McGraw-Hill Higher Education and Zinio Offer High-Tech, Lower-Cost ebooks to College Students

PRNewswire-FirstCall
NEW YORK
Aug 15, 2005

A student-friendly, interactive, lower-cost option to the traditional textbook is a reality as a result of a new alliance between McGraw-Hill Higher Education, a leading provider of electronic and print learning materials, and Zinio, the leader in digital publishing services. Through the alliance, 150 of McGraw-Hill's most renowned college titles are now available as electronic books, offering the highest quality reading experience -- at about half the cost of a print textbook.

"We are committed to combining the best of technology with our content to improve learning, and providing students with economical alternatives to traditional print materials," said McGraw-Hill Higher Education president Ed Stanford. "By joining forces with Zinio, a recognized leader in digital magazine publishing, McGraw-Hill has one more effective, high-tech, and affordable way to deliver our authoritative content to meet the demands of today's computer-savvy student."

With pages that can be "turned," text that can be highlighted, and notes that can be easily inserted, the McGraw-Hill/Zinio ebook is an exact replica of the print text. But the technology provides students with much more - a full-text search capability, web links, audio, video, archiving and many other features. In addition, pages may be printed in high resolution and full color. To order and download a McGraw-Hill title, students just need to visit the Zinio website (http://textbooks.zinio.com/). Once a student downloads the ebook to his or her computer, the student can access the ebook anywhere that computer goes, online or offline.

"We are proud to team up with McGraw-Hill Higher Education - particularly since this alliance represents Zinio's first expansion into a market beyond magazine publishing," said Zinio Book Division president Richard Maggiotto. "It makes sense for us to leverage the same consumer-oriented approach, tools and infrastructure we used to win the magazine publishing market and apply them to textbooks. We offer something that's been missing from the digital textbook experience until now -- a terrific reading experience, availability on every campus, prices up to half off and no expiration dates on textbooks. For our publishing clients, both magazine and textbook, we see many cross- marketing opportunities," Maggiotto added.

McGraw-Hill Higher Education ebooks using Zinio technology cover subject areas including business, economics, science, engineering, mathematics, humanities, social sciences and world languages. For a complete listing of these ebooks or to place an order, visit http://textbooks.zinio.com/

About McGraw-Hill Higher Education

McGraw-Hill Higher Education is a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, the premier provider of teaching and learning solutions for the pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, post-secondary, higher education and professional markets. It is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands, such as Standard & Poor's and BusinessWeek. Founded in 1888, the corporation has more than 300 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2004 were $5.3 billion. Additional information is available at www.mheducation.com

About Zinio

Zinio is the recognized leader in digital publishing and marketing services. The world's leading publishers including Ziff Davis, VNU, Time Inc., McGraw-Hill, Hearst, Hachette Filipacchi and Editorial Televisa, choose Zinio for a full suite of professional, turnkey services from marketing programs for customer acquisition, retention and cross-promotion to a robust e-commerce engine, seamless production services and extensive digital delivery, circulation and fulfillment services. Millions of customers worldwide enjoy the highest-quality reading experience, online or off. Zinio has offices in San Francisco, New York and London, and franchise partners throughout the world. The company is privately held and investors include Apax Partners, Intel Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Odyssey Capital, Palisades Ventures and StarVest Partners. www.zinio.com

SOURCE: McGraw-Hill Higher Education

CONTACT: April Hattori
McGraw-Hill Education
(212) 904-2078
april_hattori@mcgraw-hill.com
Tom Stanton
McGraw-Hill Education
(212) 904-3214
tom_stanton@mcgraw-hill.com
Michele Schott
Zinio Systems, Inc.
(415) 494-2725
mschott@zinio.com

Web site: http://www.mheducation.com/
http://www.zinio.com/