WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.100 Okay, so if you were scrolling through your feed 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:04.120 today, you probably noticed the title of today's 00:00:04.120 --> 00:00:07.299 deep dive. Yeah, the Apple Podcast title. Right, 00:00:07.379 --> 00:00:10.380 exactly. The title is Unlocking Gale, The Hidden 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:13.419 Database Empire in Your Local Library. That's 00:00:13.419 --> 00:00:15.890 a pretty bold title. It is, but it totally fits. 00:00:15.949 --> 00:00:17.390 And I actually just want to read the description 00:00:17.390 --> 00:00:18.969 we put up for this one, because it really sets 00:00:18.969 --> 00:00:20.929 the stage for the sources we're looking at today. 00:00:21.129 --> 00:00:23.850 Go for it. OK. So the description says, ever 00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:26.570 wonder who actually builds those massive search 00:00:26.570 --> 00:00:28.969 engines and digital references you use for research? 00:00:29.510 --> 00:00:31.690 In this deep dive, we unpack the fascinating 00:00:31.690 --> 00:00:35.049 volatile history of Gale, the publishing giant 00:00:35.049 --> 00:00:38.630 behind InfoTrack Gale 1 file, and countless multi 00:00:38.630 --> 00:00:41.030 -volume encyclopedias. And it really is a wild 00:00:41.030 --> 00:00:43.829 history. Seriously. It goes on to say we trace 00:00:43.829 --> 00:00:46.509 their epic journey from a 1954 Detroit startup 00:00:46.509 --> 00:00:49.369 to a multi -billion dollar cornerstone of sand 00:00:49.369 --> 00:00:52.329 gauge learning. Along the way, we explore massive 00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:56.270 corporate mergers, a staggering $7 .75 billion 00:00:56.270 --> 00:00:59.469 private equity buyout, and a dramatic Chapter 00:00:59.469 --> 00:01:02.109 11 bankruptcy. Which is just a huge roller coaster 00:01:02.109 --> 00:01:04.269 for a company that basically sells library books. 00:01:04.930 --> 00:01:07.250 Right. And the description wraps up by saying, 00:01:07.409 --> 00:01:09.890 discover the hidden corporate architecture of 00:01:09.890 --> 00:01:12.829 the academic research primary resources and digital 00:01:12.829 --> 00:01:15.310 learning resources that have likely powered your 00:01:15.310 --> 00:01:18.689 own curiosity. Plus, we threw all the good SEO 00:01:18.689 --> 00:01:21.310 keywords in there, you know, Gale Publishers 00:01:21.310 --> 00:01:24.129 Cengage Learning Library databases, Thompson 00:01:24.129 --> 00:01:26.290 Corporation, all that stuff. Got to hit the algorithm. 00:01:26.530 --> 00:01:29.209 Exactly. But beyond the search terms, our real 00:01:29.209 --> 00:01:31.670 mission today is to look at the invisible corporate 00:01:31.670 --> 00:01:35.209 architecture of human knowledge. Because if you 00:01:35.209 --> 00:01:36.909 just picture the scenario, you're sitting at 00:01:36.909 --> 00:01:39.129 a computer, right? Sure. Maybe you're prepping 00:01:39.129 --> 00:01:41.920 for a corporate meeting or you're at a university 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:44.799 library, pulling together a massive research 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:47.239 paper. The classic all -nighter. Yeah, exactly. 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:50.180 You type a query into a search bar, you hit Enter, 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:52.680 and instantly you get thousands of peer -reviewed 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:55.340 results. Primary source documents, historical 00:01:55.340 --> 00:01:58.019 newspaper clippings. Just an absolute avalanche 00:01:58.019 --> 00:02:00.200 of data. Right. But have you ever actually start 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:02.980 to wonder who built that system? Most people 00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:05.620 haven't. I mean, I certainly didn't for a long 00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:08.219 time. Right, because who went out into the world, 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:11.180 gathered all those disparate resources, indexed 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:13.900 them, and then built the actual digital engine 00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:15.840 that powers that cert? It doesn't just happen 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:18.400 by magic. No, it doesn't. So we have this massive 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.259 stack of source material today detailing the 00:02:21.259 --> 00:02:24.009 comprehensive corporate history of Gale. and 00:02:24.009 --> 00:02:26.550 we are going to look at how a single company 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:29.349 effectively corners the market on academic and 00:02:29.349 --> 00:02:32.050 library reference. It's a huge topic. Okay, let's 00:02:32.050 --> 00:02:33.949 untack this because once you see the mechanics 00:02:33.949 --> 00:02:37.069 behind the database, it completely changes how 00:02:37.069 --> 00:02:39.729 you view the information you consume. It really 00:02:39.729 --> 00:02:42.129 forces a total perspective shift. Yeah. I mean, 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:44.349 when we dig into the source material on Gale, 00:02:45.020 --> 00:02:47.439 We are not just looking at a standard corporate 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:50.439 timeline. No, not at all. We are examining the 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:53.500 actual commodification organization and distribution 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:56.939 of truth. Of truth itself. Exactly. We tend to 00:02:56.939 --> 00:02:59.840 hold this highly romanticized view of libraries 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:02.680 as these organically occurring repositories. 00:03:02.780 --> 00:03:05.340 Yeah, like they're just these purely civic spaces 00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:08.199 where information inherently exists for the public 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:10.819 good. Right, but the reality of modern research... 00:03:10.860 --> 00:03:14.139 is that the digital resources inside those libraries, 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:16.900 the databases, the indexes, the archives, they're 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:19.750 built. aggregated, leased, and maintained by 00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:21.990 massive private corporate entities. Which is 00:03:21.990 --> 00:03:24.569 a huge distinction. It is. Gale's trajectory 00:03:24.569 --> 00:03:27.710 over the last 70 years is essentially the story 00:03:27.710 --> 00:03:30.330 of how our entire society transitioned from a 00:03:30.330 --> 00:03:32.849 model where knowledge was a stationary physical 00:03:32.849 --> 00:03:35.810 commodity to a model where knowledge is a digital 00:03:35.810 --> 00:03:39.229 asset. A digital asset that is continuously leased. 00:03:39.490 --> 00:03:41.650 Yes, continuously leased. You're never really 00:03:41.650 --> 00:03:44.430 on it. And that shift has profound implications 00:03:44.430 --> 00:03:46.770 for how you conduct research today. I want to 00:03:46.770 --> 00:03:49.129 start by looking at what it took to build that 00:03:49.129 --> 00:03:51.189 original physical commodity, though, because 00:03:51.189 --> 00:03:53.370 the origins of this company are just incredibly 00:03:53.370 --> 00:03:56.389 telling. They really are. Our sources place the 00:03:56.389 --> 00:03:58.189 founding of Gale, which was originally called 00:03:58.189 --> 00:04:00.949 Gale Research in 1954. Mid -century America. 00:04:01.069 --> 00:04:03.770 Right. And the founder is this guy, Frederick 00:04:03.770 --> 00:04:07.169 Gale Ruffner Jr. He starts this venture in Detroit, 00:04:07.169 --> 00:04:10.639 Michigan. Detroit in 1954. Yeah. And just to 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:13.340 put a pin in the geography for a second, 70 years 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:15.560 later, the company is still headquartered just 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:17.720 west of Detroit in Farmington Hills. Which is 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:20.040 so unusual for publishing. It is. You think of 00:04:20.040 --> 00:04:22.379 publishing, you immediately think of Manhattan 00:04:22.379 --> 00:04:27.339 skyscrapers. Or Boston literary houses. Maybe 00:04:27.339 --> 00:04:30.290 London. Right, London, you absolutely do not 00:04:30.290 --> 00:04:32.250 think of the Motor City. But what's fascinating 00:04:32.250 --> 00:04:35.089 here is that geographic disconnects, because 00:04:35.089 --> 00:04:37.250 it perfectly aligns with what Ruffner was actually 00:04:37.250 --> 00:04:39.750 trying to build. How so? Well, think about 1954 00:04:39.750 --> 00:04:42.829 Detroit. It was the epicenter of the American 00:04:42.829 --> 00:04:46.110 post -war industrial boom. The entire culture 00:04:46.110 --> 00:04:48.829 there was focused on the mass production of tangible, 00:04:49.110 --> 00:04:51.949 complex machinery. Assembly lines. Auto plants. 00:04:52.490 --> 00:04:54.850 Exactly. Ruffner wasn't trying to publish the 00:04:54.850 --> 00:04:57.389 next great American novel. He was trying to manufacture 00:04:57.389 --> 00:05:00.750 a utilitarian tool. A tool for information. Right. 00:05:01.069 --> 00:05:03.050 Think about the sheer logistical friction of 00:05:03.050 --> 00:05:06.160 doing research in 1954. If you needed to find 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:08.279 out which trade associations existed for, say, 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:10.060 the steel industry... You couldn't just Google 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:12.779 it? No. You absolutely couldn't query a search 00:05:12.779 --> 00:05:15.779 engine. You had to navigate a physical card catalog. 00:05:16.420 --> 00:05:19.040 And that catalog only told you what was inside 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:21.639 that specific building. Which is so limiting. 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:24.459 Incredibly limiting. Yeah. So Ruffner looked 00:05:24.459 --> 00:05:27.560 at this post -war explosion of organizations 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:31.490 and industries and recognized... an immense unmet 00:05:31.490 --> 00:05:34.310 need for structured information. He saw a gap 00:05:34.310 --> 00:05:36.930 in the market. He was basically building an analog 00:05:36.930 --> 00:05:40.009 search engine using paper binding and ink. And 00:05:40.009 --> 00:05:42.649 the physical reality of that analog search engine 00:05:42.649 --> 00:05:44.810 is just staggering to think about. It really 00:05:44.810 --> 00:05:47.290 is. The early bread and butter for Gale research 00:05:47.290 --> 00:05:50.350 were these massive multi -volume reference works. 00:05:50.709 --> 00:05:53.089 The sources highlight the encyclopedia of associations 00:05:53.089 --> 00:05:55.089 as the classic example. Oh yeah, that was a giant. 00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:58.040 We are talking about incredibly heavy, densely 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:00.579 printed books. Imagine the sheer physical weight 00:06:00.579 --> 00:06:02.800 of the product they were selling to these libraries. 00:06:03.459 --> 00:06:05.620 It's hard to even conceptualize today. Right. 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:08.100 A library wasn't just buying data. They were 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:11.060 buying linear feed of paper that required reinforced 00:06:11.060 --> 00:06:15.079 flooring. An extensive shelving space. The physical 00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:18.420 weight is actually the perfect metric for understanding 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:21.120 the barrier to entry in this industry at the 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:23.720 time. Because it was so hard to produce. Exactly. 00:06:23.930 --> 00:06:26.329 To produce something like the Encyclopedia of 00:06:26.329 --> 00:06:29.370 Associations in the 50s, Ruffner's team had to 00:06:29.370 --> 00:06:32.750 engage in this grueling manual process. Right, 00:06:32.850 --> 00:06:34.750 they had to mail things out. They mailed out 00:06:34.750 --> 00:06:38.310 thousands of paper surveys. to organizations 00:06:38.310 --> 00:06:41.110 across the entire country. Then they had to just 00:06:41.110 --> 00:06:43.290 wait for the postal service to deliver the replies. 00:06:43.430 --> 00:06:45.290 And hope people actually filled them out. Right. 00:06:45.410 --> 00:06:47.750 And when they came back, they manually sorted 00:06:47.750 --> 00:06:51.050 those replies into index cards, alphabetized 00:06:51.050 --> 00:06:54.290 them by hand, and then painstakingly typeset 00:06:54.290 --> 00:06:56.970 thousands of pages for print. It was literally 00:06:56.970 --> 00:06:59.529 an industrial assembly line for data. It was 00:06:59.529 --> 00:07:02.139 an industrial operation. And because the barrier 00:07:02.139 --> 00:07:04.740 to creating that index was so incredibly high 00:07:04.740 --> 00:07:07.519 once Gale published it, they essentially owned 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:09.699 that specific niche of knowledge. Because nobody 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:11.980 else was going to do all that work. Right. Libraries 00:07:11.980 --> 00:07:13.600 had to buy it because they certainly didn't have 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:15.740 the staff to compile a national index themselves. 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.720 So Ruffner creates this totally indispensable 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:22.360 physical product. And it's wild to fast forward 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:24.800 from that mid -century industrial operation to 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:27.560 where we are now. The contrast is massive. Because 00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:30.139 the core mission organizing human knowledge is 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:33.279 exactly the same today as it was in 1954. The 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:35.360 only difference is the medium. They just swapped 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:38.399 paper for servers. Exactly. They went from mailing 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:41.480 index cards and binding heavy paper to managing 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.379 global server farms in the digital cloud. And 00:07:44.379 --> 00:07:46.600 they did it all without ever leaving the Detroit 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:48.500 area. Which is a testament to their corporate 00:07:48.500 --> 00:07:50.879 stability in those early years. But to make that 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:54.279 leap from physical books to global server farms, 00:07:54.920 --> 00:07:57.379 a single founder's vision just wasn't going to 00:07:57.379 --> 00:07:59.939 be enough. It rarely is, especially when a company 00:07:59.939 --> 00:08:02.620 proves the immense profitability of a niche market 00:08:02.620 --> 00:08:04.600 like that. Because they'd captured the libraries. 00:08:05.019 --> 00:08:08.000 Right. Ruffner built a highly organized, highly 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:10.800 sought after catalog of reference material. And 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:13.220 in the corporate world, when you successfully 00:08:13.220 --> 00:08:15.959 corner a vital market with recurring institutional 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:18.740 buyers. Like academic and public libraries? Exactly. 00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:21.079 You become a prime target for acquisition. Yeah. 00:08:21.300 --> 00:08:23.500 Which brings us to the consolidation phase of 00:08:23.500 --> 00:08:25.199 the publishing industry. Right. Let's look at 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:28.279 the 1980s and 90s because this is where the modern 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:30.480 architecture of the company is really forged. 00:08:30.819 --> 00:08:32.990 This is the turning point. According to the corporate 00:08:32.990 --> 00:08:35.649 history in our sources, the International Thompson 00:08:35.649 --> 00:08:38.250 Organization, which most people later know as 00:08:38.250 --> 00:08:42.309 the Thompson Corporation, acquires Gale in 1985. 00:08:42.730 --> 00:08:45.509 A massive media conglomerate stepping in. Yes. 00:08:46.049 --> 00:08:48.149 But Thompson doesn't just sit on that single 00:08:48.149 --> 00:08:50.809 acquisition. They go on to build this massive 00:08:50.809 --> 00:08:52.830 research conglomerate. They were playing a long 00:08:52.830 --> 00:08:56.889 game. By 1998, Thompson executes a major internal 00:08:56.889 --> 00:08:59.970 merger. They take Gale Research and they merge 00:08:59.970 --> 00:09:02.129 it with two other companies they had previously 00:09:02.129 --> 00:09:04.830 acquired. Information Access Company and Primary 00:09:04.830 --> 00:09:07.750 Source Media. Exactly. And together, these three 00:09:07.750 --> 00:09:09.870 entities form what they call the Gale Group. 00:09:10.129 --> 00:09:13.490 This is a total masterclass in vertical and horizontal 00:09:13.490 --> 00:09:16.210 integration. Compson wasn't just hoarding profitable 00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:18.350 companies. They were systematically assembling 00:09:18.350 --> 00:09:20.870 the ultimate academic research puzzle. Piece 00:09:20.870 --> 00:09:22.990 by piece. Let's actually break down the three 00:09:22.990 --> 00:09:25.809 pieces of that 1998 merger, because it is crucial 00:09:25.809 --> 00:09:28.230 to understanding how the databases you use today 00:09:28.230 --> 00:09:30.450 actually function. OK, let's do it. First, you 00:09:30.450 --> 00:09:33.490 have Gale Research. That brings the traditional 00:09:33.490 --> 00:09:35.929 multi -volume encyclopedias and the structured 00:09:35.929 --> 00:09:38.330 indexes we just talked about. Heavy books. Right. 00:09:38.809 --> 00:09:42.399 Second, you have primary source media. Thompson 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:45.059 had acquired them back in 1979 when they were 00:09:45.059 --> 00:09:47.039 called research publications. And what did they 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:49.879 bring to the table? This division brought an 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:53.179 incredible vast archive of historical documents, 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:56.240 microfilms, and original source materials. Okay, 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:58.259 so now you have the encyclopedia summaries plus 00:09:58.259 --> 00:10:00.980 the actual original historical documents. Exactly. 00:10:01.100 --> 00:10:03.519 But here's where it gets really interesting because 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:06.490 the third piece of that puzzle is Information 00:10:06.490 --> 00:10:10.090 Access Company, which Thompson bought in 1995. 00:10:10.330 --> 00:10:13.169 The technological leap. Yes, because Information 00:10:13.169 --> 00:10:16.110 Access Company was the publisher of InfoTrack. 00:10:16.230 --> 00:10:18.490 InfoTrack. I just have to pause here because 00:10:18.490 --> 00:10:23.250 for anyone listening who was a student or a researcher 00:10:23.250 --> 00:10:25.809 or just spending any amount of time in a library 00:10:25.809 --> 00:10:30.809 in the late 90s or early 2000s, the word InfoTrack. 00:10:30.940 --> 00:10:33.519 carries an immense amount of nostalgia. Oh, absolutely. 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:35.659 It was everywhere. Before the internet was everywhere, 00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:37.960 InfoTrack was the bridge. It was the defining 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:40.940 technological leap for an entire generation of 00:10:40.940 --> 00:10:43.620 researchers. How did it work before that? Well, 00:10:43.659 --> 00:10:46.659 before InfoTrack, if you used a physical index 00:10:46.659 --> 00:10:49.740 to find a citation for a magazine article, you 00:10:49.740 --> 00:10:52.500 still had the physical burden of locating that 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:54.480 article. Right. You'd get a slip of paper that 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:57.220 says, go find Time Magazine from October 1982. 00:10:57.620 --> 00:10:59.759 Exactly. You had to walk to the periodical section, 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:01.720 hope the issue wasn't checked out or stolen, 00:11:02.220 --> 00:11:04.200 or load up a reel of microfilm and just scroll 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:05.919 through it until you were dizzy? I remember the 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:08.059 microfilm machines. They were awful. They were. 00:11:08.539 --> 00:11:10.700 InfoTrack revolutionized that entire workflow 00:11:10.700 --> 00:11:13.480 by utilizing CD -ROM technology. I remember the 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:15.759 setup so vividly. You would walk into the library 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:18.299 and there would be this dedicated, bulky desktop 00:11:18.299 --> 00:11:21.500 computer hooked up to a literal tower of CD -ROM 00:11:21.500 --> 00:11:25.240 drives. A multimedia towers. Yes. and the library 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:28.779 would receive updated CD -ROMs in the mail every 00:11:28.779 --> 00:11:30.980 single month from the publisher. Physical updates 00:11:30.980 --> 00:11:33.340 in the mail. You would type in your search, and 00:11:33.340 --> 00:11:36.080 the machine would physically whir as it spun 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:38.419 up the disk to find your article. You could hear 00:11:38.419 --> 00:11:40.679 it thinking. You really could. And while the 00:11:40.679 --> 00:11:42.960 user interface might seem laughably clunky by 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:46.019 today's standards, the backend achievement was 00:11:46.019 --> 00:11:48.360 monumental. Because it wasn't just citations 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:50.799 anymore. Right. InfoTrack began offering the 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:53.240 full text of magazine and newspaper articles 00:11:53.289 --> 00:11:55.230 right there on the screen. You didn't have to 00:11:55.230 --> 00:11:57.470 go find the magazine. You didn't just get a citation, 00:11:57.789 --> 00:12:01.029 you got the actual text. So when Thompson merged 00:12:01.029 --> 00:12:03.509 Information Access Company with Gale and Primary 00:12:03.509 --> 00:12:07.429 Source Media in 98, they created an entity that 00:12:07.429 --> 00:12:09.950 offered a complete closed -loop research ecosystem. 00:12:10.139 --> 00:12:12.659 A one -stop shop. A student could sit down at 00:12:12.659 --> 00:12:15.000 a terminal, get the broad overview of a topic 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.659 from a Gale encyclopedia, read the historical 00:12:17.659 --> 00:12:20.899 context from primary source media, and pull current 00:12:20.899 --> 00:12:23.840 news and magazine articles from InfoTrack. all 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:26.360 from one interface. Exactly. But the logistical 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:29.320 reality of making those three completely different 00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:31.460 systems talk to each other must have been an 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:33.320 absolute nightmare. It's hard to overstate how 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:36.340 difficult it was. Because you were taking centuries 00:12:36.340 --> 00:12:40.120 old primary sources, mid -century physical reference 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:43.840 books and modern monthly periodical data and 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.759 trying to force them all under one digital umbrella 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:49.519 called the Gale Group. Right. How do you even 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:52.539 begin to standardize that data? It required an 00:12:52.539 --> 00:12:55.649 unprecedented in data structuring and digitization. 00:12:56.450 --> 00:12:58.129 People often say, oh, they just digitized the 00:12:58.129 --> 00:13:00.090 archives as if someone just ran a bunch of books 00:13:00.090 --> 00:13:01.970 through a high -speed scanner. Right, like making 00:13:01.970 --> 00:13:05.389 a PDF. Exactly. Yeah. But the reality of digitizing 00:13:05.389 --> 00:13:08.029 decades of physical archives in the late 1990s 00:13:08.029 --> 00:13:10.570 was incredibly fraught. Because the tech was 00:13:10.570 --> 00:13:13.610 so new. Right. They were relying on early optical 00:13:13.610 --> 00:13:16.269 character recognition or OCR technology. And 00:13:16.269 --> 00:13:18.889 OCR back then was pretty rough. OCR programs 00:13:18.889 --> 00:13:21.149 at the time struggled immensely with older texts. 00:13:21.610 --> 00:13:23.610 If you were trying to digitize an 18th century 00:13:23.610 --> 00:13:26.830 primary source, the OCR might read a faded letter 00:13:26.830 --> 00:13:31.629 E as a C. Or a long is as an F. Yes. Or completely 00:13:31.629 --> 00:13:34.429 fail to recognize old typesetting ligatures. 00:13:35.909 --> 00:13:38.570 Gale had to invest heavily not just in scanning, 00:13:38.779 --> 00:13:41.860 but in the metadata. The hidden tags. The unseen 00:13:41.860 --> 00:13:44.080 tags and categories that actually make a document 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:47.700 searchable. They had to build a unified taxonomy. 00:13:48.059 --> 00:13:50.519 So what does that look like in practice? It means 00:13:50.519 --> 00:13:54.279 that a search for American Civil War would simultaneously 00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:57.919 pull the correct encyclopedia entry, the 1860s 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:01.259 newspaper clipping, and the 1998 academic journal 00:14:01.259 --> 00:14:03.200 article. Which is something we take entirely 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:05.700 for granted now when we use a search bar. Completely. 00:14:06.139 --> 00:14:08.330 But they had to invent that plumbing. And once 00:14:08.330 --> 00:14:10.750 they built that unified digital infrastructure, 00:14:11.389 --> 00:14:13.649 they essentially had the ultimate delivery system. 00:14:13.830 --> 00:14:15.730 They had built the pipes. The best pipes in the 00:14:15.730 --> 00:14:17.970 industry. And when a massive corporation builds 00:14:17.970 --> 00:14:20.309 the best pipes in the industry, the next logical 00:14:20.309 --> 00:14:23.129 step is to buy up all the premium water you can 00:14:23.129 --> 00:14:25.230 find to push through those pipes. Naturally. 00:14:25.649 --> 00:14:27.669 Which leads us to the turn of the millennium 00:14:27.669 --> 00:14:30.309 and Gale's absolute shopping spree of legacy 00:14:30.309 --> 00:14:32.830 publishing brands. The infrastructure basically 00:14:32.830 --> 00:14:36.029 demanded content. Thompson Gale realized that 00:14:36.029 --> 00:14:38.169 while having a great search engine is important, 00:14:38.769 --> 00:14:42.110 the true value for an academic library lies in 00:14:42.110 --> 00:14:44.870 the prestige and authority of the text being 00:14:44.870 --> 00:14:46.990 searched. It doesn't matter how fast the search 00:14:46.990 --> 00:14:50.190 is if the results are garbage. Exactly. So they 00:14:50.190 --> 00:14:52.370 targeted the most respected names in the publishing 00:14:52.370 --> 00:14:55.240 world. Our sources detail this dizzying series 00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:58.759 of acquisitions. In 1999, Thompson -Gale acquired 00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:01.980 Macmillan Library Reference. A huge move. But 00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:04.799 Macmillan wasn't just one brand. That acquisition 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:09.080 included a portfolio of legendary imprints. Scribner's 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:11.899 Reference, Thorndyke Press, Shermer Twain Publishers, 00:15:12.139 --> 00:15:14.720 and GK Hall. All under one umbrella. They bought 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:17.299 this entire block from Pearson. And the following 00:15:17.299 --> 00:15:19.600 year, in 2000, they crossed the Atlantic and 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:22.340 acquired a Munich -based publisher called KGC. 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:24.480 Sar Verlag. Though it's worth noting they later 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:27.419 sold Sar to Walter DeGroyter in 2006. Right, 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:28.840 they didn't hold on to that one forever. But 00:15:28.840 --> 00:15:30.879 I want to focus on that Macmillan and Scribner's 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:32.720 acquisition because it highlights something really 00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:35.139 important about how these massive corporations 00:15:35.139 --> 00:15:37.980 treat intellectual history. It really does. If 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:40.879 we connect this to the bigger picture, you can 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:43.259 see how authoritative knowledge is essentially 00:15:43.259 --> 00:15:45.980 traded like a financial instrument. Like a stock 00:15:45.980 --> 00:15:49.440 portfolio. Exactly. The paper trail on the Macmillan 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:53.899 portfolio is incredibly revealing. In 1994, Simon 00:15:53.899 --> 00:15:56.860 and Schuster bought Macmillan USA. Just four 00:15:56.860 --> 00:16:00.320 years later, 1998, Pearson acquired the educational 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:02.679 and reference divisions from Simon and Schuster. 00:16:02.759 --> 00:16:05.100 So it moves from one giant to another. And then 00:16:05.100 --> 00:16:08.200 a mere year after that, Pearson sold the Macmillan 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:10.559 Library reference portion to Thompson -Gale. 00:16:10.679 --> 00:16:13.779 That's so fast. Within a five -year window, some 00:16:13.779 --> 00:16:16.399 of the most deeply respected academic texts in 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:18.840 the world were bounced between three different 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:21.419 multi -billion dollar conglomerates. It's a corporate 00:16:21.419 --> 00:16:23.580 game of musical chairs. It really is. But the 00:16:23.580 --> 00:16:25.620 music eventually stops and Thompson -Gale gets 00:16:25.620 --> 00:16:29.809 the seat. And the prize is immense. Unquantifiable, 00:16:29.870 --> 00:16:31.870 really. When they acquired Scribner's reference, 00:16:32.029 --> 00:16:34.590 they didn't just get data. They became the exclusive 00:16:34.590 --> 00:16:37.509 owners of absolute heavyweights, like the Dictionary 00:16:37.509 --> 00:16:39.590 of the Middle Ages and the Dictionary of Scientific 00:16:39.590 --> 00:16:42.419 Biography. Those are foundational texts. Right. 00:16:42.539 --> 00:16:44.419 For a layman, those might just sound like big 00:16:44.419 --> 00:16:47.299 books. But in the academic world, the Dictionary 00:16:47.299 --> 00:16:49.860 of Scientific Biography isn't just a book. Not 00:16:49.860 --> 00:16:52.620 at all. It is the definitive authoritative text 00:16:52.620 --> 00:16:55.480 on the history of science. That is the crucial 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:58.960 distinction here. When you acquire a text of 00:16:58.960 --> 00:17:01.700 that caliber, you are not just a database company 00:17:01.700 --> 00:17:03.980 anymore. What are you? You are the gatekeeper 00:17:03.980 --> 00:17:07.789 of academic legitimacy. The Dictionary of Scientific 00:17:07.789 --> 00:17:10.069 Biography was originally published under the 00:17:10.069 --> 00:17:12.990 auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. 00:17:13.329 --> 00:17:15.569 So it has the official stamp of approval. It 00:17:15.569 --> 00:17:17.809 represents the consensus of the world's leading 00:17:17.809 --> 00:17:20.750 historians of science. By bringing that text, 00:17:20.950 --> 00:17:23.849 along with Twain's literary criticisms and Schirmer's 00:17:23.849 --> 00:17:27.269 music encyclopedias, into the Gale digital ecosystem. 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:29.839 Thompson ensured that their platform was non 00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:32.200 -negotiable for universities. Exactly. Because 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:35.059 if a university library cancels their Gale subscription, 00:17:35.500 --> 00:17:37.619 they aren't just losing a search interface. No, 00:17:37.660 --> 00:17:40.079 they are losing access to the foundational texts 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:43.119 of entire academic disciplines. Which the professors 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:45.339 demand. Right. And this is why this corporate 00:17:45.339 --> 00:17:47.339 history matters directly to you, the listener. 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:49.920 It affects everyday people. The consolidation 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:53.200 of these imprints dictates the intellectual diet 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:56.000 of millions of students and researchers. How 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.880 so? Give me an example. If you are taking a class 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:01.940 on medieval history and you log into your university 00:18:01.940 --> 00:18:05.640 library portal to research a paper, the database 00:18:05.640 --> 00:18:08.240 will likely steer you toward the Dictionary of 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:10.700 the Middle Ages. Because it's heavily integrated 00:18:10.700 --> 00:18:13.740 into the search. Right. You might think you are 00:18:13.740 --> 00:18:16.039 simply accessing the library, quote unquote, 00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:19.180 but you are actually accessing the specific portfolio 00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:22.299 of assets that Thompson Gale managed to acquire 00:18:22.299 --> 00:18:26.269 in 1999. That is wild to think about. They successfully 00:18:26.269 --> 00:18:28.869 gathered the most authoritative voices in human 00:18:28.869 --> 00:18:31.490 history under one roof in Farmington Hills. They 00:18:31.490 --> 00:18:34.049 built an absolute powerhouse. They had the digital 00:18:34.049 --> 00:18:36.750 delivery system. They pioneered with InfoTrack. 00:18:36.789 --> 00:18:39.150 They had the primary sources. And now they had 00:18:39.150 --> 00:18:42.069 the unquestioned prestige of Macmillan and Scribner. 00:18:42.210 --> 00:18:44.089 They had the whole package. They were generating 00:18:44.089 --> 00:18:46.670 massive recurring revenue from institutional 00:18:46.670 --> 00:18:49.349 subscriptions all over the globe. They had effectively 00:18:49.349 --> 00:18:51.170 won the game. They were at the top of the mountain. 00:18:51.390 --> 00:18:53.950 Which makes the next event in our source material 00:18:53.950 --> 00:18:56.750 completely baffling. It really is shocking. Just 00:18:56.750 --> 00:18:59.109 as they reach the pinnacle of the academic reference 00:18:59.109 --> 00:19:01.829 world, the parent company decides to tear the 00:19:01.829 --> 00:19:04.589 whole thing down. It is one of the most drastic, 00:19:04.890 --> 00:19:07.549 counterintuitive pivots in modern corporate history. 00:19:07.849 --> 00:19:10.650 It makes no sense on paper. Thompson had spent 00:19:10.650 --> 00:19:13.920 over two decades and hundreds of millions of 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:16.759 dollars meticulously assembling this unmatched 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:20.200 portfolio. Decades of work. And then at the absolute 00:19:20.200 --> 00:19:23.119 height of their dominance, they simply decided 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:24.839 they didn't want to be in the library business 00:19:24.839 --> 00:19:27.660 anymore. Our sources pinpoint the exact date 00:19:27.660 --> 00:19:31.519 this happened, October 25, 2006. A massive day 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:34.319 in publishing. The CEO of Thompson Corporation, 00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:36.960 a man named Richard Harrington, makes a public 00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:39.369 announcement. He states that Thompson intends 00:19:39.369 --> 00:19:42.049 to wholly divest its Thompson Learning Division. 00:19:42.490 --> 00:19:44.529 Meaning they are selling it all. Right. They 00:19:44.529 --> 00:19:47.190 are putting the entire educational and library 00:19:47.190 --> 00:19:50.269 empire, including Gale, up for sale. Just putting 00:19:50.269 --> 00:19:52.609 a for sale sign on the lawn. And the justification 00:19:52.609 --> 00:19:55.369 he gives is stunningly brief. He says that the 00:19:55.369 --> 00:19:57.789 division does not fit with our long term strategic 00:19:57.789 --> 00:20:00.369 vision. Which is ultimate corporate speak. Right. 00:20:00.490 --> 00:20:03.900 How do you justify that? How does a multi -billion 00:20:03.900 --> 00:20:07.000 dollar cornerstone of global education suddenly 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:09.759 not fit the vision? You have to look at the broader 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:12.839 landscape of the global information economy in 00:20:12.839 --> 00:20:15.660 2006 to understand that decision. Set the scene 00:20:15.660 --> 00:20:18.759 for us. Well, Thompson was a massive conglomerate 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:21.519 and education was only one piece of their pie. 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:24.940 They were also heavily invested in highly specialized 00:20:24.940 --> 00:20:27.519 high -speed data for corporate clients. Like 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:29.980 what kind of data? Specifically financial data, 00:20:30.339 --> 00:20:33.099 legal databases like Westlaw and Healthcare Informatics. 00:20:33.240 --> 00:20:36.359 Oh, okay. So Wall Street and law firms. Exactly. 00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:38.640 When the Thompson board looked at their portfolio, 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:41.819 they saw two different futures. On one hand, 00:20:42.099 --> 00:20:44.920 they had corporate and financial data where banks 00:20:44.920 --> 00:20:47.440 and law firms are willing to pay astronomical, 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:50.539 constantly increasing subscription fees for real 00:20:50.539 --> 00:20:52.650 -time information. Because that data makes the 00:20:52.650 --> 00:20:54.750 money immediately. Right. The growth margins 00:20:54.750 --> 00:20:57.049 there were perceived as virtually limitless. 00:20:57.210 --> 00:20:58.690 And on the other hand, you have libraries and 00:20:58.690 --> 00:21:02.289 public schools. Precisely. As successful and 00:21:02.289 --> 00:21:05.430 profitable as Thompson -Gale was, its primary 00:21:05.430 --> 00:21:08.269 customers were municipalities, state universities, 00:21:08.390 --> 00:21:10.529 and public school districts. Which are not flush 00:21:10.529 --> 00:21:14.230 with cash. No. Those entities are bound by tax 00:21:14.230 --> 00:21:17.410 revenues and rigid annual budgets. There is a 00:21:17.410 --> 00:21:19.809 hard ceiling on how much you can increase a public 00:21:19.809 --> 00:21:22.730 library subscription fee before they simply cannot 00:21:22.730 --> 00:21:25.829 pay it. The library will just say no. Thompson 00:21:25.829 --> 00:21:28.630 looked at that hard ceiling and decided that 00:21:28.630 --> 00:21:31.109 the steady, reliable world of academic reference 00:21:31.109 --> 00:21:33.849 wasn't aggressive enough for their future. They 00:21:33.849 --> 00:21:36.130 wanted high -tech, high -speed growth. So they 00:21:36.130 --> 00:21:38.809 decided to cash out. At the time of the announcement, 00:21:38.970 --> 00:21:41.450 Thompson executives publicly stated they expected 00:21:41.450 --> 00:21:43.869 the sale of the learning division to generate 00:21:43.869 --> 00:21:46.750 around five billion dollars. Five billion dollars 00:21:46.750 --> 00:21:49.369 is a monumental valuation. It's massive. But 00:21:49.369 --> 00:21:51.329 the wild part is they severely underestimated 00:21:51.329 --> 00:21:53.609 the market demand. They really did. When the 00:21:53.609 --> 00:21:56.190 sale finally went through in 2007, Thompson Learning 00:21:56.190 --> 00:21:58.609 didn't sell for five billion. It was purchased 00:21:58.609 --> 00:22:00.990 by a private equity consortium for a staggering 00:22:00.990 --> 00:22:03.789 seven point seven five billion dollars. Seven 00:22:03.789 --> 00:22:06.609 point seven five billion. Let that number sink 00:22:06.609 --> 00:22:12.849 in. $7 .75 billion for a company that makes its 00:22:12.849 --> 00:22:15.549 money selling research databases to libraries 00:22:15.549 --> 00:22:17.809 and textbooks to college students. It's almost 00:22:17.809 --> 00:22:20.049 hard to comprehend. The consortium was made up 00:22:20.049 --> 00:22:22.890 of Apex Partners and Omer's Capital Partners. 00:22:23.670 --> 00:22:25.869 And upon the completion of this massive sale 00:22:25.869 --> 00:22:29.930 on July 24, 2007, Thompson Learning was officially 00:22:29.930 --> 00:22:33.650 rebranded as Cengage Learning. The entrance of 00:22:33.650 --> 00:22:35.910 private equity at this scale into the educational 00:22:35.910 --> 00:22:38.670 publishing market fundamentally alters the DNA 00:22:38.670 --> 00:22:40.730 of the company. We have to unpack the mechanics 00:22:40.730 --> 00:22:43.150 of a transaction like this. We do, because a 00:22:43.150 --> 00:22:46.829 $7 .75 billion buyout isn't just a simple cash 00:22:46.829 --> 00:22:50.259 purchase. It is a leveraged buyout. or LBO. OK, 00:22:50.380 --> 00:22:52.380 break that down for us. What is a leverage buyout? 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:54.680 When Apex Partners, which is a massive global 00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:56.740 private equity firm, and Ulmer's Capital Partners, 00:22:56.799 --> 00:22:59.400 which is actually the investment arm of the Ontario 00:22:59.400 --> 00:23:01.099 Municipal Employees Retirement System. Which 00:23:01.099 --> 00:23:03.480 is basically a massive Canadian pension fund, 00:23:03.500 --> 00:23:05.579 right? Yes. When they decided to buy a company 00:23:05.579 --> 00:23:07.099 for nearly eight billion dollars, they don't 00:23:07.099 --> 00:23:08.920 use their own cash for the whole amount. That 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:11.460 would be too risky. Way too risky. They borrow 00:23:11.460 --> 00:23:13.980 a massive portion of the purchase price. So they 00:23:13.980 --> 00:23:17.039 take out a huge loan to buy the company. But 00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:19.119 who is responsible for paying that loan back? 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:22.079 The company being purchased. Wait, what? Yes. 00:23:22.759 --> 00:23:25.440 In a leveraged buyout, the debt used to finance 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:28.099 the acquisition is placed directly on the balance 00:23:28.099 --> 00:23:30.490 sheet of the acquired company. So overnight, 00:23:30.710 --> 00:23:33.150 skin gauge learning is born, but it is born carrying 00:23:33.150 --> 00:23:36.250 billions of dollars in new corporate debt. Instantly. 00:23:36.490 --> 00:23:38.609 The private equity firms calculate that the steady 00:23:38.609 --> 00:23:40.670 recurring subscription revenue from all those 00:23:40.670 --> 00:23:44.069 library databases will be enough to service the 00:23:44.069 --> 00:23:46.190 massive interest payments on that debt. While 00:23:46.190 --> 00:23:48.369 still generating a profit for the private equity 00:23:48.369 --> 00:23:51.029 guys. Exactly. They looked at the encyclopedia 00:23:51.029 --> 00:23:53.109 of associations in the digital architecture of 00:23:53.109 --> 00:23:56.309 Gale One file and they saw a remarkably stable 00:23:56.309 --> 00:23:59.500 cash generating engine. It is such a jarring 00:23:59.500 --> 00:24:01.960 juxtaposition. It really is. On one side you 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:04.480 have the quiet, meticulous work of librarians 00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:07.400 and historians indexing the dictionary of literary 00:24:07.400 --> 00:24:10.539 biography. Very academic, very slow. Right. On 00:24:10.539 --> 00:24:12.740 the other side you have Wall Street private equity 00:24:12.740 --> 00:24:15.880 managers using those indexes to secure billions 00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:18.079 of dollars in mezzanine debt. Two completely 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:20.009 different worlds colliding. But the financial 00:24:20.009 --> 00:24:23.230 modeling by Apex and Omer is hinged on one critical 00:24:23.230 --> 00:24:25.789 assumption right. Yes, that the global economy 00:24:25.789 --> 00:24:28.369 and, by extension, library budgets would remain 00:24:28.369 --> 00:24:31.000 relatively stable. Which brings us to the timing 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:35.759 of this deal. They execute a $7 .75 billion buyout 00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:39.039 in the summer of 2007. The absolute peak of the 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:41.460 market. Right before the crash. The timing could 00:24:41.460 --> 00:24:43.799 not have been more disastrous. They bought at 00:24:43.799 --> 00:24:46.619 the very top of the bubble just months before 00:24:46.619 --> 00:24:49.740 the catastrophic 2008 global financial crisis. 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:52.539 So what does this all mean for Cengage and Gale? 00:24:53.079 --> 00:24:55.700 It means they step out into the world as an independent 00:24:55.700 --> 00:24:59.240 entity carrying an unimaginably heavy debt load. 00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:02.180 right as the global economy walks off a cliff. 00:25:02.279 --> 00:25:04.799 It's the worst possible scenario. It's a perfect 00:25:04.799 --> 00:25:07.420 storm of financial pressure. Our sources note 00:25:07.420 --> 00:25:09.400 that Patrick C. Summers took over as president 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:12.940 of Gale in October 2007, right as the storm clouds 00:25:12.940 --> 00:25:16.200 were gathering. And he served through 2010 right 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:18.920 during the worst of it. Yes. The environment 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:21.819 he had to navigate was unprecedented. As the 00:25:21.819 --> 00:25:24.880 financial crisis took hold in 2008 and 2009, 00:25:25.579 --> 00:25:28.730 tax revenues plummeted globally. And when tax 00:25:28.730 --> 00:25:31.789 revenues drop, municipalities are forced to slash 00:25:31.789 --> 00:25:34.009 budgets across the board. And public libraries 00:25:34.009 --> 00:25:36.710 and state universities were hit incredibly hard. 00:25:36.990 --> 00:25:39.329 So suddenly, the recurring subscription revenue 00:25:39.329 --> 00:25:41.069 that the private equity firms had counted on 00:25:41.069 --> 00:25:43.670 to pay off the buyout debt was under severe threat. 00:25:43.789 --> 00:25:46.190 Libraries were forced to negotiate lower rates 00:25:46.190 --> 00:25:48.869 or cancel subscriptions entirely. They just didn't 00:25:48.869 --> 00:25:51.130 have the funds. And while their revenue is being 00:25:51.130 --> 00:25:53.609 squeezed by the recession, they are also facing 00:25:53.609 --> 00:25:56.309 an existential technological shift at the exact 00:25:56.309 --> 00:25:58.930 same time. The late 2000s is when the transition 00:25:58.930 --> 00:26:01.890 from print to digital accelerated from a steady 00:26:01.890 --> 00:26:04.490 walk into an absolute sprint. The iPhone comes 00:26:04.490 --> 00:26:07.269 out in 2007. Exactly. Students suddenly expect 00:26:07.269 --> 00:26:09.089 everything to be instantly accessible on mobile 00:26:09.089 --> 00:26:10.789 devices. They don't want to go to the computer 00:26:10.789 --> 00:26:13.210 lab anymore. Right. Cengage couldn't just maintain 00:26:13.069 --> 00:26:16.170 their old CD -ROMs and print encyclopedias, they 00:26:16.170 --> 00:26:18.849 had to invest massive amounts of capital into 00:26:18.849 --> 00:26:21.329 completely rebuilding their digital platforms 00:26:21.329 --> 00:26:23.730 for the modern web. But how do you do that when 00:26:23.730 --> 00:26:26.009 you have all that debt? You can't. That was the 00:26:26.009 --> 00:26:28.279 vice they were caught in. They needed hundreds 00:26:28.279 --> 00:26:31.000 of millions in free cash flow to invest in new 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:33.759 software modern user interfaces and entirely 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:37.200 new digital learning platforms just to stay competitive. 00:26:37.619 --> 00:26:39.779 But all of their free cash flow is being siphoned 00:26:39.779 --> 00:26:42.799 off. Yes, to pay the interest on the multi -billion 00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:46.079 dollar debt from the 2007 leveraged buyout. The 00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:48.640 financial math simply broke down. Despite having 00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:51.859 incredibly valuable products, a prestigious catalog, 00:26:52.380 --> 00:26:55.279 and a captive audience of researchers, The capital 00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:58.079 structure of the company became entirely unsustainable. 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:00.119 And that pressure eventually broke the dam. It 00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:03.980 had to. In 2013, the inevitable happened. Cengage 00:27:03.980 --> 00:27:06.880 Learning filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. 00:27:07.140 --> 00:27:09.859 It is a stunning, whiplash -inducing arc. It 00:27:09.859 --> 00:27:13.579 really is. In 2007, they are valued at $7 .75 00:27:13.579 --> 00:27:17.099 billion and a record -breaking buyout. Just six 00:27:17.099 --> 00:27:19.180 years later, they are in bankruptcy court. It 00:27:19.180 --> 00:27:21.730 is a stark lesson. in the difference between 00:27:21.730 --> 00:27:24.710 a company's operational health and its financial 00:27:24.710 --> 00:27:27.230 structure. Because operationally, they were fine. 00:27:28.109 --> 00:27:30.549 Operationally, Gale was still producing vital, 00:27:30.769 --> 00:27:33.609 heavily utilized research tools. Students were 00:27:33.609 --> 00:27:36.609 still logging into Gale Academic One file millions 00:27:36.609 --> 00:27:38.890 of times a day. The core product was essential. 00:27:39.230 --> 00:27:42.509 The bankruptcy was purely a mechanism to fix 00:27:42.509 --> 00:27:45.109 the balance sheet. And Chapter 11 restructuring 00:27:45.109 --> 00:27:47.210 is very different from Chapter 7 liquidation. 00:27:47.430 --> 00:27:49.190 Right. In Chapter 11, the company doesn't shut 00:27:49.190 --> 00:27:52.049 down. Exactly. The servers have to stay on. The 00:27:52.049 --> 00:27:54.190 databases have to remain accessible. Because 00:27:54.190 --> 00:27:57.069 if the platform goes dark, even for a day, the 00:27:57.069 --> 00:27:59.250 institutional trust is broken forever. I think 00:27:59.250 --> 00:28:02.029 that is a crucial point to emphasize for the 00:28:02.029 --> 00:28:04.829 listener. When a company that controls the digital 00:28:04.829 --> 00:28:07.490 infrastructure of human knowledge goes bankrupt, 00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:10.519 It isn't like a retail store closing its doors. 00:28:10.619 --> 00:28:12.779 No, you don't just put up a closed sign. If a 00:28:12.779 --> 00:28:15.220 massive educational publisher fails to navigate 00:28:15.220 --> 00:28:17.680 or restructuring the impact ripples through the 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:20.140 entire academic world. The stakes are incredibly 00:28:20.140 --> 00:28:22.819 high. During the Chapter 11 process, Cengage 00:28:22.819 --> 00:28:25.200 was able to secure what is called debtor in possession 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:26.920 financing. Which essentially kept the lights 00:28:26.920 --> 00:28:29.289 on. kept the lights on and the servers running 00:28:29.289 --> 00:28:31.730 while they negotiated with their creditors. No. 00:28:31.849 --> 00:28:34.569 They successfully managed to shed billions of 00:28:34.569 --> 00:28:36.950 dollars in debt, wiping out much of the original 00:28:36.950 --> 00:28:40.289 equity value, but emerging as a financially viable 00:28:40.289 --> 00:28:42.890 entity. With a much cleaner balance sheet? It 00:28:42.890 --> 00:28:45.170 allowed them to finally redirect their revenue 00:28:45.170 --> 00:28:48.509 away from crushing interest payments and back 00:28:48.509 --> 00:28:51.690 into technological innovation. And they did survive. 00:28:52.089 --> 00:28:54.630 Zangage emerged from the bankruptcy and Gale 00:28:54.630 --> 00:28:57.829 remained a foundational, highly profitable pillar 00:28:57.829 --> 00:29:00.089 of their business. The survivor. In fact, if 00:29:00.089 --> 00:29:02.529 you look at the source material detailing Gale's 00:29:02.529 --> 00:29:05.930 current product ecosystem, the sheer scope of 00:29:05.930 --> 00:29:07.970 what they managed to build and maintain through 00:29:07.970 --> 00:29:10.230 all that corporate volatility is almost hard 00:29:10.230 --> 00:29:13.569 to comprehend. It is a sprawling, wildly diverse 00:29:13.569 --> 00:29:16.009 empire. The diversity of the catalog is what 00:29:16.009 --> 00:29:18.809 makes Gale so unique in the publishing world. 00:29:19.170 --> 00:29:21.089 They aren't just an academic database company. 00:29:21.210 --> 00:29:24.470 They are a comprehensive library supplier. Let's 00:29:24.470 --> 00:29:26.869 look at the database side first. You have the 00:29:26.869 --> 00:29:29.329 massive general purpose engines like Gale Academic 00:29:29.329 --> 00:29:31.930 OneFile and General OneFile. These are the direct 00:29:31.930 --> 00:29:34.609 descendants of InfoTrack. Right. They contain 00:29:34.609 --> 00:29:37.369 millions of full -text articles from peer -reviewed 00:29:37.369 --> 00:29:39.789 journals, major newspapers, and international 00:29:39.789 --> 00:29:42.089 magazines. They are the default starting point 00:29:42.089 --> 00:29:44.130 for millions of undergraduate research papers. 00:29:44.349 --> 00:29:46.170 But then they have these incredibly specialized 00:29:46.170 --> 00:29:48.670 deep archive collections. The sources mention 00:29:48.670 --> 00:29:51.150 the World History Collection and something called 00:29:51.150 --> 00:29:53.789 Sabin Americana. Sabin Americana is a perfect 00:29:53.789 --> 00:29:55.630 example of what we discussed earlier, taking 00:29:55.630 --> 00:29:58.650 a physical legacy and turning it into a digital 00:29:58.650 --> 00:30:01.470 asset. The sources note it is based on Joseph 00:30:01.470 --> 00:30:05.329 Sabin's monumental bibliography, Bibliotheca 00:30:05.329 --> 00:30:08.089 Americana. Who was Joseph Saban? Joseph Saban 00:30:08.089 --> 00:30:10.809 was a 19th century bookseller. He attempted to 00:30:10.809 --> 00:30:13.230 catalog every book pamphlet and broadside printed 00:30:13.230 --> 00:30:15.650 in or about the Americas from the time of Columbus 00:30:15.650 --> 00:30:18.210 up through the late 1800s. That is an insane 00:30:18.210 --> 00:30:21.289 project for one guy. It was a life's work. And 00:30:21.289 --> 00:30:23.930 Gale took that massive physical bibliography, 00:30:24.329 --> 00:30:27.059 tracked down the original primary sources. digitize 00:30:27.059 --> 00:30:29.640 them, and build a searchable database. So a researcher 00:30:29.640 --> 00:30:32.019 today can instantly pull up the digital scan 00:30:32.019 --> 00:30:34.319 of a political pamphlet printed in Boston in 00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:37.680 1770. It is an invaluable resource for historians. 00:30:37.950 --> 00:30:40.730 And right alongside these cutting -edge digital 00:30:40.730 --> 00:30:43.589 archives, Gale maintains some products that feel 00:30:43.589 --> 00:30:46.009 like they belong in a museum. They really do. 00:30:46.250 --> 00:30:49.009 The sources highlight the Biography and Genealogy 00:30:49.009 --> 00:30:52.269 Master Index, and the source material specifically 00:30:52.269 --> 00:30:55.309 cites a review that describes this particular 00:30:55.309 --> 00:30:58.390 index as a throwback to another era. I find that 00:30:58.390 --> 00:31:01.990 fascinating. Me too. In an era of AI and instant 00:31:01.990 --> 00:31:05.470 search, why does a throwback product still exist? 00:31:05.690 --> 00:31:07.799 I love that description because it highlights 00:31:07.799 --> 00:31:11.639 the enduring value of structured metadata. The 00:31:11.639 --> 00:31:14.079 Biography and Genealogy Master Index is essentially 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:16.579 an index of indexes. What does that mean exactly? 00:31:16.819 --> 00:31:18.700 Before the internet, if you were trying to find 00:31:18.700 --> 00:31:21.160 biographical information on a relatively obscure 00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:23.640 historical figure, you couldn't just guess which 00:31:23.640 --> 00:31:25.380 encyclopedia they might be in. You'd be looking 00:31:25.380 --> 00:31:27.559 forever. Right. You would consult the Master 00:31:27.559 --> 00:31:29.359 Index and it would tell you the person you were 00:31:29.359 --> 00:31:32.619 looking for is detailed in volume four of the 00:31:32.619 --> 00:31:35.279 Dictionary of American Biography and volume two 00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:37.440 of the Encyclopedia of World Biography. So it 00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:39.259 didn't give you the answer. It gave you the map 00:31:39.259 --> 00:31:41.319 to find the answer. tells you exactly where to 00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:43.940 look on the physical shelf. And even though Gale's 00:31:43.940 --> 00:31:47.119 platform is now digital, that master map remains 00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:50.099 incredibly useful for genealogists and specialized 00:31:50.099 --> 00:31:53.640 researchers. It is a surviving artifact of classical, 00:31:54.180 --> 00:31:57.440 meticulous library science, seamlessly adapted 00:31:57.440 --> 00:32:00.359 to live on a modern server. It proves that sometimes 00:32:00.359 --> 00:32:02.460 the old way of organizing information is still 00:32:02.460 --> 00:32:05.440 the most efficient. Absolutely. But Gale's portfolio 00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:08.460 doesn't stop at academia and genealogy. This 00:32:08.460 --> 00:32:10.460 is the part of the source material that completely 00:32:10.460 --> 00:32:12.359 blew my mind. It's quite the left turn. When 00:32:12.359 --> 00:32:14.140 you look at their print imprints, they still 00:32:14.140 --> 00:32:17.059 operate Primary Source Media and the TFT Group, 00:32:17.279 --> 00:32:19.339 but they also own Five Star Publishing. Yes, 00:32:19.339 --> 00:32:22.119 they do. And Five Star Publishing is a fiction 00:32:22.119 --> 00:32:24.559 imprint. According to the sources, they have 00:32:24.559 --> 00:32:26.920 hundreds of books in print covering Western's 00:32:26.920 --> 00:32:29.420 romance, mystery and science fiction. It is a 00:32:29.420 --> 00:32:31.980 remarkable juxtaposition. You have the exact 00:32:31.980 --> 00:32:35.079 same corporate entity. that maintains the rigorous, 00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:37.420 pure -reviewed servers for the dictionary of 00:32:37.420 --> 00:32:40.220 scientific biography, simultaneously publishing 00:32:40.220 --> 00:32:43.180 mass -market cowboy westerns and cozy mysteries. 00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:45.299 To an outsider, it seems completely disjointed. 00:32:45.880 --> 00:32:47.539 But if you understand the business model, it 00:32:47.539 --> 00:32:50.880 makes perfect sense. How? Gale's primary customer 00:32:50.880 --> 00:32:53.759 isn't the individual student. It is the library. 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:56.299 And public libraries have to serve the entire 00:32:56.299 --> 00:32:58.759 community, not just people writing doctoral theses. 00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:01.880 Precisely. A public library director has a single 00:33:01.880 --> 00:33:04.940 procurement budget. They need academic databases 00:33:04.940 --> 00:33:07.400 for the local high school students, but they 00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:10.240 also need a steady stream of large print romance 00:33:10.240 --> 00:33:13.119 novels and genre fiction for their senior patrons. 00:33:13.559 --> 00:33:16.339 So Gale just supplies both. Gale looked at that 00:33:16.339 --> 00:33:19.200 procurement process and realized they could capture 00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:22.059 more of the library's budget by offering bundled 00:33:22.059 --> 00:33:25.220 solutions. This is often referred to as the big 00:33:25.220 --> 00:33:27.299 deal model in publishing. So they pitch it as 00:33:27.299 --> 00:33:29.809 a Gale can go to a library system and say, if 00:33:29.809 --> 00:33:31.769 you renew your subscription to General One File, 00:33:31.890 --> 00:33:34.630 we will bundle in a massive discount on a standing 00:33:34.630 --> 00:33:36.829 order of five -star fiction titles and large 00:33:36.829 --> 00:33:38.809 print books. They have positioned themselves 00:33:38.809 --> 00:33:41.529 as the ultimate one -stop shop. They really have. 00:33:41.630 --> 00:33:44.009 The extent of that one -stop shop is hilarious 00:33:44.009 --> 00:33:46.430 when you really look at it. Beyond fiction, they 00:33:46.430 --> 00:33:48.809 own large print publishers like Christian Large 00:33:48.809 --> 00:33:51.009 Print and Wheeler Publishing. They serve the 00:33:51.009 --> 00:33:53.910 K -12 market with imprints like UXL. They have 00:33:53.910 --> 00:33:55.930 digital learning platforms for college students 00:33:55.930 --> 00:33:58.930 like WebAssign. And perhaps the most unexpected 00:33:58.930 --> 00:34:01.769 connection of all, Gail, is the company behind 00:34:01.769 --> 00:34:04.630 Chilton. The auto repair manuals. Yes, the Chilton 00:34:04.630 --> 00:34:06.789 auto repair manuals. I remember my dad having 00:34:06.789 --> 00:34:10.289 a greasy dog -eared Chilton manual in the garage 00:34:10.289 --> 00:34:12.989 to help him fix the transmission on his truck. 00:34:13.210 --> 00:34:15.900 It's an American staple. It is. Absolutely amazing 00:34:15.900 --> 00:34:18.300 to me that if you trace the corporate lineage 00:34:18.300 --> 00:34:20.659 of that truck repair guide all the way up the 00:34:20.659 --> 00:34:23.639 ladder, it sits on the exact same corporate server 00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:26.420 farm in Michigan as the new Catholic Encyclopedia. 00:34:26.780 --> 00:34:29.500 It is the perfect illustration of how deeply 00:34:29.500 --> 00:34:32.800 embedded Cengage and Gale are in our daily informational 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:34.840 infrastructure. They really cover everything. 00:34:34.940 --> 00:34:37.099 Whether you are trying to fix a faulty spark 00:34:37.099 --> 00:34:39.880 plug, researching the socioeconomic impacts of 00:34:39.880 --> 00:34:42.280 the Industrial Revolution, or just reading a 00:34:42.280 --> 00:34:44.750 large print mystery novel on a Sunday after Gale 00:34:44.750 --> 00:34:48.170 is quietly providing the material. They have 00:34:48.170 --> 00:34:51.090 successfully monetized almost every conceivable 00:34:51.090 --> 00:34:53.889 intersection of human curiosity. But as with 00:34:53.889 --> 00:34:56.789 any massive technological system, building and 00:34:56.789 --> 00:34:59.250 acquiring this unprecedented digital catalog 00:34:59.250 --> 00:35:02.369 comes with significant inherent risks. And that 00:35:02.369 --> 00:35:04.730 brings us to the vulnerabilities of the digital 00:35:04.730 --> 00:35:07.210 age. We have talked a lot about the triumphs 00:35:07.210 --> 00:35:10.309 of their digital transition, but the source material 00:35:10.309 --> 00:35:12.909 also points us toward a slightly darker corner 00:35:12.909 --> 00:35:15.670 of Gale's history. The Digital Graveyard. The 00:35:15.670 --> 00:35:18.389 Digital Graveyard. Our sources mention two specific 00:35:18.389 --> 00:35:21.289 properties owned by Gale that serve as a stark 00:35:21.289 --> 00:35:24.070 warning about the ephemerality of digital data. 00:35:24.269 --> 00:35:26.730 The first is Hybeam Research, which the sources 00:35:26.730 --> 00:35:29.469 list as inactive, noting it was essentially folded 00:35:29.469 --> 00:35:32.369 into encyclopedia .com. And the second one is 00:35:32.369 --> 00:35:35.230 Questia Online Library. And Questia is listed 00:35:35.230 --> 00:35:38.269 as entirely defunct. This raises an important 00:35:38.269 --> 00:35:40.769 question about digital preservation and the fundamental 00:35:40.769 --> 00:35:42.710 promise of the internet, doesn't it? It does. 00:35:42.989 --> 00:35:46.170 For years, QuestU was marketed as a premier standalone 00:35:46.170 --> 00:35:50.050 online library. It was a massive digital repository 00:35:50.050 --> 00:35:53.590 containing nearly 100 ,000 full textbooks and 00:35:53.590 --> 00:35:56.070 millions of articles. This is huge for freelancers. 00:35:56.230 --> 00:35:58.590 It was particularly beloved by independent researchers, 00:35:58.989 --> 00:36:01.110 freelance writers, and students who didn't have 00:36:01.110 --> 00:36:03.570 access to a university library portal. They could 00:36:03.570 --> 00:36:06.570 just buy a subscription. They paid a direct subscription 00:36:06.570 --> 00:36:10.349 fee for access to this incredible curated collection. 00:36:11.110 --> 00:36:14.170 It was literally an entire library living in 00:36:14.170 --> 00:36:17.090 the cloud. But what happens when the massive 00:36:17.090 --> 00:36:20.150 corporation that owns that cloud decides to change 00:36:20.150 --> 00:36:23.570 its strategy? Well, the library closes permanently. 00:36:23.809 --> 00:36:25.409 And the difference between a physical library 00:36:25.409 --> 00:36:28.289 closing and a digital library closing is terrifying. 00:36:28.449 --> 00:36:30.869 It's light and day. If a physical library goes 00:36:30.869 --> 00:36:33.530 bankrupt, the building might be locked. But the 00:36:33.530 --> 00:36:35.610 books still exist in the world. They might be 00:36:35.610 --> 00:36:38.210 sold off or donated to another institution or 00:36:38.210 --> 00:36:41.489 auctioned. The physical objects endure. But when 00:36:41.489 --> 00:36:44.690 a digital library like Questia goes defunct... 00:36:44.559 --> 00:36:47.159 The access simply evaporates. The company just 00:36:47.159 --> 00:36:49.539 flips a switch on a server. The URLs lead to 00:36:49.539 --> 00:36:52.300 error pages. The entire curated collection of 00:36:52.300 --> 00:36:55.019 the bookmarks people saved the specific organization 00:36:55.019 --> 00:36:57.780 of that data. It is just gone. It is a profound 00:36:57.780 --> 00:37:00.139 reminder of the fragility of our modern digital 00:37:00.139 --> 00:37:02.760 resources. The internet has conditioned us to 00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:05.309 assume that data is permanent. We bookmark links. 00:37:05.730 --> 00:37:08.369 We cite specific URLs in our academic research. 00:37:08.570 --> 00:37:11.030 We build syllabi around digital reading lists. 00:37:11.289 --> 00:37:13.110 All operating under the assumption that the digital 00:37:13.110 --> 00:37:16.250 architecture will always be there. But the reality 00:37:16.250 --> 00:37:19.170 is that these platforms are heavily subject to 00:37:19.170 --> 00:37:22.230 the whims of corporate strategy, profitability 00:37:22.230 --> 00:37:24.670 metrics, and the kind of bankruptcy restructuring 00:37:24.670 --> 00:37:27.019 we discussed earlier. When a digital asset is 00:37:27.019 --> 00:37:29.719 no longer deemed a fit for the long -term strategic 00:37:29.719 --> 00:37:31.900 vision, to borrow Richard Harrington's phrase 00:37:31.900 --> 00:37:35.300 from 2006, it can be erased from the public sphere. 00:37:35.639 --> 00:37:38.440 Exactly. The cost of maintaining legacy servers, 00:37:38.920 --> 00:37:41.659 updating security protocols, and migrating old 00:37:41.659 --> 00:37:44.559 databases to new web standards is incredibly 00:37:44.559 --> 00:37:46.659 high. It's not free to keep a website running. 00:37:46.739 --> 00:37:49.219 No, it's very expensive. And if a platform like 00:37:49.219 --> 00:37:51.820 Questia isn't generating enough revenue to justify 00:37:51.820 --> 00:37:54.639 that maintenance, a corporate board will simply 00:37:54.639 --> 00:37:57.280 shut it down. the ephemerality of data that we 00:37:57.280 --> 00:37:59.730 often call link rot. is one of the great historical 00:37:59.730 --> 00:38:02.230 challenges of our time. The fate of Questia is 00:38:02.230 --> 00:38:05.030 a stark, unavoidable example of what happens 00:38:05.030 --> 00:38:07.070 when the maintenance of our digital heritage 00:38:07.070 --> 00:38:09.269 is entirely dependent on the corporate health 00:38:09.269 --> 00:38:11.750 and strategic priorities of private entities. 00:38:12.070 --> 00:38:14.429 It really makes you reconsider all those permanent 00:38:14.429 --> 00:38:16.969 links you've saved over the years. You are placing 00:38:16.969 --> 00:38:19.530 a massive amount of unstated trust in the financial 00:38:19.530 --> 00:38:22.150 stability of companies like Cengage. It has been 00:38:22.150 --> 00:38:24.909 an incredible sweeping arc to unpack today. It 00:38:24.909 --> 00:38:28.159 really has. We started in 1954 with Fred Gail 00:38:28.159 --> 00:38:31.440 Ruffner Jr. sitting in a Detroit office utilizing 00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:35.059 index cards and the Postal Service to painstakingly 00:38:35.059 --> 00:38:37.500 organize physical reference books. A completely 00:38:37.500 --> 00:38:40.340 analog world. We watched that analog vision get 00:38:40.340 --> 00:38:42.980 acquired by a global conglomerate merged with 00:38:42.980 --> 00:38:46.139 the cutting -edge 1990s digital technology of 00:38:46.139 --> 00:38:48.760 InfoTrack and absorb some of the most prestigious 00:38:48.760 --> 00:38:52.059 legacy publishers in human history from Macmillan 00:38:52.059 --> 00:38:54.820 to Scribner's. Just massive corporate consolidation. 00:38:55.019 --> 00:38:57.679 Then we saw the entire empire sold to private 00:38:57.679 --> 00:39:00.340 equity for seven point seven five billion dollars 00:39:00.340 --> 00:39:03.179 at the absolute peak of a financial bubble. Survive 00:39:03.179 --> 00:39:06.039 a grueling Chapter 11 bankruptcy and emerge as 00:39:06.039 --> 00:39:08.739 a sprawling modern ecosystem that provides everything 00:39:08.739 --> 00:39:11.579 from academic primary sources to Western novels 00:39:11.579 --> 00:39:13.739 and car repair manuals all still operating out 00:39:13.739 --> 00:39:15.760 of their headquarters in Farmington Hills, Michigan. 00:39:15.920 --> 00:39:18.980 It is a remarkable corporate journey, but it 00:39:18.980 --> 00:39:21.599 leaves us with a critical philosophical reality 00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:24.199 to confront as corporate consolidation in the 00:39:24.199 --> 00:39:26.460 public and educational technology sectors continues 00:39:26.460 --> 00:39:29.840 to accelerate. We are moving toward a future 00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:34.280 where the vast majority of human history, scientific 00:39:34.280 --> 00:39:37.239 discovery, and primary source media is filtered, 00:39:38.099 --> 00:39:41.719 indexed, packaged, and leased back to us by just 00:39:41.719 --> 00:39:44.980 a handful of massive private corporate entities. 00:39:45.159 --> 00:39:48.380 That is a heavy thought. If the keys to the library, 00:39:49.099 --> 00:39:51.800 the actual digital mechanisms by which we discover, 00:39:51.980 --> 00:39:54.679 verify, and understand our world, ultimately 00:39:54.679 --> 00:39:57.659 belong to a private equity firm managing a cloud 00:39:57.659 --> 00:40:00.400 server who really controls the narrative of our 00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:02.820 history. It's a structural reality that every 00:40:02.820 --> 00:40:04.840 researcher, student, and curious citizen should 00:40:04.840 --> 00:40:07.019 carefully consider as we continue to build our 00:40:07.019 --> 00:40:08.760 lives in the digital sphere. Absolutely. That 00:40:08.760 --> 00:40:10.980 is a phenomenal point to leave on. The next time 00:40:10.980 --> 00:40:13.400 you are sitting at your local library or logging 00:40:13.400 --> 00:40:15.820 into your university portal from home and you 00:40:15.820 --> 00:40:17.860 type a query into that search bar, take just 00:40:17.860 --> 00:40:20.099 a second. Look behind the curtain. Scroll down 00:40:20.099 --> 00:40:23.019 to the very bottom of the screen or look at the 00:40:23.019 --> 00:40:25.659 copyright page of the result you click on. Look 00:40:25.659 --> 00:40:29.409 for the name Gale or Cengage, because now you 00:40:29.409 --> 00:40:32.210 know the epic volatile multi -billion dollar 00:40:32.210 --> 00:40:34.869 history behind the invisible engine that is powering 00:40:34.869 --> 00:40:37.110 your curiosity. It's all connected. Thanks for 00:40:37.110 --> 00:40:39.170 joining us on this deep dive. Keep asking questions 00:40:39.170 --> 00:40:40.309 and we will see you next time.