Chinese Publishers

Management Seminar

Press Release

August 14, 2000

NYU Center for Publishing hosts delegation of Chinese Publishers

The Center for Publishing organized the third special management seminar this year for a group of twenty-nine publishers from eighteen different cities in China. The topics of this professional training program were warehousing, order fulfillment, billing, collections and information systems for book distribution. Ten specific seminar topics were presented at the NYU Midtown Executive Conference Center and then the delegation went to visit the Ingram Book Company's distribution center in Petersburg, Virginia and the VHPS Distribution Center in Gordonville, Virginia. Their program ran from August 7 to 14 and concluded with a special session on BookSense Online bookselling presented by the American Booksellers Association in Tarrytown, New York.

The guest faculty included John Buese, Vice President of Information Technology at Random House, Inc. and Andrew Weber, Vice President of Operations Chief of Random House, Inc. who presented the overall concept and information systems/services for management. Timothy Higgins, Director of Trade Books for the Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, Steven Schragis, Consultant, and Jonathan Stolper, Director of Sales for Harry N. Abrams, Inc., covered the retail aspects of book distribution and sales. Charles Bozian, Chief Financial Officer of Columbia University Press, presented the economics and financial management of book distribution. John Seeley, Vice President of HarperCollins, covered the credit & collections policies and procedures. The visitors were hosted by Michael Pratt, President of Ingram International, at the Ingram Book Company Distribution Center in Petersburg which was followed by a tour and seminar presented by Michael Shareck, Senior Vice President of Von Holtzbrinck Publishing Services, at the VHPS Distribution Center in Gordonsville, Virginia.

"This management seminar is just one of several organized this year in Argentina, Brazil, China, and Italy as part of our program to take the Center global" according to Robert E. Baensch, director of the Center for Publishing at New York University. Eleven percent of the graduate students represent eight countries and every effort is being made to host more international participants while also pursuing an outreach program with special professional training programs.

August 14, 2000