Castle video games
Address:
9 Henrietta Street
Covent Garden
London WC2E 8PS
United Kingdom
Telephone: 44
Fax: 44
Statistics:
Public Company
Founded:
Employees:1,
Sales:£ million (US$ million)
Stock Exchanges:London
SICs: Miscellaneous Publishing; Motion Picture & Video Production; Periodicals; Book Publishing
Company Perspectives:
We believe that more and more people around the world are rediscovering learning, and that being a self-educator can bring great benefits.
To meet this growing market, DK is making relevant learning tools for people at all stages of their lives--from early childhood, through the school years, to work, hobbies, and retirement. By providing such quality learning tools, we believe that DK can really make a difference in people's lives.
Company History:
For nearly a quarter-century, Dorling Kindersley Holdings plc (DK) has focused on creating an enduring catalog of over reference and nonfiction titles.
By the mids, it ranked as the most prolific publisher of multimedia products in Europe.
Its reference and nonfiction books are sold in more than 80 nations worldwide and have been translated into three dozen languages. In fiscal alone, the company sold 40 million books. Other products include CD-ROMS, calendars, stickers, and videos. While other publishing houses might float more titles per year than DK has in its entire history, few can boast, as DK can, that 90 percent of its catalog--including the first book produced under its own imprint--is still in print.
The company has also enjoyed constancy of ownership and leadership; cofounder, chairman, and CEO Peter Kindersley and his family retained a percent stake in the house through the mids.
By , operations included DK Adult books, constituting 48 percent of sales; DK Children's books, generating 33 percent of revenues; DK Multimedia products, with 12 percent of revenues; DK Direct sales, at five percent of revenues, and DK Vision (television and video production), with two percent of sales.
Widely recognized titles--many of which have been produced in multiple formats (book, CD-ROM, video)--include: Ultimate Sex Guide, Incredible Cross Sections, Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening, The Children's Illustrated Encyclopedia, and the Eyewitness Series.
Home-Based Business Founded in s
The publisher is named for its two founders, Christopher Dorling and Peter Kindersley, both of whom were working for British publisher Mitchell Beazley in the early s.
Dorling was a cartographer-turned-salesman, while Kindersley had abandoned a career in painting to become art director at Mitchell Beazley. It was there that Kindersley first envisioned his unique brand of reference works: top-quality books that combined copious graphics with concise text to convey universally popular subject areas like arts and crafts, health, and nature.
When Kindersley's managers at Mitchell Beazley balked at the costly concept, he decided to strike out on his own, inviting Dorling to handle the day-to-day operations while he worked on the creative side.
Dorling kindersley photos Dorling Kindersley Multimedia, often stylised as DK Multimedia, was the software wing of Dorling Kindersley and during the s produced a large number of edutainment computer games. Some of these were based upon series from Dorling Kindersley Vision, such as Eyewitness and Amazing Animals.Pooling £10, in savings between them, the duo founded their business in in Kindersley's London home.
Realizing that the publishing business required a much larger initial investment than they were prepared to risk, Dorling and Kindersley started out as "book packagers," creating, laying out, and editing works, then licensing them to larger publishers in exchange for royalties on sales.
Though this strategy reduced the partners' profit potential, it also reduced the risk of printing thousands of books that could go unsold. Their first contract went to America's Alfred A. Knopf Inc., which purchased a license for three references. Two of these sold just enough to break even, but John Hedgecoe's The Book of Photography, published in , would go on to sell a million copies and was still in print in the late s.
Other well-known DK titles from the s include Baby & Child () and Success with Houseplants (), selling a combined total of million copies by the mids.
Launch of DK Imprint in Early s
By the early s, the design formula that would become Dorling Kindersley's hallmark was well-established.
Unlike most British publishers, who compiled a large, rather scattershot list of books each year, DK concentrated exclusively on reference and nonfiction, initially targeted solely toward the adult market. The house's easily-recognized style--dubbed "lexigraphic" by creator Kindersley--included bright, full-color, sharply defined photos, drawings, and graphics on a white background with "extended captions" as text.
As Kindersley told Business Week's Heidi Dawley in , "the information leaps off the pages." Extensive use of color illustrations and high-quality papers often pushed per-page costs to an average of over £1, Besides being visually attractive, DK's use of minimal text and widely popular subject matter also facilitated easy translation into languages other than the core English.
By the mids, over 40 percent of the publisher's sales were made outside the U.S. and U.K. This global reach--initially achieved through licensing--helped mitigate the publishing house's high design costs through efficiencies of scale.
To further ensure sales, the editors often commissioned a well-known expert on a subject to act as author or garnered endorsements from trusted authorities.
DK's first self-published work, The First Aid Manual (), carried the imprimatur of the British Red Cross. That year also saw the launch of DK's all-time-bestselling Family Medical Guide under an endorsement from The American Medical Association. By the mids, successive editions of this title had sold a cumulative six million copies and had been translated into 15 languages.
Late s Expansion Into Children's Reference
When Christopher Dorling elected to retire in , he sold his 50 percent stake in the venture that bore his name back to the company. With a view to forging an alliance with a major publisher and generating growth funds, DK sold the half interest to the Readers Digest Association Inc.
for £ million that same year. This cash infusion was invested in the development of a children's division, launched in with the Windows on the World series. The publisher inaugurated its most successful children's series in with the first edition of David Macaulay's The Way Things Work. DK also formed a 50/50 joint venture with France's Editions Gallimard to publish the first book in the Eyewitness series that same year. Eyewitness Bird and 54 other volumes in the ongoing series would go on to sell a cumulative 18 million copies in 39 languages in just eight years.
These new references were not only big sellers, but also made a major splash in publishing circles.
Dorling kindersley reflexology map: Dorling Kindersley Multimedia (usually stylized as DK Multimedia) was the software wing of British publishing company Dorling Kindersley. During the s, DK Multimedia created many edutainment video games on CD-ROM including Castle Explorer and My First Amazing World Explorer.
According to a Publishers Weekly article by Sally Lodge, "no fewer than six children's publishers discussing the course the genre has run in the '90s refer to the 'DK revolution' as a milestone that changed the orientation and design of children's reference." The addition of the children's division also had a tremendous impact on DK's bottom line.
Sales compounded 60 percent each year from to , and profits multiplied percent annually during that period.
Diversifications Continue in the s
Though DK would continue to produce works in cooperation with Reader's Digest, the latter company sold back its stake in the former for £5 million in Seeking a new corporate partner--and some fresh growth funds--Peter Kindersley approached Microsoft founder Bill Gates with a proposal to form a joint multimedia venture wherein DK would furnish the content and Microsoft would contribute the software know-how.
After a face-to-face meeting in Seattle, Gates agreed to purchase a 26 percent share of DK for £ million. Bolstered by an additional £2 million loan, the British publisher established DK Multimedia in and soon launched its first CD-ROM, Musical Instruments.
While some industry observers surmised that Microsoft's stake in DK was a precursor to acquisition, that theory was blown out of the water in DK went public that year, raising £ million on the sale of 19 million shares.
At that time, Microsoft took the opportunity to reduce its stake to 18 percent, selling its remaining shares to institutional investors in The investment performed well over the period, rising from p to p in its first day, then multiplying to more than p per share by the time of the Microsoft divestment.
Castle explorer dorling kindersley biography Castle Explorer is an educational video game by DK Multimedia, released in for Windows and Macintosh. [1] It allows players to discover the inner workings of a castle structure within a Medieval context. [2] It is based upon the Incredible Cross-Sections: Castle book by illustrator Stephen Biesty and author Richard Platt.In the meantime, DK also embarked on several new ventures. DK Inc. (later renamed DK Publishing Inc.) was created to bring U.S. publishing in-house, marking an ongoing shift in strategy from licensing international book rights to other publishers to self-publishing, a move that would retain more profits in-house. The DK Vision division was founded to create complimentary video and television programs.
Some of these were produced in cooperation with the BBC and aired on public television in the U.S. and Great Britain, including an "Eyewitness" spin-off, "Dig and Dug," and "Hullabaloo." A cartography division was established in the early s to parlay DK's travel guide and atlas operations into a larger competitor. A foray into educational publishing was aborted after 18 months due to shrinking public school budgets in the U.S.
and U.K.
DK launched a direct sales division in under the moniker DK Family Library (since changed to DK Family Learning).
Castle explorer dorling kindersley biography wikipedia Dorling Kindersley Multimedia (usually stylized as DK Multimedia) was the software wing of British publishing company Dorling Kindersley. During the s, DK Multimedia created many edutainment video games on CD-ROM including Castle Explorer and My First Amazing World Explorer.This operation used Tupperware-style home parties to sell books on a strict commission basis. Though items sold at a substantial discount to retail, this division had the potential to generate significantly higher profit margins than wholesale sales and helped to reduce the company's reliance on retail chains.
By the end of , DK had 20, sales representatives--dubbed "presenters" by the company--in the U.K., U.S., Russia, and Australia, and plans to launch the operation in a new nation each year, likely starting with South Africa and India in DK Family Learning contributed £ million (US$ million), or nine percent, of the publisher's total revenues in fiscal (ended June 30).
This new marketing scheme was not welcomed by some of DK's retailing clients, however. Some bookstore owners took offense upon finding their territories invaded by DK presenters, fearing that they would lose customers to sales parties, noting especially the 10 percent to 30 percent discounts offered at the home-based events.
DK attempted to reassure retailers that the new marketing method would not cannibalize sales by developing a separate catalog of direct sale books and by noting that most potential customers who attended party sales were not traditional bookstore shoppers. John Sargent, CEO of DK's U.S. subsidiary, told Publishers Weekly's M.P. Dunleavey that "This is not a competitive thing.
In fact, bookstore sales are going up because we're creating new customers." Management Today's Anita van de Vliet concurred, noting in a December piece that "Encouragingly, DKFL turnover in of £ million (up 76 percent) was achieved without hitting trade sales, thus genuinely widening the market."
Strategies for the Mids and Beyond
The multimedia market was expected to be a key to DK's growth in the mid- to lates.
The company launched its first generation of multimedia versions of the now-classic The Way Things Work series in and introduced CD-ROMS featuring links to "members-only" web sites. By the end of , DK expected to have a total of 20 CD-ROMS on the market.
In fiscal , the division contributed 12 percent of sales, amounting to £ million, up from £ million in the previous fiscal year. Though fruitful, the multimedia industry was fraught with hazards, including heavy competition. Some industry observers predicted that leading companies, among which DK did not rank, would sacrifice profits to maintain market share.
Peter Kindersley addressed this issue in the company's annual report, noting that "Although the U.S. retail environment for multimedia is currently in a state of flux and more challenging than in the past, we believe that a stable market will emerge in due course. The Directors remain confident of the strength of DK's various businesses."
Acquisitions in the mid- to lates allowed DK to buy into specialty segments of the publishing business.
In , it acquired the U.K.'s Henderson Publishing for £ million. The new subsidiary specialized in low-priced, mass market books for children known in the field as "pester purchase" or "pocket-money" books. The following year saw the £ million cash acquisition of Hugo Language Books.
Dorling Kindersley's sales mushroomed from £ million in fiscal to £ million (US$ million) in fiscal , while pretax net income ballooned from £ million to £ million during the period.
Castle explorer dorling kindersley biography images
Castle Explorer is an educational video game by DK Multimedia, released in for Windows and Macintosh. [1] It allows players to discover the inner workings of a castle structure within a Medieval context. [2] It is based upon the Incredible Cross-Sections: Castle book by illustrator Stephen Biesty and author Richard Platt.In his statement, Chairman and CEO Peter Kindersley assured shareholders that growth would continue for the publisher that was "poised to raise its profile to brand-name status."
Principal Divisions: DK Adult; DK Children's; DK Multimedia; DK Direct; DK Vision.
Further Reading:
Barclays de Zoete Wedd Securities, "Dorling Kindersley--Company Report," The Investext Group, November 24,
Dawley, Heidi, "A British Publisher's Dreams of Empire," Business Week, November 18, , p.
Dunleavey, M.P. , "Playing Party Game: Publishers' Home Party Plans That Offer Books at a Discount Have Some Booksellers Up in Arms," Publishers Weekly,May 8, , pp.
HSBC James Capel, "Dorling Kindersley--Company Report," The Investext Group, September 17,
Hilts, Paul, and Jim Milliot, "Dorling Kindersley Launches U.S.
Multimedia Venture with 5 Titles," Publishers Weekly,March 7, , p.
Lodge, Sally, "Giving Kids' Reference a Fresh Look," Publishers Weekly,April 29, , pp.
Milliot, Jim, "Renamed DK Posts Sales of $64M in Fiscal '95,' Publishers Weekly,September 25, , pp.
Panmure Gordon & Co., Limited, "Dorling Kindersley--Company Report," The Investext Group, March 19,
van de Vliet, Anita, "Dorling Kindersley's Limitless Vision," Management Today,December , pp.
Wheeler, Sara, "Profits Down at DK; Lawsuit Pending Against Tiptree," Publishers Weekly,March 28, , p.
, "Microsoft Sells Off Stake in DK," Publishers Weekly,December 4, , p.
Source: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. St. James Press,