Pearson Education looks within to beat McGraw-Hill. .

Two recent internal moves at the nation's largest--or second-largest educational publisher, depending on whom you ask--is calling attention to the fact that it is not easy being at the top.

Pearson Education is looking to reinvent itself as it tries to distance itself from the company's chief rival, McGraw-Hill. The two have long slugged it out for supremacy of the lucrative U.S. education market.

In an attempt to break down the walls between its many imprints and divisions, Pearson has created two separate senior executive positions to oversee efforts at bringing together various departments to create better efficiencies in the company and create new ventures.

First up is Rubin Pfeffer, who joined Pearson after 27 years at Harcourt, as chief creative officer. Pfeifer headed up Harcourt's trade book publishing division prior to joining his old friend and boss Peter Jovanovich at Pearson Education, and he says he feels like a pioneer in his new role as chief creative officer. In fact, while other educational publishing companies might have creative directors, none of the major publishers have such a senior person in charge of the look-and-feel of their product lines.

"I will be working with our editorial and design departments to rethink how we do design," Pfeifer says. "I want to help enhance it, not change it."

Initially, Pfeffer says he expects to concentrate on the pre-K-12 imprints, such as Scott Foresman and Prentice Hall, among others, but his responsibilities will take in other imprints and divisions, such as higher education in due time. He will also have a hand in the presentation of the company's online and digital offerings.

To that end, one of his first priorities will be the creation of a new, international K-6 reading series that will draw on talent within the company from separate divisions in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Pearson Education, which is owned by the U.K.-based Pearson media conglomerate, has long published products overseas, or localized U.S. textbooks to individual foreign markets. But, this new reading series--which Pfeifer declined to elaborate on--marks the first time the company has attempted such an international effort from scratch. The series will likely debut in the fall of 2002.

"The trade business was a bit of an orphan at Harcourt, though by all accounts Pfeifer did a good job running it," says Peter Appert, managing director at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and an education industry analyst. "So, Pearson is looking to leverage his trade experience. It will be interesting to see how this develops as a senior executive position."

In addition to Pfeffer, Pearson Education appointed Joseph Small to the position of senior vice president for strategic partnerships. Most recently, Small was the Southeast area vice president and general manager of Pearson Education's technology arm NCS Learn, which includes Computer Curriculum Corp. and NCS Novanet.

Jovanovich says he believes Small is "ideally suited" within Pearson Education for the new position.

"Joe has been involved in the evolution of learning technologies for more than 20 years and has developed an extensive knowledge of the educational needs of children and teachers, as well as insight into the challenges facing schools today," Jovanovich says.

The position calls for Small to help develop initiatives that will benefit K-12 districts.

"Pearson Education is made up of so many companies through various mergers and acquisitions over the years," Small says, citing about 75 different brands. "Prior to this, the company was not working collaboratively as well as we could. This position is designed to help cut through the corporate kudzu. I'm sort of an ombudsman."

Among his chief priorities will be to enhance professional development opportunities in some of the nation's large, urban districts, such as New York, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Small says there are opportunities to assist these districts with products aimed at extended-day programs and summer school programs, in addition to professional development. "Those districts are major clients of ours, and good barometers for new products."

In recent weeks, Small says he worked with the Los Angeles USD to improve professional development opportunities within the Scott Foresman basal math program.