Press Release

McGraw-Hill Education and Content Directions Sign Comprehensive Agreement to Register DOIs

February 13, 2002

NEW YORK--McGraw-Hill Education and Content Directions, Inc. today announced the signing of a comprehensive Registration Agreement whereby McGraw-Hill Education will begin registering Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) across all of its major book publishing programs.

The DOI is a system for identifying and exchanging intellectual property in the digital environment. The DOI is like the UPC (bar code) in the physical world, but for Internet-based resources such as digital content published online. It uniquely identifies digital objects and provides a permanent link to the publisher, thus facilitating online transactions of all kinds, including e-commerce, rights management, and digital distribution.

McGraw-Hill Education is a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, which is a strong supporter of the DOI technology. "We support implementation of DOI, which is a standard that will contribute strongly to the development of the e-book marketplace and the market for all digital content,'' said Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President and CEO of the Corporation. "DOI will deliver terrific benefits to our customers, allowing them to find exactly what they want, when they want it, and it deserves the support of the entire publishing community.''

Evelyn Sasmor, Vice President, Product & Marketing Technologies, McGraw-Hill Education said: "McGraw-Hill Education has supported the DOI standard from the very beginning, and we are pleased that the system has now reached a point - via the establishment of a commercial Registration Agency, Content Directions - where major publishers can now register large numbers of DOIs into the global directory. This opens a new era in publishers' use of the online medium - not only to sell eBooks, individual chapters, and other innovative forms of content - but to sell traditional, physical books as well. The DOI will help us grow top-line revenue, even as it also helps us reduce or avoid bottom-line costs.''

Robert Bolick, Vice President, New Business Development, McGraw Hill Professional, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, characterized the agreement as "an important step forward not just for McGraw-Hill but for our industry. The applications of the Digital Object Identifier demonstrated at the Frankfurt Book Fair and Book Expo last year showed us an inexpensive, reliable, powerful enabling mechanism whereby all the players in the digital distribution chain can provide better service to their customers, streamline their operations, and sell more content.''

Said David Sidman, Founder and CEO of Content Directions, "McGraw-Hill Education has demonstrated vision and leadership by becoming the first major book publisher to adopt the DOI as its standard identifier. Content Directions is proud to have a strategic customer like McGraw-Hill Education, which not only sees into the future, but is willing to help create it.''

McGraw-Hill Education had earlier demonstrated the sales and marketing potential of the DOI by publishing the first DOI-enable eBook on the Internet - the "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook,'' which was distributed free on the Internet in September 2001, in both Microsoft Reader and Adobe eBook Reader format. Enhanced with a DOI link at the beginning of the book - and thus enabling the reader to travel over the Web to purchase the Print edition if desired - the DOI multilink also facilitates availability of free excerpts, exposure to book reviews, access to the publisher's catalog page for additional related information, and sales across a publisher's distribution chain regardless of format - all directly from within Adobe eBook Reader or Microsoft Reader on the reader's PC.

Via the DOI-EB project sponsored by the International DOI Foundation and project-managed by Content Directions, McGraw-Hill Education had also created a series of demo applications of the DOI, including:

  • "Multi-linking'' directly from a book review in Business Week to all services enabled by the publisher for that book - including purchasing it from any desired retailer in any format (including print).
  • Linking from a bibliography entry within a PDF-based eBook out to the Internet in order to purchase the other book, read a free excerpt, learn more about it from the publisher's website, etc.
  • Selling chapter-level components such as the descriptions of individual business schools within Business Week's "Guide to the Best Business Schools.''
  • Enabling "viral marketing,'' pass-along, and cross-selling by embedding a DOI directly into a Microsoft Reader eBook or an Adobe eBook, such that the DOI enables the owner to automatically email a friend with an offer to buy the book, view other books by the same author, view other books on the same subject, read book reviews, or travel with a single click to purchase it in any format from any retailer.

Further details, including these demos themselves, are available via http://www.contentdirections.com/.

About the Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) makes managing intellectual property in a networked environment much easier and more convenient and allows the construction of automated services and transactions for e-commerce. It is based on technology developed by Dr. Robert Kahn, one of the principal inventors of the Internet.

The DOI initiative began as a project of the Association of American Publishers' Enabling Technologies Committee. It was officially launched in October 1997 at the Frankfurt Book Fair, following a prototype phase lasting from July through October 1997 in which nine publishers participated. After the 1997 Book Fair, an invitation to obtain a prefix and register DOIs was extended to the international publishing community. Since 1998 the DOI has been managed by the International DOI Foundation (IDF; http://www.doi.org/; Dr. Norman Paskin, Director), which is responsible for its ongoing development, policies, and governance. ("DOI'' and "doi.org'' are trademarks of the IDF and are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.)

About McGraw-Hill Education

McGraw-Hill Education is a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's and Business Week. Founded in 1888, the Corporation has more than 300 offices in 33 countries. Sales in 2001 were $4.6 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.

About Content Directions, Inc.

Content Directions, Inc., is a DOI Registration Agency and Internet services firm dedicated exclusively to implementing and promoting the use of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). This includes consulting on how the DOI can increase an organization's revenues and cut costs, as well as actually registering DOIs for digital content. Additional information on the DOI, and on CDI's products and services, can be found at http://www.contentdirections.com/ or by emailing info@contentdirections.com.