University presses report robust year despite challenges of the pandemic

This past year has “felt like an interregnum” for many midsize university presses, with both change and uncertainty in the air owing to the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Yet even while scholarly publishers have been altering business models, rolling out new digital initiatives as some routes to market stutter and adapting to new ways of reaching their customers, many have reported a robust year of trading.

Anthony Cond, Liverpool University Press c.e.o., points out that in general the university press model “walks a tightrope” as it is balanced between “meaningful service to the academy as a credentialiser and disseminator of research—which for a multitude of reasons doesn’t always pay for itself—and robust financial planning for sustainability so that we add to, rather than take out of, the academic ecosystem”. 

That said, LUP has had a decent pandemic with double-digit growth over the past 12 months; turnover is 60% greater than where the press was at three years ago. Cond says it was LUP’s long-term digital strategy that has in part driven this: “The acceleration of digital preference has coincided with a number of new product launches and we’ve seen e-book sales, which were already at record levels, double from 2020 to 2021. The flip side is that print has become more challenging, not helped by printer delays and the travails of sending books across borders post-Brexit.”

Cond adds: “But it isn’t only the format that is changing: the timing of sales has also shifted. The pandemic pushed the remaining ‘just in case’ library buyers to become ‘just in time’ with the result that frontlist sales that would have happened in the first six months after publication now often happen in year two.” 

That delay in when the sales come is not necessarily a problem at the moment, Cond says, but may become a major issue depending on the upcoming policy recommendations on Open Access (OA) from the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the system for evaluating the quality of research in UK higher education, following on from this year’s policy directives from UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), the non-departmental government which directs funding. Cond explains: “[The timing of our sales] requires some rethinking in-house but externally the shift could have a more profound impact: UKRI’s OA monograph policy is predicated on the majority of publisher sales occurring in year one; if REF policy follows suit, and adequate funding isn’t provided, the risk of unsustainability will increase.”

Princeton University Press (PUP) has had a “strong” year of sales which has particularly been driven by backlist, helped in part by a big marketing push, which has included a new website (sales through its site rocketed) and the launch of its Ideas podcast. PUP director Christine Henry notes that the press’ diverse global portfolio, and its ability to change quickly, has helped it ride through the pandemic as it pivoted more to retail in China when institutional budgets were slashed; expedited the digitisation of backlist when libraries shut; and boosted production of the PrincetonAudio list.

Internally, PUP had an increased drive on diversity and inclusion including several grants to support authors from previously underrepresented communities. The press also recently invested in new premises for its European headquarters, moving from Woodstock, Oxfordshire, to the centre of Oxford, though Henry acknowledges that the full utilisation of its new offices is part of ongoing plans as PUP is committed to a hybrid working policy. 

Henry says that staff working conditions have been one of the most challenging aspects of the pandemic, particularly as it stretches towards its second full year: “We miss the collective effervescence [of working together in real life], and are seeking ways to create that alchemy in a hybrid culture—we know it won’t emerge on its own, we need purpose in its creation, just as we bring to our publishing. We have done a lot of collective learning, sharing and growing—now we need to make sure we pull through the positives of remote collaborations to create a sustainable and inclusive culture that isn’t dependent on in-person anything, but allows for in-person experiences where they are most wanted by staff.”

Initiatives from Manchester University Press (MUP) for the year include a new audiobook pilot programme, launching a social responsibility programme and ramping up its trade list (which was first rolled out in 2020) with hits including Imperial Nostalgia, Peter Mitchell’s examination of how a rose-tinted view of empire affects contemporary Britain; and Richard Lapper’s Beef, Bible and Bullets, a look at the hard right’s rise in Brazil, which was named by the FT as one of the top 10 politics books of 2021.

Chris Hart, MUP’s head of marketing, says the press is “pleased by its results in a challenging year”. E-books in particular boomed, with sales up 18.5% against budget and digital now accounting for a third of MUP’s revenue. This rise was across MUP’s aggregators, but was particularly strong on its own manchesterhive platform, which has had a 28% sales bump.

All positive, yet Hart notes that the sands are shifting: “Institutional budgets are a concern, although we’ve yet to see how this issue will play out over the year. The biggest concern is still not knowing how things will recover. It feels like we are in an interregnum… different from last year because in 2020 we were essentially working into the unknown, thinking on our feet, experimenting with new ways of reaching customers, which meant we didn’t really have time to stop or reflect for any sustained period. This year is different because things are coming back, but not at the same pace. It is this not knowing with any confidence that really stress-tests our plans going forward.” 

Another challenging area is the future of academic conferences. Hart says: “Uni presses rely on these conferences for marketing new books, as well as sources of commissioning. Virtual conferences struggle to offer similar exposure. This highlights the second concern: the gradual erosion of networks as a result of not travelling. One thing the pandemic has shown me is the value of networks in both selling and commissioning books.”

While digital has surged for many, the bulk of the presses’ heartlands are in the humanities and social sciences with a lot of if not strictly trade titles, then perhaps what one might call “trade adjacent”, which depend on physical sales. Therefore, many have been feeling the pinch from this year’s most pressing issue: supply chain disruption. Yale University Press (YUP) is arguably the most consumer-facing university press list with hits this year including John Carey’s 100 Poets anthology, an offshoot of YUP’s till point-friendly Little range; and Helen Fry’s Spymaster, a biography of Second World War secret agent Thomas Kendrick.

YUP UK m.d. Heather McCallum says the press might have had a bit of a rough start to the year but things have improved as the months have gone on: “Our experience was that while the hit to sales—compounded in January by Brexit-related issues for European sales—was not as profound [compared to 2020], the impact lasted longer and recovery was slower over the summer. However, we’ve enjoyed a fantastic autumn with our frontlist really bouncing back, with many books having a strong impact… this has been hugely encouraging. It has been wonderful to see the trade coming to life across the board.”

Yet supply chain issues have been vexing, McCallum says: “We have had to strategise hard around print decisions for new books and backlist including where to print and the scale of orders. It has been volatile and we have had to constantly evolve.”

Henry echoes McCallum: “There isn’t an element of our publishing that isn’t affected by supply chain [disruption] in some way. We are relying on the strength of partnerships—distribution partners, printers, booksellers, and authors—on constancy of communications, and on steadfast determination coupled with creative problem solving.”

The supply chain problems dovetail for Hart with the overall climate of the past two years and, silver lining time, may just present an opportunity. He says: “I think the pandemic, Brexit and supply chain issues have resulted in a huge spike in publishers operating as B2C businesses, which has brought us into much closer contact with our customers as they visit our websites, order directly and engage on social media. I think this presents both an opportunity and learning curve for publishers that they may, and should, want to hold onto and develop as the year progresses.”