Collaboration: McGrawHill and the IET in Publishing Partnership

Interesting bit of news came my way this week when I read that McGraw-Hill Professional had entered into a publishing partnership with The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).  No doubt you'll have heard of McGraw-Hill but the IET is a member organization with more than 150,000 members located in over 120 countries.  According to the terms of the agreement, the two companies will partner to create engineering content for professionals and students covering every aspect of electrical and electronic engineering.   Content created in this partnership will be available on McGraw-Hill's AccessEngineering platform although there is no word whether the content will also be available on the IET content platform.  From their press release:

"We are very pleased to partner with The IET. This new agreement fits perfectly with our publishing strategy, which is designed to foster technological innovation. It is the next step in growing McGraw-Hill Professional's more than 100 year relationship with the international engineering community," said Steve Chapman, Publisher of Science & Technology at McGraw-Hill Professional.

Daniel Smith, IET's Head of Academic Publishing, said: "We are always looking for opportunities to extend our reach into the engineering community and are delighted to be partnering with McGraw-Hill Professional to develop new content to complement our ongoing publishing program in this area. Developing quality engineering content which accelerates both research and innovation is a major pillar of the IET's knowledge strategy, helping to bring essential engineering intelligence to a wider audience."

As the press release makes clear, this deal looks like a brand extension deal for the IET where McGraw-Hill will be overseeing the publishing services for all the print and electronic titles and will benefit from the strong brand affiliation that IET carries with engineering professionals.  Naturally, IET will benefit from the broader exposure that working with MGH Professional will bring them particularly into the traditional global retail channels that perhaps IET may not have ready access to.  Making IET branded content available on a wider basis looks like a smart play for this organization.