Pearson financial report reveals shift to digital services
The company that is known for old-fashioned textbook publishing is moving into the digital realm. Pearson's 2011 financial report, which was released Monday, shows an 18 percent increase in revenue from digital products and services. The amount, which totaled over $3 billion, represented a third of the company's total sales for last year.
The rise of tablet computers and e-books has fueled educational innovations that expand the classroom outside traditional textbook learning, and Pearson has responded to this in several ways. In the past year the company has joined forces with Apple to provide e-textbooks, invested in online educational enterprises, and purchased software that improves individual student instruction by helping teachers track pupils.
Company leadership has certainly not shied from this shift towards technology, as was evident when Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino described her company as a "digital and services company." Looking ahead to the future, Scardino implied that these statistics only represent the tip of the iceberg. "I wouldn't be surprised if in not so many years from now, Pearson is a company that delivers most of what it does on screens," she said.
[via EdWeek]
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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com