6/29/98

CONTACT: Elaine C. Ray, News Service (650) 723-7162;
elaineray@stanford.edu

Highwire Marketing Group announces worldwide network of sales agents

The HighWire Marketing Group (HWMG), a voluntary association of nonprofit publishers based at Stanford University, announces the formation of a worldwide network of sales agencies that will market the group's renowned scientific, technical and medical electronic journals. The agencies selected to be part of the network are considered among the most highly reputable and professional firms in the information industry, with years of experience and solid relationships in the business and academic communities.

The first agencies selected to represent HWMG are Casalini Libri; EBSCO Information Services, Europe; Harrassowitz; Nedbook; and Shinwon Datanet. These agencies will represent the marketing group's journals primarily in Europe, Africa, North America, Korea and the Middle East. Along with these agents, HWMG will soon announce additional agencies selected for Asia, North America, Australia and Latin America.

"We intend to work in partnership with our agents to bring high-impact scientific, technical and medical journals directly to the desktops of researchers and scientists throughout the world," said Jim Hydock, director of sales and marketing for the HWMG. "Our selection of these premier agents reflects our commitment to influence the direction of scholarly publishing in the emerging electronic publishing world," Hydock added.

Michael Keller, HighWire publisher and Stanford University librarian, said, "Stanford University Library has long-standing relationships with its subscription agents, and HWMG will build on that history. Agents working closely with the HighWire Marketing Group will have a number of unusual roles complementing the cooperative aspects of the publishers working with HighWire. Harrassowitz and Casalini Libri have developed with the HighWire Marketing Group the basic aspects of these special roles and functions in marketing and training as well as in customer support. We are pleased to have new opportunities to develop what might be called reverse flow relationships with trusted dealers who have served Stanford, among many other academic and research libraries, so well for so long."

The HighWire Marketing Group is a voluntary association of nonprofit publishers of peer-reviewed, high-impact scientific, technical, and medical research, whose goal is to serve the worldwide interest in scientific research, instruction and communication consistent with the principles developed by the International Consortium on Library Consortia.

HighWire Press, the Internet imprint of the Stanford University Libraries, currently maintains more than 50 online journal titles. It is dedicated to fostering research and instruction by providing a more direct link between the writers and readers of scholarly materials. The press was started in an effort to ensure that the nascent marketplace for electronic communication among scholars does not develop along the semi-monopolistic lines of current scientific, technical and medical print publishing.

For further information visit the HighWire Marketing Group's website at http://hwmg.stanford.edu/ or the HighWire Press website at http://highwire.stanford.edu.

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By Jim Hydock