Taylor & Francis c.e.o. steps down as parent company Informa reports growth 

Taylor & Francis chief executive Annie Callanan has announced she is stepping down after six years in the role, as the academic publisher’s parent company Informa reported revenue growth of 53% in the first half of 2023.

The organisation said Callahan is returning to the US, and that the process to identify the next leader is underway. Stephen A Carter, group chief executive of Informa, said of Callanan’s departure: “On behalf of Informa, I’d like to thank Annie for her leadership over the last six years, during which time the business has grown in scale and quality.”

According to the 2023 Half-Year Results report, in which news of Callanan’s departure was announced, revenue at Informa was up 53% across the business to £1.5m, while pre-tax profits more than doubled to £413m from £204m. Adjusted operating profit was up 103% to £413.5m.

Taylor & Francis itself saw revenue growth of 8.3% from £261.6m in 2022 to £283.4m in 2022, and its adjusted operating profits increased 3.1% from £84.5m to £87.1m. On Taylor & Francis, the report stated that “improving underlying revenues reflects strong performance in traditional Pay-to-Read products and continuing expansion in Pay-to-Publish services".

It continued that in Pay-to-Read, demand for specialist, peer reviewed research “remains robust”, which is reflected in high subscription renewals and consistent new business, the latter benefiting from recent investment in sales capacity in North America an Asia.

Moreover, the reports stated that its specialist reference business in Advanced Learning continues to “perform consistently”, supported by an expanded front list of more than 8,000 annual new titles and a back list of 175,000 specialist titles.

It went on: “In open research, we continue to invest in the depth and range of services we offer to authors and funders, targeting research budgets directly alongside more traditional institutional budgets. This has seen us secure a number of new Read and Publish contracts this year, as well as some major renewals, including our recent three-year arrangement with Ohio State University.”

The overall growth of Informa as a whole is attributed to strong underlying growth at Informa Markets of 64%, “reflecting full return of live and on-demand B2B event brands in all regions and markets”, as well as expansion in the Middle East, and, on its Informa Connect strand, which grew 18.5%, “strong demand for content-rich live experiences providing high-value networking, specialist content and accredited training".

Carter said: “We are focused on building a better, broader and more scalable business, which is reflected in a very strong first half performance, putting us on track to meet or beat our guidance for 2023, with further momentum visible into 2024 and 2025.

"As the leading and largest owner/operator of B2B events, specialist data and digital services internationally, we see continuing strong demand from B2B customers, giving us confidence in further growth.”