Penny Crossland Outsell increases coverage of information industry
Jinfo Blog

12th February 2010

By Penny Crossland

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LiveWire has been posting recently on various issues surrounding content management and technology (see http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27859, http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27856, http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27852 and http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27751). Recent events such as Online 2009 and Content Workflow 2010 have confirmed that information providers will only succeed if their content can be accessed in a multitude of ways, and this can only happen via technology. (see Nancy Davis Kho's post on The Guardian's mobile application as an example: http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27740) It is little wonder then that publishers of research on the information industry are also getting in on the act. This week, Outsell has announced its acquisition of The Gilbane Group (http://gilbane.com/), the well-respected publisher and conference organiser on all matters relating to content management technologies. This acquisition would seem to be a shrewd move on the part of Outsell. As the accompanying press release (http://digbig.com/5bbbxy) states, Outsell now has '360 degree coverage of the information industry - established and disruptive information providers, users, enterprises, advertisers, libraries and the technologies underlying the industry's evolution'. Within the last four years, Outsell has also acquired the business research division of Eduventures and EPS (Electronic Publishing Services). The acquisition has been well-received by industry commentators ( http://digbig.com/5bbbyb), who believe that it will increase Outsell's standing in the research industry. In the US, Gilbane is a better-known brand, which is why there will be no name change. Outsell, in return will provide Gilbane with greater exposure to publishing and media companies. According to the Gilbane blog (http://digbig.com/5bbbye), the merger is also a response to customer demand - all the more reason to join together what are after all complementary businesses.

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