Recode Decode: Pearson CEO John Fallon

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Business

4.3 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pearson CEO John Fallon talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about why the company is pivoting from print to digital textbooks. In this episode: Fallon’s background; the publishing industry’s slow-motion embrace of the internet; “the $300 textbook is dead”; how Pearson will make money from a cheaper digital textbook; competing with well-funded education startups; how Pearson’s Aida will grade calculus problems and, one day, essays; why teachers won’t be made obsolete; how the school of the future will be informed by the skills needed in the job market; why do students still need to physically go somewhere to learn?; how Pearson thinks about its competition; working with tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft; and the state of democracy in Boris Johnson's UK. Follow us Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), host John Fallon (@johnfallon), guest Erica Anderson (@EricaAmerica), executive producer Eric Johnson (@HeyHeyESJ), producer More to explore If you haven't already, subscribe to Recode Decode Subscribe to Recode's other podcasts: Recode Media, Pivot, and Land of the Giants Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sabotage, hired goons and a landfill in Utah.
0:05.0	How Steve Jobs' revolutionary catastrophe of a computer, the Apple Lisa, earned a brief
0:10.7	second life and then was buried for good.
0:14.8	Watch the Verges documentary, Lisa's final act, now on YouTube.
0:20.2	Hi, I'm Kair Swisher, Editor-large of Recode.
0:25.6	You may know me as Mark Zuckerberg's private tutor, but in my spare time I talk tech in
0:29.7	your listening to Recode Decode from the Vox Media Podcast Network.
0:33.3	Today in the red chair is John Fowell on the CEO of Pearson, which is the largest education
0:37.9	company in the world and the former owner of Penguin Random House and the Financial Times.
0:42.9	Just recently Pearson announced that it's going to pivot away from print textbooks and
0:46.6	into digital textbooks that can be updated over time.
0:49.6	I'm doing this podcast from London, England.
0:52.6	John, welcome to Recode Decode.
0:54.5	Nice to be here and welcome to London.
0:56.1	Thank you.
0:57.1	We're still on 25%, hanging around in the house.
1:01.0	Okay, what?
1:02.0	We're still on 25%.
1:04.6	We can talk about publishing.
1:05.6	Let's talk a little bit about your background.
1:07.0	You replace Marjorie Skargino, who had been on the Twitter board and been involved in a
1:11.3	couple of digital things.
	...

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