Bloomsbury Publishing, has acquired the Duckworth academic list and beginning March 1 will take over distribution of the Duckworth trade list to worldwide markets. The announcement was made this morning by Peter Mayer, managing director of Duckworth, and Nigel Newton, CEO of Bloomsbury. The Duckworth academic list will become part of Bloomsbury’s Bristol Classical Press.
Commenting on the sale, Mayer said, “After seven years of growth at Duckworth, our trade list now matches in size the traditionally strong academic list. Bloomsbury is the perfect home for the Duckworth Academic list. This sale gives Bloomsbury Academic the ability to build that side of Bloomsbury’s business, but the important thing for us is that it gives Duckworth a much broader infrastructural sales context within which to continue to build the trade list, working closely as well with our U.S. sister company, The Overlook Press. “
To boost trade sales, Mayer recently appointed Jon Jackson, previously of Osprey, as editorial director of the Duckworth trade list, and Ben Slight, coming from a position as a Waterstone’s regional manager, as Duckworth sales coordinator. Mayer, former CEO of Penguin, took control of Duckworth in 2003 and has run it alongside the New York-based Overlook Press.
