Knowledge Sharing: 5 Minutes with Cara Rivera, Co-founder of Kaufman Wills Fusting & Company

by Mike Groth

Recently, KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) was very excited to announce the acquisition of Kaufman Wills Fusting & Company (KWF). The addition of sister companies, KWF Consulting and KWF Editorial adds new and expanded capabilities to the KGL portfolio and nearly 100 editorial and publishing business experts to our staff of industry professionals—not the least of whom, of course, is KWF co-founder, Cara (Kaufman) Rivera.

Assuming the new role of Vice President, Consulting and Analysis, Cara joined the KGL leadership team immediately following the November 2021 acquisition where she will continue to manage the business that is known for (among many other things), publishing the annual Journal Editorial Compensation Benchmark Study. With her decades of experience running KWF and working for commercial and society publishers, I wanted to learn more about what competencies she and her team bring to KGL, exactly how they serve journal publishers, and what she sees on the horizon for our industry.

MG: Welcome to the KGL team! Please tell us a bit about your role.

CR: Thanks so much Mike. Everyone has been very welcoming, which has been really nice. One of the many reasons to be excited about becoming part of KGL is that I will be able to retain the same role, continuing to lead both publishing consulting and editorial services units. I’m also looking forward to collaborating with the larger KGL organization to build greater awareness of existing services and generating ideas on how we should expand our services to even better meet the needs of our clients. 

MG: What new competencies and specialized services does KWF bring to the larger KGL organization?

CR: Both consulting and editorial services are additive to KGL to offer customers editorial services from manuscript submission through publication plus high level strategic consulting to help societies with just about anything where they need an extra hand, or an extra brain.

MG: Why would a journal publisher want to outsource services like running an editorial office or managing peer review?

CR: Outsourcing peer review management and other editorial office activities has five main advantages in my view: continuity of professional editorial services throughout editor terms and transitions; flexible and cost-effective staffing increasing and decreasing according to manuscript volume; assurance of expert attention from editorial assistants through managing editors and editorial directors who truly care; onboarding, processing, and strategic recommendations based on best practices; and superior tracking and reporting to ensure editor, reviewer, and author satisfaction and speed to publication.

MG: What scholarly publishing trends is the KWF team most anticipating for 2022?

CR: Increasing submissions and publication of a higher volume of quality content to optimize author satisfaction, impact, and revenues from read and publish deals and OA.

MG: What do you do when you are not helping scholarly publishers with their editorial and business strategies?

CR: Not much (smile)! Laughing with family and friends (and colleagues) is the best. My husband and I enjoy a combined family of three adult children, four grandkids, and two pets. To de-stress, I play various word games and house decorating apps. Just yesterday, I started playing online pool with my daughter. Fun.

Cara Rivera, formerly Managing Director of KWF Consulting and KWF Editorial, is now Vice President, Consulting and Market Analysis at KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. She co-founded Kaufman Wills Fusting & Company more than two decades ago to help scholarly publishers run their editorial operations and remain responsive to changes in the market. Previously she held management, executive, and editorial positions with commercial publishers and a large association. She can be reached at info@kwglobal.com.