changes to Gale’s ATG: Can you share some of those new development of the entire content set. product leadership structure to be aligned by concepts at this time, at least those relevant ATG: We notice that Gale has expanded our three core markets — K12, public and to the academic market? its digital archives program. Can you tell us academic. This is how our marketing and LM: The concepts need more develop- about a few of the key additions? What is the sales organization is already set up, creating an ment, but I can share that there are very inter- underlying strategy behind this expansion? effective triangle or loop of information where esting ideas around Virtual Reality experiences Why now? product strategy is informed by the day-to-day for customers and AI tools for subject indexing. continued on page 46 Against the Grain / September 2016 <http://www.against-the-grain.com> 45 Interview — Liz Mason from page 45 against thepeople grain profile LM: Our archive programming has been expanding and changing over the last few years in terms of the type of content we’re digitiz- Vice President, Gale Product ing — we’re focused on more multicultural Gale | Cengage Learning content — and the amount of content. We 27500 Drake Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48331 recently addressed these significant changes Phone: (248) 699-8861 • Fax: (248) 699-8057 with a rebranding of the program as Gale <[email protected]> • www.gale.com Primary Sources. The Gale Primary Sources program has BORN AND LIVED: Born and raised in Kansas. After graduate school, lived in Atlanta, Geor- published 35 new products this past year, cov- gia; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Charlottesville, Virginia. Currently residing in Birmingham, MI. ering more than 500 years of history. Through its nearly 100 content partners, Gale is open- EARLY LIFE: High school in Overland Park, KS; B.A. Business Administration & Spanish, ing up 15 million pages of rare content from Michigan State University; Master of International Business Studies, University of South different parts of the world to researchers and Carolina (all in the 80s). digital humanists. New archive programs that PROFESSIONAL CAREER AND ACTIVITIES: 1989-1994: Product manager at a banking launched this spring represent the new face of start-up; 1994-2013: 20 different jobs (and 24 different bosses!) at LexisNexis, starting the program, such as: as a Marketing Manager, then as a Director/Sr. Director of product management, then as Archives of Sexuality and Gender, a mile- Liz Mason Vice President & General Manager of several different market segments; 2014-2015 Chief stone digital program that brings together Operating Officer at Weather Analytics, a weather data start-up.