An as-told-to interview with a Chicago publishing whiz, for our Spring Books issue.

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“We’re based in Boston, since 1832. Our trade publishing is primarily out of Boston and New York; in the Chicago area we employ more than 600 full-time people—editors, marketers, product development folks, and sales teams. We have offices in Evanston, Rolling Meadows, and Geneva. The Evanston office was McDougal Littell, which became part of HMH in 1994.

“One of the products is an app called HMH Fuse. In September 2010, we launched a pilot program testing an algebra curriculum on an iPad in four California school districts. It has the content you’d expect in a textbook—practice problems, examples, instruction on how to do things—but what’s really exciting about it is that it has all the elements embedded to make it truly mobile: videos, tool sets that allow kids to practice their problems and take notes, and also a data system that reports back to the teacher in real time how students are progressing.

“We also have almost all of our front list—our major programs across subject areas—available as e-textbooks, which can be read on a mobile device.

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»Rian Murphy, Drag City

»Mike Levine, Northwestern University Press