Emerald Group secures £37.5m funding to support tech investment

The Emerald Group, whose Insight platform has just been awarded a gold-rated 100% score for its accessibility statement by ASPIRE, has secured a financing package worth £37.5m. The package will support its investment in technological infrastructure across both its publishing business Emerald Publishing and its corporate learning business Emerald Works, which is currently aiming to expand its US presence. It is the second funding deal the group has secured in the past five years from lenders Barclays and HSBC; Group Finance and People Director Simon Cox said that the agreement would enable Emerald to remain resilient during a period of economic turbulence and would support the company in its ambitious growth plans.

Taylor & Francis issues half-year figures

Revenues at Taylor & Francis for the first half of 2021 fell more than 4% compared to the previous year – from £256.5m to £245m – according to figures released as part of parent company Informa’s half-year report. Adjusted operating profits also fell, by more than 11% to £86m. The report also notes, however, that digital subscription renewals have been ‘robust’, with growth in both open research and ebooks revenues.

SAGE signs deal to support Universal Write Publications

SAGE has signed a three-year agreement with Universal Write Publications (UWP) which will see the company sponsor the publication and promotion of nine titles by the New York-based publisher. Founded in 2004 by CEO Dr Ayo Sekai, UWP publishes titles demonstrating a commitment to African agency and African narratives, implementing interdisciplinary theories with an emphasis on African- and Black-centred scholarship. The agreement, which will see SAGE take up a position on the UWP board of directors, will enable UWP to expand its recruitment of new books and authors.

More support for the Open Library of the Humanities

The Open Library of the Humanities has announced its first five higher-tier supporters, organisations providing additional funding for open access publication through their voluntary payment of a higher rate of membership fee than the default base membership. King’s College London, The Open University, University College London (UCL), the University of Sheffield, and the University of York have all signed up to the one of the three new funding tiers – Bronze, Silver, and Gold – in a move that will shortly enable OLH to reopen its journal-flipping programme.

OLH has also concluded a three-year collective agreement with the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) – a group of fifteen US research universities – that will see its member libraries support the organisation through its Open Consortial Offer, which allows consortia, societies, networks, and scholarly projects to join the Open Library of Humanities Library Partnership Subsidy system as a bloc at a discount.

New collection from Liverpool

Liverpool University Press has launched another new special collection on its Modern Languages Open platform. ‘Slavic Studies Goes Public – Who? What? Why? Where? When?’, a multimedia collection comprising text, video and visual essays, and an essay-conversation, derives from a 2020 British Academy workshop at the University of St. Andrews.

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