It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons: Robert Maxwell. By Stephen BuranyiIn 2011, Claudio Aspesi, a senior investment analyst at Bernstein Research in London, made a bet that the dominant firm in one of the most lucrative industries in the world was headed for a crash. Reed-Elsevier, a multinational publishing giant with annual revenues exceeding £6bn, was an investor’s darling. It was one of the few publishers that had successfully managed the transition to the internet, and a recent company report was predicting yet another year of growth. Aspesi, though, had reason to believe that that prediction – along with those of every other major financial analyst – was wrong.The core of Elsevier’s operation is in scientific journals, the weekly or monthly publications in which scientists share their results. Despite the narrow audience, scientific publishing is a remarkably big business. With total global revenues of more than £19bn, it weighs in somewhere between the recording and the film industries in size, but it is far more profitable. In 2010, Elsevier’s scientific publishing arm reported profits of £724m on just over £2bn in revenue. It was a 36% margin – higher than Apple, Google, or Amazon posted that year. Related: The high-tech war on science fraud Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
As the challenges and competition in the consumer publishing industry intensify, publishers have sought top talent from betting firms, streaming music services and scientific publishing. The post The Guardian is the latest old-line publisher to reach outside the business for a CEO appeared first... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2020-01-16 05:01:09 UTC ]
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Readers discuss the pros and cons of open access to scientific journalsStephen Buranyi’s article on the lucrative business of academic publishing does not go far enough (How Robert Maxwell turned science publishing into a money machine, 27 June). At least academic researchers have access to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons: Robert Maxwell. By Stephen BuranyiIn 2011, Claudio Aspesi, a senior investment analyst at Bernstein Research in London, made a bet that the dominant firm in one... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this