Steve Jacoby Email & Phone Number

Columbia, Maryland

Itasca, Il

In twin rounds of development of GED test preparation materials at Paxen, we worked increasingly closely with the GED Testing Service, which began an organic drift toward assessment. Around the time we completed the second product line, that drift converged with an opportunity (too good to pass up!) at HMH—the chance to direct its K–12 assessments, where today I:• Lead a dynamic portfolio of online and print K–12 products, representing $50M+ in annual revenue.• Produce annual publishing and marketing plans, author business cases and product definitions, and lead and contribute to proposal responses.• Serve as product champion, providing market direction and strategy and ensuring fidelity to both.• Write and review epics and user stories to support current and coming products and platforms.• Hire, supervise, and train internal staff while collaborating with and providing support to a variety of other internal stakeholders, including Field Sales, Inside Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Project Management, Finance, Research, and Development. • Explore domestic and international market expansion through internal and external partnerships.Among other achievements, I: • Helped increase distribution revenue through expansion of agreements.• Authored $125K proposal that expanded company presence in Georgia (2016) and $250K+ proposal (2015) that did the same in Tennessee.• Grew revenue of progress-monitoring product 55% (2015) through targeted development and marketing.• Helped increase revenue of market-leading abilities product (2014, 2015, 2016) while adding program co-author.• Saved $500K+ in royalty payments in 2015 through renegotiation of key distribution contract.

Melbourne, Florida

After more than three decades in the Midwest, we knew it would take an extraordinary opportunity for us to leave. Enter Paxen Learning, which in 2007 was launching a product-development group to complement its program delivery side.The opportunity proved too irresistible, so we relocated to coastal Florida, where I founded and for six years guided the publishing division. In so doing, I: • Directed development of print and electronic learning materials from concept through completion, while also guiding product sales and marketing initiatives. • Architected the annual publishing plan, spotlighting innovative products, efficient development models, and maximum market penetration.• Recruited, hired, trained, and guided internal and external product-development staff. • Built primary and secondary sales channels through partnership development, product bundling, and optimization of online bookstore. • Collaborated with the product sales team to identify, coordinate, and close product partnerships and sales opportunities. Among the highlights, I:• Developed GED Prep Xcelerator, a multi-title, test-preparation series and analogous online offering, 1 of 3 GED® product lines certified for use by the American Council on Education®. • Developed the Career Pathways® product line, a series that prepares learners to succeed in our 21st-century workforce.• Established and executed annual publishing plan, roadmap, and strategy across company’s product lines.• Initiated and directed company's digital strategy and development.• Authored $1M in winning proposals in 2011 and $150K in 2012, expanding market share in Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.• Developed a new search-optimized corporate web site (www.paxen.com) and bookstore.• Identified, vetted, adapted, and launched customer-relations management software for use in logging and tracking sales opportunities.• Cultivated a deep, proven network of freelancers, domestic developers, and off-shore resources.

Dayton, Ohio

Of the various positions I've been fortunate to inhabit, this one ranked right at the top. I founded and led Mazer's Social Studies group, managing a team of 10 to 15 direct reports (and many other indirect reports) and dozens of external resources across an array of projects. It was a lot of work, but we had a great time. The Social Studies group assumed greater prominence within Mazer and the industry at large. We became known by publishers as the go-to group for large, complex projects (one product line, for Scott Foresman, involved more than 70 concurrent titles and thousands of items). During this time, I recruited, vetted, hired, and trained the group, doubling its complement as our base of business grew. Eventually, the uptick in work led us to spin off a second Social Studies group. Among the highlights: • Directed development of three, Grade 4 full-service product lines for Scott Foresman and Houghton-Mifflin, representing dozens of titles with total revenue of $10M+. During this time, I hired, trained, and supervised a staff of 30+ writers/editors in what became the largest projects in Mazer's history. The product lines were a hit commercially, and many of them remain in use today.• Led development efforts of customized, state, and national programs for Glencoe, Harcourt, HRW, Prentice Hall, and others. • Prospected and liaised with clients to book quarterly and annual sales.• Implemented a training regimen for new editors and instituted a mentoring program that matched newbies with veteran editors.• Developed intern relationships with a pair of area universities.

Dayton, Ohio

One of the great aspects of working at a talent incubator like Mazer lies in the breadth and depth of opportunities you may receive. Although hired as an editor in Language Arts, I spent 2 very important, early years in their Science group.Apparently impressed by my work as editor (which included a fair share of Social Studies projects at a time when we lacked that subject-matter expertise), the higher-ups at Mazer gave me the opportunity to found and run the company's Social Studies group, a position I entered as a senior editor, continued in following a promotion to supervising editor, and held for the next 5-plus years.Early on, the Social Studies group under my guidance developed a series of prouducts for publishers such as Harcourt, Prentice Hall, and Scott Foresman. Also during this time, we executed online projects for publishers and software providers. Thus began my first significant exposure to e-learning, an area about which I remain extremely passionate today.

Dayton, Ohio

A few paths intersected in 1999: Our first daughter was born and, after reading the Mitch Albom book "Tuesdays with Morrie," I began looking for additional purpose beyond the next winning streak or steroid suspension.Fortunately, I reconnected with an acquaintance from my days in Springfield, who at that time was Editorial Director at an educational developer in Dayton. Both my parents were educators, and I fought the urge to join them, instead seeking to succeed in an unrelated industry.Turns out, though, that journalism was a related industry: providing content that informs and educates readers. The readers we served at Mazer (by way of various educational publishers with whom we worked) were simply younger than those served by newspapers.Thus began a love affair that continues to this day (thank you, Mitch Albom!). As editor at Mazer, I directed teams of internal editors and designers in the core four of Reading / Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies, while working closely with clients to deliver a variety of learning materials.In particular, I led development of Harcourt Florida, a state-specific social studies program and the first of its kind to be outsourced by our partners at Harcourt. In addition, I directed development of various programs across curricula.

Dayton, Ohio

Through the promotion(s) at Mazer, I had less time to develop long-form features for Cincinnati Magazine. At around the same time, a friend of mine received a new assignment at the Dayton Daily News, which led him (and them) to ask me to fill in (temporarily) as a freelance reporter for their neighborhood news section. That temporary assignment lasted for 5 years (that damn loyalty gene!), during which time I prospected, planned, developed, and executed about 400 general-interest stories, features, and columns.

Cincinnati, Ohio

After joining the newspaper in Springfield (where I largely worked nights), I sought to fill the days—and stretch as a writer—by contributing a variety of long-form pieces to Cincinnati Magazine. That association continued for 6.5 years.Those pieces largely occurred outside of sports and involved topics such as the growth in homeschooling, the development of new media, and the controversy about intelligent design. Apparently, those clips live on forever (please see link, below). A couple of those pieces received awards of merit and honorable mention from the Cincinnati chapter of Society of Professional Journalists.

Springfield, Ohio

Hoping to further sharpen my reporting and writing skills without the demands of daily staff management, I left Troy to join a highly talented team (and product) in Springfield. There, I covered golf, college football, and college basketball. The move worked: We broke a number of stories and produced some very well-received enterprise pieces. Along the way, my efforts were recognized through an array of awards:• 1st place, Cox national feature-writing competition, 1999. • 1st place, APSE national news story competition, 1998.• Runner-up, Cox column and feature categories, 1998, and Cox column category, 1996.

Troy, Ohio

Although happy in St. Marys (enough to say no to jobs from much larger newspapers), the offer to move to Troy and edit their sports section was too good to turn down. The Troy Daily News (or "TDN," as it's known in the community) was a small newspaper that thought like a much bigger one. Along with the usual high school staples (football, basketball, etc.), we covered college sports such as Ohio State and pro teams including the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals. We delighted in scooping newspapers with much larger staffs and circulations.As in St. Marys, I had responsibilities at the TDN for planning, reporting, writing, designing, and packaging a daily (including Sunday) section. Once again, I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, earning multiple honors from the Ohio Associated Press.

St. Marys, Ohio

Looking back, I couldn't have asked for a better first job: high expectations, solid staff, oodles of autonomy. We covered a county-wide, football-crazed area in northwest-central Ohio (think "Friday Night Lights" for Buckeyes). As sports editor, I coordinated sports coverage for a rabid readership, with responsibilities for planning, reporting, writing, designing, and packaging the daily section. The position provided good, early experience in identifying and managing internal and external resources, mapping content to audience expectations/needs, and handling daily deadline pressures. And, hey, during my time a number of the schools we covered won state titles (although I had little to do with that; still, it made for engaging stories and good single-copy sales). Along the way, I was fortunate to earn some early writing honors:• 2-time Ohio Prep Sports Writing Writer of the Year, 1994/1995.• Ohio Associated Press General Excellence award winner, 1993.

Ma

Full disclosure: Ohio State was not our first choice for graduate school, but it was the best. At the time, the structure.

Bs

Activities and Societies: Staff writer and section editor for The Miami Student newspaper Miami's the very epitome of what a university.