Routledge as a Global Publisher
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Routledge as a Global Publisher A Case Study, 1980–2010 Mary Ann Kernan
Published online: 13 February 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract A case study of the commercial history of the academic publishing company, Routledge, between 1980 and 2010, with a focus on its global activities and structures. During this period, Routledge experienced changes in ownership, branding and location as well as in its subject disciplines and publishing formats. The company was also an early and continuing innovator in digital publishing. The study presents findings drawn from interviews with past and current managers, and supporting content analysis of documents and web pages. It concludes by identifying the continuities that underlay the many changes in academic publishing over the period, and by suggesting possible future research, including to test the explanatory value of Ohmae’s theories of globalization. Keywords Academic Publishing Acquisition Branding Brand extension Business case study Conglomeration Digital Publishing Ebooks Globalization Global subsidiaries Informa Journals Publishing Publishing Publishing case study Routledge Taylor & Francis
Introduction Aims This paper aims to provide students and analysts of the publishing industry with a rich case study of the commercial history of an academic publisher, Routledge, since 1980, with a focus on its global activities and structures. I present findings
M. A. Kernan (&) Department of Creative Practice and Enterprise, School of Arts and Social Sciences, City University London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK e-mail: [email protected]
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Pub Res Q (2013) 29:52–72
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drawn from the analysis of 15 interviews and the content analysis of documents and web pages relating to Routledge [32], one of the largest global commercial publishers of books and journals in the academic disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, which forms a division of Taylor & Francis [38] within the Informa Group [13]. I conclude by suggesting how this case might be developed in further research and analysis to better understand the impact of globalization on academic publishing companies. I hope that this detailed, company-specific case study will provide a resource for the study of globalization in academic publishing, and complement larger-scale studies of academic publishing (e.g. [24, 43]); more general texts with substantial sections relating to academic publishing (including [10, 36]); and more personal accounts by practitioners (e.g. [5]). Further sources which relate directly to the companies analysed here include Pettigrew and Whipp [25], which analyses some examples relating to ABP; and a 1934 company history of the original Routledge from 1834 to 1934 [20]. Consistent with case-study methodology, the paper presents and analyses evidence collected during the course of the study itself. In a forthcoming paper [14], I further analyse the findings of this study with reference to theoretical models and previ
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