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holdings
landmarks
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This
page considers the T&F Informa group, incorporating
the Taylor & Francis, Informa and IBC imprints.
It covers -
 introduction
T&F Informa was established in May 2004 through the
merger of Informa Group plc (a 'current information' newsletter
publisher established 1998 but tracing its origins to
the Lloyds List first published in 1734) and Taylor &
Francis Group plc (a scientific, technical and medical
publisher that traces its origins to the 1790s). In June
2005 it paid £768 million for IIR, claimed to be
the world's largest conference and training company or
more modestly as "the world's leading knowledge and
skills transfer company".
The group publishes over 2,000 journals, runs some 2,800
events per year and has a book backlist of over 35,000
volumes. It has offices in 18 nations, around the world
including Sydney, London, Eindhoven, New York, Dusseldorf,
Philadelphia, Boca Raton, Singapore and Sao Paolo.
The expectation is that with IIR the group will garner
4% of its revenue from advertising, 15% from specialist
book publishing, 33% from events, 26% from subscriptions
to academic journals and 22% from performance improvement.
Taylor
& Francis
Taylor & Francis was a leading international academic
publisher, with over 800 journals and 2,300 new books
each year.
Informa
and IBC
Informa was formed in December 1998 through the merger
of IBC Group plc and LLP Group plc.
LLP Group plc was the publishing division (Lloyds of London
Press) of the Lloyds insurance market until 1995 when
it spun off through a management buy-out. It listed on
the London Stock Exchange in April 1998.
IBC Group plc (formerly International Business Conferences)
listed on the London Stock exchange in December 1985.
Informa supplies 'must have business information' in a
range of media formats regarding
- Telecommunications
and Media,
- Maritime,
Trade and Transport,
- Finance
and Insurance,
- Commodities
and Energy,
- Law
and Tax,
- Biomedical
and Pharmaceutical
Formats
include print newspapers, magazines, newsletters, books,
conferences, exhibitions, CD-ROM, internet and other electronic
online services.
Routledge
and Kegan Paul
Routledge traces its origins to George
Routledge (d 1888), who established a bookshop with brother-in-law
W H Warne in the early 1830s. In 1836 he published The
Beauties of Gilsand guidebook. Warne became a partner
in 1848, launching the Tauchnitz-style 'Railway Library'
of cheap reprints. George Routledge & Co was founded
in 1851 after Frederick Warne (1825-1901) was taken into
the partnership. Routledge & Co opened a US branch
in New York in 1854.
In 1858 George Routledge's son Robert Warne Routledge
became a partner, with the house being restyled Routledge,
Warne & Routledge and launching Every Boy's Magazine
in 1862. Frederick Warne left after the death of his brother
- gaining rights to some titles and founding Frederick
Warne & Co in 1865 - and George's second son Edmund
Routledge became a partner in the new firm of George Routledge
& Sons in 1865.
The publishing house enjoyed success with Morley's 'Universal
Library' series and works such as Kate Greenaway's 1878
Under the Window but faltered at the end of the
century and underwent a corporate reconstruction in 1902
under the auspices of banker Arthur Franklin (whose son
Cecil became a partner in 1906) and publisher William
Sonnenschein, whose Swan Sonnenschein merged with George
Allen & Co (precursor of Allen & Unwin and Unwin
Hyman) in 1911. In 1903 it absorbed scholarly and illustrated
book publisher J C Nimmo & Bain, founded by John Nimmo
(d 1899) in 1879. In 1912 it merged with Kegan Paul, Trench,
Trübner & Co as Routledge & Kegan Paul.
The Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner house was an 1889
amalgamation under the auspices of Horatio Bottomley (1860-1933).
Bottomley - aptly described by the Guardian as "irredeemably,
utterly, psychotically corrupt" - was a notorious
journalist, publisher (notably the Financial Times)
speculator and later fraudster.
Charles Kegan Paul (d 1902) and Alfred Trench had acquired
scientific publisher H S King & Co - formed by Henry
King in 1868 - in 1877, establishing Kegan Paul, Trench
& Co in 1878. Its authors included George Meredith,
R L Stevenson and Henry George. Trübner, founded
by Johann Nicholas Trübner (1817-1884) in 1851, had
a higher profile as a scholarly publisher, with works
such as Arnold's 1879 Light of Asia, Butler's
1872 Erewhon, the Bibliographical Guide to
American Literature and Catalogue of Dictionaries
& Grammars of the Principal Languages of the World.
Associate William Heinemann established his own house
in 1890 following the merger An exodus of Kegan Paul,
Trench, Trübner managers and directors in 1895 amid
revelations about Bottomley's chicanery and falling profits
led to Arthur Waugh - father of the more famous Evelyn
- becoming manager.
Routledge was subsequently acquired by Thomson.
In 1990 Murdoch's HarperCollins
sold its Unwin Hyman academic division (formed through
the 1986 merger of Allen & Unwin with Bell & Hyman)
to Routledge. Taylor & Francis acquired the Routledge
group (including Routledge, Spon Press and Carfax) for
£90 million in 1998.
IIR
In 2005 T&F Informa acquired the Institute of International
Research (IIR) from Lord Laidlaw of Rothiemay for £768
million.
IIR was established in 1973. Laidlaw abandoned a flotation
of IIR on the New York Stock Exchange in 2002. In 2004
had sales of US$572 million and earnings of US$87 million,
having acquired Robbins-Gioia which
combines
thought leadership, disciplined processes, industry-based
knowledge, and integrated tools to help global customers
optimize their business processes, accelerate change,
and establish time, cost, and quality improvements to
transform their businesses
The
buzzwords say it all.
IIR conducts high-profile conferences in the financial
and life sciences sectors, such as Super Return (private
equity) conference and regularly gather for its Gain (hedge
funds) events. It has the rights to use the Adam Smith
Institute name in Russia and provides events for US government
agencies and Fortune 500 companies -
tagged as "performance improvement" and centred
on supremos such as former US president Bill Clinton delivering
motivational speeches to management.
studies
There has been no major scholarly study of Informa or
Taylor & Francis.
For RKP see Leslie Howsam's Kegan Paul – A Victorian
Imprint (Publishers, Books & Cultural History
(London: Kegan Paul International 1998). Bottomley's best
biography remains Julian Symons' insightful Horatio
Bottomley (London: Cresset Press 1955).
For Unwin see David Unwin's memoir Fifty Years With
Father (London: George Allen & Unwin 1982)
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