Profits up at Cambridge

Cambridge University Press has issued its annual report for the financial year 2018-19, revealing a 40% rise in profits from £17.2m to £24.4m. Revenues increased also, up 5% from £316 to £327m. In his overview to the report, Cambridge CEO Peter Phillips drew attention to the growth of digital and blended print-and-digital products, which now account for 43% of CUP sales; he also flagged up the academic division’s increasing commitment to open access, in the form both of the six read-and-publish deals it has agreed, and its forthcoming open platform for early stage research, pre-prints and research collaboration, Cambridge Open Engage. Cambridge Elements, the new shorter-form digital-first format for academic content, and Cambridge Core Share, the Press’s new journal content sharing service, were also mentioned.

Half-year revenues, profits up for Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis parent company Informa has shared strong figures for the first six months of 2019, showing reported growth of 47.1% (3.4% underlying) in revenues and a rise of 48% (8.2% underlying) in profits. Taylor & Francis itself reported half-year revenue growth of 5.6% (1.8% underlying) and a rise in profits of 18.4% (7.4% underlying), in a performance described as ‘resilient’, driven by ‘solid’ subscription renewals and ‘strong momentum’ in open access. The publisher remains confident of meeting its 2% target for revenue growth across the whole year.

Edinburgh acquires Avizandum

Edinburgh University Press has acquired the publishing assets of Scottish legal publishers Avizandum Publishing – excepting the Avizandum bookshop in Edinburgh – for an undisclosed sum, with company director Margaret Cherry staying on in a consultancy role for a year. EUP CEO Timothy Wright stated that the deal would ‘complement the list of titles acquired from Dundee University Press in 2013 as well as our on-going commissioning.’

News in brief

Two more libraries have joined the Open Library of the Humanities’ Library Partnership Subsidy system. The State and University Library of Bremen in Germany – representing 30,000 students and researchers – and the University of Jyväskylä, Finland’s second largest university, will both now contribute to OLH’s fee-free publishing model.

Welfare, Inequality and Social Citizenship, published by Policy Press, won the Richard Titmuss Book Award at last month’s Social Policy Association annual conference.

Alastair Horne is a PhD student at the British Library and Bath Spa University.