Atomic Dog Publishing, a small textbook publisher that specializes in electronic editions of books, sent an e-mail message to its customers today announcing that it has been purchased by Thomson Learning. Atomic Dog was notable in the publishing world because it gave away online versions of textbooks with its paper products — a strategy to blend paper and electronic products.
The company was started at the tail end of the dot-com boom years, but it started sailing south after the bust. Lately, Atomic Dog was run by Mark A. Greenberg, a former executive at mainstream publishing firms who joined the company to reorganize and revitalize it. Perhaps a buyout by a moneyed international publishing firm counts as revitalization. Thomson has its own e-textbook offerings, and it is not clear how they will blend with Atomic Dog’s. Also not clear: Whether Thomson believes there is a bright future in e-textbooks. A Chronicle story from last year found that while online textbooks have their advantages, students still prefer paper textbooks for convenience and ease of use.
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