Reed Remains Uncertain Over Prospects for Book Fairs

In a quarterly update, the RELX Group said the financial outlook for Reed Exhibitions remains uncertain for 2021. The company said the exhibition business continues to be “significantly impacted” by the Covid-19 pandemic.

To date, the company has held 56 physical shows, primarily in Japan and China, with one held in the U.S. “Government restrictions have prevented most events from taking place in Europe and the Americas, and have constrained the scale of many events elsewhere,” the company said.

Last week, Reed said that it was cancelling the London Book Fair and would hold a series of online events in June instead. It was the second year in a row Reed was forced to cancel the fair. To date, there has been no sign of Reed, which had run BookExpo and BookCon, holding any book-related events in the U.S. this year.

RELX said it anticipates that its publishing and research businesses will post sales and profit increases in 2021. Exhibition now accounts for only 5% of RELX’s revenue.