Reed Elsevier is a global publisher and information provider. It came into being
January 1993 as the result of a merger between Reed International, a British trade book
and magazine publisher, and the Dutch science publisher Elsevier NV. It is listed on several
of the world's major stock exchanges.[1]
History
Reed International
In 1894, Albert E. Reed established a newsprint manufacture at Tovil Mill near Maidstone, Kent. In 1903, Albert E Reed was
registered as a public company. In 1970, the company name was changed to Reed International Limited. The company originally grew
by merging with other publishers and produced high quality trade journals as IPC Business Press Ltd and womens and other consumer
magazines as IPC magazines Ltd. For a time the company published The Daily Mirror. The original family owners the Reeds were
Methodists and encouraged good working conditions for their staff in the then dangerous print trade. They became known also for
paying their staff well, and avoiding casual labour practices. The company however in modern times took full advantage of
changing attitudes in the 1980s and was associated in job cutting exercises throughout its magazine empire, following union
de-recognition in the 1990s (union recognition has since been regained in several business units).
Elsevier NV
In 1880, Jacobus George Robbers started a publishing company called NV Uitgeversmaatschappij
Elsevier (Elsevier Publishing Company NV) to publish literary classics and the encyclopedia Winkler Prins. Robbers named the company after the old Dutch printers family Elzevir, which, for example, had published the works of Erasmus in 1587. Elsevier NV originally was based in Rotterdam but
moved to Amsterdam in the late 1880s.
Up to the 1930s, Elsevier remained a small family-owned publisher, with no more than ten employees. After the War it launched
the weekly Elseviers Weekblad), which turned out to be very profitable. A rapid
expansion followed. Elsevier Press Inc. started in 1951 in Houston, Texas, and in
1962 publishing offices were opened in London and New York. Multiple mergers in the 1970s led to name changes, settling at
Elsevier Scientific Publishers in 1979. Two years before the merger with Reed, Elsevier acquired Pergamon Press in the UK.
Company divisions
Reed Elsevier conducts its business through the following divisions:
Key products
ScienceDirect contains over 25% of the world's science, technology and medicine full
text and bibliographic information.
Scopus is the world's largest abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources. Scopus is updated
daily.
Reed Business, Reed Elsevier's global Business division, is a provider of magazines, exhibitions, directories, online media
and marketing services across five continents. Its prestige brands serve professionals across a diverse range of industries.
These brands include Variety, New Scientist, totaljobs.com, Elsevier, Kellysearch, and the World Travel & Tourism Market.
In February 2007, Reed Elsevier announced its intention to sell Harcourt, its
educational publishing division.[3] On 4th May 2007
Pearson, the international education and information company, announced that it had agreed
to acquire Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International from Reed Elsevier for $950m in cash.[4] In July 2007, Reed Elsevier announced its agreement to sell the remaining
Harcourt Education business, including international imprint Heinemann, to
Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group for $4b in cash and stock. [5]
Pricing issues
Reed Elsevier has been criticised for the high prices of its journals and services, especially Elsevier and LexisNexis.
Members of the scientific community have called for a boycott of Elsevier journals and a move to open access publications such as those of the Public Library of
Science or BioMed Central.[6]
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Defense Exhibitions
Members of the medical and scientific communities, which purchase and use many journals published by Reed Elsevier, have
agitated for the company to cut its links to the arms trade. Two UK academics, Dr. Tom Stafford of Sheffield University and Dr
Nick Gill, have launched petitions calling on Reed Elsevier to stop organising arms fairs. [1][2]. A subsidiary, Spearhead, organizes defence shows, including a recent event where it was reported that cluster bombs and extremely powerful riot control equipment were
offered for sale.[7][8]
In February 2007, Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal, published an editorial in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, arguing that Reed Elsevier's
involvement in both the arms trade and medical publishing constituted a conflict of interest.[9] He suggested that if academics began to disengage with Reed Elsevier, the company
would be likely to end their arms fairs, as arms fairs only comprise a small proportion of their business.
On June 1, 2007, Reed Elsevier announced that they would be exiting the Defense Exhibition business during the second half of
2007.[10]
This means that the company will no longer organise arms fairs around the world. The decision follows a high-profile campaign,
coordinated by CAAT, which highlighted the incompatibility of Reed's
involvement in the arms trade and their position as the number one publisher of medical and science journals and other
publications. CAAT welcomes the decision and applauds the board of Reed Elsevier for recognising the concerns of its
stakeholders.[11]
References
- ^ Euronext: REN, LSE: REL, NYSE: ENL, NYSE: RUK
- ^ Houghton Mifflin to buy Harcourt. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
- ^ Reed Elsevier to sell education arm. Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
- ^ Pearson acquires Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International from Reed
Elsevier. Retrieved on 2007-05-08.
- ^ Houghton Mifflin to buy Harcourt. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
- ^ John Baez, What We Can Do About Science Journals,
January 8, 2006
- ^ Shah, Saeed. "Cluster bombs on offer at
arms fair despite sales ban", The Independent, 2005-09-14. Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
- ^ Norton-Taylor, Richard. "Banned stun guns and leg irons
advertised at arms fair", The Guardian, 2005-09-16. Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
- ^ Smith, Richard. "Lancet publishers condemned over promotion of arms", Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,
2007-02-20. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.
- ^ "Reed Elsevier says to exit defence industry shows", 2007-06-01.
- ^ http://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/reedelsevier.php
Additional references
External links
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