What Clarke & Esposito does

Clarke & Esposito (C&E) is a Washington, DC-based management consulting firm founded in 2018 that provides strategic advisory to mission-centric organizations in the scholarly and professional publishing sector. The firm serves scholarly publishers, professional societies, associations, and adjacent trade and professional media organizations, with deep vertical specialization in STM, humanities, and society-owned journal portfolios. Core capabilities span publishing strategy (including publishing services agreement negotiations and brokered publisher partnerships), marketing strategy, marketing technology advisory across a 14,000+ tool MarTech landscape, author experience (AX) frameworks, digital transformation, and AI readiness advisory. Services are delivered through project-based consulting engagements, fractional CMO/advisory retainers, and customized training workshops.

The firm distinguishes itself through proprietary trademarked methodologies — most notably Capsule Messaging Collection™, a structured messaging framework designed for both human and AI-powered marketing workflows, and Campaign Planning Nexus™, a strategic campaign planning system — alongside an AI Opportunity Map decision tool and a six-pillar Author Experience maturity model. Pricing is quote-based on engagement scope, with multi-year contracts typical, and the firm does not publish rates. Go-to-market is content- and reputation-led: a monthly newsletter (The Brief) reaching thousands of professionals, perspectives articles, conference presence, client case studies, and published research reports covering scholarly journal market trends, China STM publishing, and open access monograph supply chains.

Revenue is generated almost entirely through professional services fees; revenue figures are not publicly disclosed. The firm operates as an independent, bootstrapped partnership led by Managing Partner Michael Clarke and Partners Colleen Scollans and Pam Harley, with Senior Consultant David Crotty. Notable clients include the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), American Society of Nephrology, Modern Language Association, American College of Cardiology, American Society of Hematology, American Society of Microbiology, American Astronomical Society, Genetics Society of America, and Materials Research Society, alongside enterprise engagements such as Atlas Enterprise. The firm has brokered over 15 publishing partnership transactions between societies and commercial publishers including Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer, Springer Nature, Oxford University Press, and Taylor & Francis, and expanded by five team members in May 2026 citing material growth in client demand and AI-driven market opportunity.

Name

Clarke & Esposito

Legal name

Clarke & Esposito

Website

https://ce-strategy.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Washington, DC-based management consulting firm advising scholarly publishers, professional societies, and associations on publishing strategy, marketing, digital transformation, and publishing partnership transactions using proprietary frameworks including Capsule Messaging Collection™ and AI Opportunity Map.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Management Consulting — Scholarly Communications and Publishing Strategy

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services (541611), Marketing Consulting Services (541613)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

Strategy & Corporate Development Consulting (BPAHACAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Corporate Development & Strategic Partnerships Advisory (JVs, Alliances, Carve-outs) (BPAHAOAG), Operations & Process Improvement Consulting (BPAHACAB), B2B / Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Strategy Consulting (MPAAAFAM)

Keywords

• Scholarly publishing consulting
• Digital transformation advisory
• Marketing technology services
• Author experience strategy
• Open access publishing advisory

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Consulting and Advisory Services: Professional services fees for strategic consulting engagements with scholarly publishers, professional societies, and associations. Services include marketing strategy, digital transformation, publishing strategy, and organizational advisory.
2. Training and Workshops: Educational workshops and tailored training programs for marketing teams and organizational leaders.
3. CMO Coaching and Advisory: Fractional CMO services and executive coaching for marketing leaders and organizations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Clarke & Esposito is a management consulting firm that provides strategic advisory services to mission-centric organizations—primarily scholarly publishers, professional societies, and associations. The firm sells consulting engagements across publishing strategy, marketing and digital transformation, marketing technology selection, author experience, and AI solutions, delivered through proprietary frameworks (Capsule Messaging Collection™, Campaign Planning Nexus™, AI Opportunity Map) and senior practitioner teams. Services are delivered as project-based advisory, training/workshops, and ongoing CMO coaching/advisory retainers.

Product overview

Clarke & Esposito is a management consulting firm for mission-centric organizations, specializing in scholarly and professional publishing, associations, and STM sectors. The firm operates as a consulting services practice rather than a software product company, offering proprietary methodologies and frameworks (Capsule Messaging Collection™, Campaign Planning Nexus™, AI Opportunity Map) alongside advisory services. The Marketing, Digital & Customer Experience Practice — led by Partner Colleen Scollans — provides integrated consulting across marketing strategy, marketing technology, author experience, campaign planning, AI adoption, CMO coaching, and marketing training. The firm also produces proprietary research reports on the scholarly journals market and publishes The Brief monthly newsletter. Services are delivered through client engagements, not as accessible software products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Capsule Messaging Collection™ A modern approach to messaging designed to work with both human and AI-powered marketing workflows. The framework uncovers and structures an organization's unique values and value propositions, creating a robust, flexible messaging repository that serves marketing campaigns, AI content generation, and audience personalization.
• Campaign Planning Nexus™ Strategic command center for orchestrating all organizational campaigns. Encompasses systems and processes that unite marketing teams to plan, classify, and prioritize campaigns using a relational model with metadata classification and smart linking before building and executing individual initiatives.
• AI Opportunity Map Structured decision tool that connects AI use cases to business value and maturity, helping organizations see the AI landscape clearly, prioritize what matters, and plan next steps strategically.
• Marketing Technology (MarTech) Services Comprehensive MarTech consulting including Marketing Technology Capability Audit & Roadmap, Marketing Technology Business Case, Vendor Evaluations (RFIs/RFPs), and Marketing Technology Enablement. Covers MarTech stacks of 14,000+ tools including CDPs, marketing automation, experience optimization, content/social, and planning/operations platforms.
• Author Experience (AX) Services Services helping organizations build stronger author experiences, including AX Maturity Audit (delivers maturity score, recommendations, and prioritized roadmap), Author Engagement Playbook, and Journey-Optimized Author Communications, grounded in the firm's six-pillar AX framework.
• Brand LLMs Service that creates brand-specific large language models that generate copy in the right voice, tone, and context, powered by the Capsule Messaging Collection and brand kit.
• AI Licensing Strategy Advisory service helping clients navigate the emerging landscape of AI licensing, including understanding available models, structuring business terms, evaluating compensation models, strategic control, and future-proofing publishing agreements for AI applications.
• Marketing Audits & Actionable Playbooks Comprehensive marketing audits evaluating strategy, campaigns, channels, technology, processes, organizational structure, and performance analytics, providing detailed recommendations with clear implementation paths, prioritized initiatives, and actionable playbooks.
• CMO Coaching & Advisory Services Two distinct services: CMO Coaching provides ongoing personalized guidance for marketing leaders; Advisory Services offer fractional CMO support, marketing transformation guidance, MarTech & data strategy guidance, strategic marketing roadmaps, and organizational design.
• Marketing Training & Workshops Interactive training including educational workshops tailored to client objectives (covering marketing fundamentals, advanced digital strategies, industry trends, AI, MarTech, Customer Experience) and tailored training programs with co-creation of work products on real-world projects.
• Marketing, Digital, & Customer Experience Practice Practice area led by Colleen Scollans offering integrated consulting across Marketing & Communications Strategy, Marketing Audits, Marketing Technology, Campaign Planning, Capsule Message Collection, Author Experience, Marketing Training, CMO Coaching, AI Opportunity Map, and C&E AI Solutions & Services.
• Scholarly Journals Market Trends Report In-depth review of the scholarly journals market for publishing staff, editors, editorial boards, boards of directors, and society leadership.
• International STM Publishing in China: State of the Market Report Report shedding light on recent developments within China's rapidly evolving STM journals sector and their wide-ranging implications for publishers and publisher service providers worldwide.
• C&E OA Monograph Supply Chain Mapping Report Report documenting the supply chain related to open access monograph creation, distribution, and curation, based on questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
• The Brief Newsletter Monthly newsletter on professional and scholarly communications with thousands of professional subscribers.

Quantifiable outcome

• Successfully brokered over 15 major publishing partnerships between societies and commercial publishers
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Book Industry Study GroupminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Collaborated on OA Monograph Supply Chain Mapping Report as part of Mellon Foundation-funded initiative on data trust for OA ebooks.
• Educopia InstituteminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Collaborated on OA Monograph Supply Chain Mapping Report supporting development of international data trust for OA ebooks.
• Ithaka S+RminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Collaborated on Library Acquisition Patterns (LAP) project examining Amazon's role in academic library book acquisitions.
• Revealing Genius (Mary E. Maloney)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerCollaborated with Revealing Genius on brand and messaging project for Atlas Enterprise, combining C&E's strategic expertise with Revealing Genius's creative capabilities.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• SPARC: SPARC is an advocacy and research organization for open access and scholarly communications, deeply embedded in the same society and publisher constituency C&E serves.
• Copyright Clearance Center: Copyright Clearance Center is an enabling organization for publishers and societies around content licensing and rights — adjacent to C&E's publishing-strategy work and a participant in the same publishing ecosystem.
• Scholarly Kitchen (Society for Scholarly Publishing): Scholarly Kitchen is the flagship thought-leadership blog of the Society for Scholarly Publishing, reaching the same audience as The Brief newsletter and shaping buyer perspectives in the niche C&E serves.

Emerging players

• Silverchair: Silverchair is a technology platform serving scholarly and professional publishers with platform, hosting, and workflow services. While more technology than consulting, it overlaps with C&E's society client base and intersects on digital transformation advisory.

Direct peers

• Outsell: Outsell provides research and advisory services to the publishing and information services industry, serving the same society and publisher buyer base as Clarke & Esposito with subscription research and consulting.
• Delta Think: Delta Think is a consulting firm that advises scholarly publishers, societies, and university presses on strategy, digital transformation, and open access — directly comparable to Clarke & Esposito's niche in publishing strategy advisory.
• KGL Consulting: KGL Consulting is a woman-owned consultancy serving publishers, libraries, and scholarly societies with strategic advisory and operational support — overlapping significantly with C&E's target verticals and service set.
• PJB Consulting: PJB Consulting (Pamela J. Bernard) provides strategic advisory and management consulting to publishers, with a focus on scholarly and professional publishing — a closely comparable solo practitioner / boutique competitor.

Broad incumbents

• Boston Consulting Group (Media & Publishing Practice): BCG advises global publishers and information services on strategy and transformation, including AI and digital — a broad incumbent with the scale to encroach on C&E's specialized publishing-strategy niche.
• McKinsey & Company (Media & Publishing Practice): McKinsey serves major publishers and media companies on corporate strategy, digital transformation, and marketing — a broad incumbent that could expand into C&E's niche as AI reshapes publishing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Clarke & Esposito