Oxford University Press, a department of the University of Oxford, has a remarkably diverse publishing program that reaches far beyond traditional university presses. OUP publishes in more than 40 languages under a variety of print and digital formats that cover an extremely broad academic and educational spectrum. OUP's list is aimed at all audiences, from pre-school to secondary level schoolchildren; students to academics; general readers to researchers; and individuals to institutions.
OUP is driven by the University of Oxford's objectives for excellence in scholarship, research, and education.
Together, the Academic and Education divisons released 7,500 titles in 2013.
“This year was one of significant change in the Press, implemented against a backdrop of continuing economic uncertainty and market transformation”, according to CEO Nigel Portwood. Despite difficulties in Europe (Spain in particular), and some African markets, overall sales grew by 4.4% to 760 million GBP and sales in emerging markets increased by 12%. Digital now represents 19% of its overall sales, up from 17% in 2012, and 56% of scholarly and professional sales. The publisher reported a surplus of 121 million GBP and during the course of the year it transferred 50 million GBP to the university.
Key Company Developments in 2013 & 1st Half Year 2014
Financial
“This year was one of significant change in the Press, implemented against a backdrop of continuing economic uncertainty and market transformation”, according to CEO Nigel Portwood. Despite difficulties in Europe (Spain in particular), and some African markets, overall sales grew by 4.4% to 760 million GBP and sales in emerging markets increased by 12%. Digital now represents 19% of its overall sales, up from 17% in 2012, and 56% of scholarly and professional sales. The publisher reported a surplus of 121 million GBP and during the course of the year it transferred 50 million GBP to the university.
Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization
OUP was charged to pay almost 2 million GBP after the Serious Fraud Office discovered OUP subsidiaries in Tanzania and Kenya. As a consequence, OUP executed some structural adjustment to better oversee activities. The International Division was dismantled in October 2012, and its former branches were consolidated. Operations in Pakistan, India, Hong Kong, and Malaysia were united into a new division, Asia Education.
The Australian and African business joined UK schools and children’s publishing units to form Oxford Education. Additionally, a senior management team was introduced at OUP’s African operations “to ensure the highest ethical standards,” according to Portwood.
OUP Canada joined the Global Academic division, and OUP Mexico became part of the English Language Teaching division, which underwent the same restructuring process as OUP España.
In 2013, OUP acquired Nelson Thornes, a leading educational publisher with a range of primary, secondary, and vocational resources, from parent company Infinitas Learning for an undisclosed sum.
Digital
OUP launched a range of digital innovation, including new and updated online products in the international schools market, with Oxford Educate in India and the updated e-book platform in Australia.
Earlier Developments
Financial
Sales from all publishing divisions in 2011/12 were 695 million GBP, a 10% rise in overall organic sales for the year ending March 31, 2012.
Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization
At the beginning of 2013, The Bookseller reported that OUP acquired education publisher Nelson Thornes from Infinitas Learning for an undisclosed sum. Nelsen Thornes publishes primary, secondary and vocational teaching resources.
In March 2013, OUP told The Bookseller it would begin the consultation process with staff in the publishing division of its ELT arm this week, as a prelude to reorganising its publishing activities, what "may result in a number of redundancies", as an OUP spokesperson said. It is noted that “the process of reorganization [of the ELT Division] is expected to see a significant change in roles, reporting lines, and accountabilities for some employees in publishing roles, new roles will be created, others may change, and some current roles will no longer exist."
International
After making a number if investments in emerging markets to take advantage of rising demand, sales increased 16%. OUP focused on publishing boooks for schools in South America, the Middle East, and Asia. New series were launched for the Spanish and UK markets, resources for new curricula in Australia and South Africa were developed, and a complete management system for private language schools was developed for Brazil.
Digital
Digital publishing sales increased by 20% over the year, representing 17% of OUP's total and 45% of academic sales.
Oxford University Press put its scholarly editions online for the first time in a digital initiative launched in September 2012. Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO) will carry 171 OUP scholarly editions of works by authors active between 1485 and 1660, including around 7,000 poems, 200 plays and 5,000 letters.
OUP now publishes 14,000 e-books, of which more than 5,000 were added last year, and sales of these titles have increased more than threefold in the last 12 months. Last year, a new platform was launched, University Press ScholarshipOnline, which builds on the success of Oxford Scholarship Online by offering digital access to current and long out of print monographs from other university presses. More than 110 journals now use some kind of open access model, while a growing number of titles are available as apps and e-books, or from mobile devices.
Bestselling Authors & Titles
Aside from selling strongly in print form, Jonathan Steinberg’s Bismarck biography, a popular trade history title, was one of the Press’s most popular e-books last year, selling thousands of copies in electronic format.
Key Points for Analysis & Conclusions
OUP has expanded in emerging markets and focused on investing in digital services, accessibility and distribution, combining online access services as well as e-book offerings of its titles.
Challenges included, according to OUP, the retail sector, particularly in developed regions, as the market shifted from ‘bricks and mortar’ retail to online in 2011. The retail environment was also weak in Australia and Canada.
The pressure on institutional library budgets in developed markets has continued throughout 2010, with institutions across the UK and Europe seeing real budget cuts of 10 – 15 per cent on content acquisition. This picture is likely to worsen through 2011. “However, many markets, including the Middle East and Asia, are not facing comparative budget cuts.”
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