Publishing Technology's China Joint Venture to Sign Landmark Deal

LONDON, August 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Contract with one of China's most renowned publishing houses Zhonghua Book Company 

Publishing Technology plc, the AIM quoted leading provider of world-class software and services to the global publishing industry, is pleased to announce that its joint venture, Publishing Technology China, has signed an agreement with the Zhonghua Book Company, one of the most prestigious trade and academic publishing houses in China.  

Using its pub2web platform, Publishing Technology will build a digital publishing platform and management system for the Zhonghua Book Company to house its complete collection of classic Chinese works. Founded in 1912, the Zhonghua Book Company specialises in ancient Chinese texts. As part of a Government-backed project, the partnership will see its collection of ancient Chinese works from the past 3000 years, made available to institutions around the world.

The pub2web platform, a custom hosting solution, is the result of a multi-million dollar research program and has been built using a powerful combination of industry standard architecture and semantic web technologies to showcase and connect publishers' content, regardless of format or type. Among the leading global organisations that use pub2web are the UN and the OECD.

Publishing Technology's other clients in China include leading domestic publishers such as China Law Press and China Publishing Group, the country's largest publisher and owner of CNPIEC (China National Publications Import and Export Corporation), which controls the majority of content moving in and out of China.

Publishing Technology represents seven of the top ten global publishing groups and current clients include over 400 trade and scholarly publishers, including HarperCollins, McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, Elsevier, Springer, Sage, Oxford University Press, BMJ Group, and Bloomsbury Publishing.

Michael Cairns, CEO of Publishing Technology plc, commented: 

"This is a landmark contract for Publishing Technology in China. Zhonghua Book Company is one of the most prestigious trade and academic publishing houses in the country and is a strong endorsement of the software products we have invested millions in developing.

Jun Xu, President of Zhonghua Book Company, commented: 

"Publishing Technology is an excellent partner for our business to build the digital publishing platform and management system, which is essential for any modern publishing business and that we need to capitalise on the strong growth in demand for online books and content.