The global economic shock from the COVID-19 pandemic will immediately impact scientific, technical and medical publisher's transactional business such as books, individual journal sales, advertising and reprints promotion.

Due to the rapid changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Simba Information newsletters, Educational Marketer and Electronic Education Report, are sharing free news coverage related to the impact of COVID-19 on the K-12 and higher education markets.

As a Senior Analyst at Simba Information, Dan Strempel serves as an expert on the professional publishing markets, including scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishing and legal and business information markets. He writes and edits research reports and completes custom research projects, which provide market analysis, competitive intelligence, and unique insight into emerging trends.

Speaking for pay is big business, especially for former presidents, sports figures, and other celebrities. There are an estimated 40,000 professional speakers in the United States, but not all work full-time.

All eyes in the scholarly professional publishing industry are on market leader Elsevier to see how the company will react to a decision by of a group of prominent University of California faculty to step away from journal editorial boards until the publisher agrees to restart negotiations with the 10-campus system on a new contract for access to Elsevier’ scholarly journals.

The growth of mobile technology has created great opportunities for publishers that develop content for professionals in medicine, business, law, scientific and technical fields.

Accessing content with tablets and smartphones is becoming the norm for many professionals in a variety of occupations.

The early 21st century witnessed limited availability of display technologies. Thin film transistor (TFT) displays were used for advertisements, displaying information at commercial and public places such as railway stations and airports as well as in households. Established players, such as Philips, Panasonic, Thomson, Samsung, LG, and Sharp, were the only ones recognized by consumers due to their dominance in the market and diverse product portfolio.

Scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishing exceeds $25 billion annually, and its leading competitors consistently post adjusted profit margins that exceed 30%, according to our research at Simba Information. 

However, these same STM publishers are facing disruption in the face of a movement to create open access to the scholarly research they publish. 

To maintain long-term viability, the personal growth – aka self-improvement – industry’s future generation of gurus, speakers and experts will need to be more accountable to consumers. General motivational programs are less popular today. Many consumers looking for more practical programs and a return on their invested time and money have found that programs and philosophies – such as the “law of attraction” – have overpromised and underdelivered.

American consumers will pay lots of money for self-improvement products and services. This is especially true at this time of the year. Each January, we set resolutions to lose weight, improve our relationships, make more money, mange stress better, become a better salesman, increase productivity, read faster, etc.