Dive Summary:
- Discovery, the media company known for its cable TV programming, entered the digital K-12 textbook market with a product called the Techbook.
- Discovery saw the $3 billion conventional textbook and $4 billion teacher's guide markets and wants to become an early success story in the emerging digital space.
- Companies such as News Corporation, Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are also launching big digital products with the intent to compete for curriculum dollars.
From the article:
As another academic year starts, about 500,000 children across the country will find themselves learning subjects like middle school history or high school biology from a new line of digital textbooks. These manuals, branded Techbooks, come with all the Internet frills: video, virtual labs, downloadable content.
But the Techbook may be most notable for what it does not have — backing from a traditional educational publisher. Instead it has the support of Discovery, the cable TV company. ...