As predicted in this newsletter three days ago, ProQuest has sold its microfilm and microfiche business. The buyers are apparently three former employees of ProQuest. The new company also has purchased the existing ProQuest manufacturing facility and operations located at 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The full announcement is listed below. There is no mention of genealogy or of local history books nor did I expect to see those mentioned. ProQuest apparently has already converted all those products to electronic format, thereby negating the value of the microfilm holdings.
National Archive Publishing Company Formed By Prior Members of ProQuest Management Team
Established Businesses Purchased by New Company
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 31 -- The newly formed company, National Archive Publishing Company (NAPC), which has acquired three existing and established business operations from ProQuest Information and Learning, is led by four seasoned publishing executives with combined experience of more than 100 years in the library and higher education markets. The businesses are UMI(R) Periodicals in Microform, XanEdu(R) and the Microfilm and Digitization Service operations.
"National Archive Publishing Company is a name that defines what we do, publishing of scholarly research material via periodical microfilms, and providing course packs for students through the growing XanEdu business," explained Dan Arbour, president and chief executive of NAPC. NAPC will also work with ProQuest under a long-term service contract to produce microfilm and digital content.
"A big benefit to our customer base of more than 5,000 is the invisible transition from ProQuest as a provider to services provided by NAPC directly," said Arbour. Our total business is now focused on the strategy of serving existing customers for UMI Periodicals in Microform and XanEdu in the same professional manner they have grown accustomed to -- and to leverage our vast capabilities, experience and capacity to develop new products and enhance the value of our existing offerings."
NAPC has purchased the existing manufacturing facility and operations located at 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor. NAPC will also assume portions of ProQuest operations located in Boston, MA, Wooster, OH, and Louisville, KY.
NAPC Partners
Arbour is president and chief executive of the newly acquired established businesses, all of which have been key market and product leading elements of the ProQuest business for many years. He has been with ProQuest and its predecessor businesses for 30 years and was most recently vice president of North American sales operations for ProQuest Information and Learning.
Other executives who form the partnership of the firm are:
Joe Mills, executive vice president of manufacturing operations. Most recently, he was vice president of manufacturing operations at ProQuest. He has been responsible for digitization and micrographic work in the library and commercial markets for 20 years and has additional background in electronic publishing, logistics and costing.
Tim Mitchell, executive vice president of sales and marketing. He has been national sales director for traditional business and manager of federal sales, both at ProQuest and UMI traditional markets. He also served as vice president of sales for bigchalk and regional sales director for Apex Learning.
Jeff Moyer, executive vice president of publishing. He has 20 years of industry experience and joins NAPC from Thomson Gale, a reference publisher where he was publisher of research collections. Earlier he was with Apex CoVantage in e-publishing and ProQuest where he was engaged in development of the company's initial Digital Vault products.
NAPC Business Units
NAPC will operate three lines of business:
UMI Periodicals in Microform, established in 1938, this product line includes more than 18,000 periodicals in microform and has more than 5,000 institutional customers across the nation. The business segment has been the leader in its market segment.
Microfilm is a storage medium on which printed materials are photographed and reproduced at greatly reduced size for ease of storage. Microform, which comprises both microfilm and microfiche formats, serves the needs of libraries for collection development, archiving and access, collection and storage.
XanEdu, launched in 2000, provides students at colleges and universities across the country with premium content in online and print course packs.
XanEdu will custom-clear copyrights for professors from one of the world's largest content archives, including thousands of publishers worldwide. Its course packs for students include reproductions and clean up of original scholarly documents in print, print and digital and digital-only formats.
XanEdu's Integration Program ("XIP") enables NAPC to develop and produce customs course packs and track student uses and purchases.
Microfilm and Digitization Services. NAPC will produce UMI Periodicals in Microform and also manufacture microfilm and digital content for ProQuest under a long-term contract. In this agreement, NAPC will fulfill microfilm production for retained products including dissertations, newspapers and research collections. The company will seek to leverage its acquired technologies and capacity to capture growth opportunities in existing markets as well as commercial arenas where demand for microfilm and digitization service solutions exists.About NAPC
NAPC is a newly formed established company that includes three lines of business, UMI(R) Periodicals in Microform, XanEdu(R), and Microfilm and Digitization Services with extensive microfilm and digital content production capability. It was formed through the firm's acquisition of the established business units from ProQuest Information and Learning, which determined these long time profitable businesses are not part of its future strategic growth plans, and the manufacturing capability for microfilm and digital content.
It operates from the purchased facility headquartered at 300 North Zeeb Road in Ann Arbor, Michigan and serves the library, government and commercial markets in the United States as well as having an international presence. UMI(R) is a registered trademark of ProQuest Information and Learning.
