The report of the delegates of the Oxford University Press, for the year to end March 1988, shows that last year's excellent results have by and large been maintained. Turnover rose slightly, to £97.9 million from £96.4 million; pretax profit fell slightly to £11.8 million from £12.2 million.
The report examines this pretax decline, concluding that "if last year's results are compared with those of the previous year on the basis of unchanged exchange rates, then it appears that sales rose satisfactorily and surplus was maintained". But trading surplus as a percentage of sales did decline, for two reasons. The problems attending the rise in sterling were one. The other was increased overheads, with a particular problem as OUP treads the tightrope of establishing itself in electronic publishing.
"As the world's leading university press," the report says, "we could not fail to seek ways in which scholarship could be served by these new techniques, but at the same time we had to be careful not to incur too heavy losses by putting new products on the market before there was an adequate demand for them. It was necessary to commit resources for innovation while keeping in mind that financial resources of the Press are much smaller than those of the large conglomerate organisations with which we compete."
Support from IBM
"By far the largest investment in new technology has been made, of course, in computerising the Oxford English Dictionary, an enterprise in which the generous support of IBM was crucial. At a time when universities are being urged to work together with industry, this very successful co-operation is perhaps noteworthy." Other examples of "electronic product" are also noted, in particular a course using an interactive video disc for use in schools, and software packages of use in research in both science and humanities.
The report looks at the three UK publishing divisions. It gives an idea of the remarkable depth and diversity of OUP publishing, but is less specific about actual performances. The educational division had "a good year despite facing many difficulties in its main market, schools in the United Kingdom". The English language teaching division, publishing textbooks and reference material for foreign students of English, saw continuing development. The academic division had a huge and varied output, the Compact Supplement to the OED being the most significant dictionary publication of the year. Its music department saw "a considerable expansion in the use of its copyrights", the number of scholarly journals published continued to increase, and "Oxford Paperbacks had a good year". The year also saw "a substantial increase in the titles published from OUP (USA)".
For the past two years OUP has shown a net profit for the year of around £11 million, and for several years past has been able to expand its publishing while gaining in financial strength. This strength is such that it is now "possible for the Delegates, without imperilling the healthy development of the Press, to provide finance for some specific university purposes". Such activities - and the idea of OUP subsidising the university is surprising to the outsider - "leave the Press with less money than it would otherwise have had for the publishing activities that represent its peculiar contribution to education and research."
Contrast with the past
It is useful to contrast OUP's health in 1986-87 and 1987-88 with its condition in 1980-81, when a £49 million turnover brought a pretax profit of only £766,000 - and that only because overseas business profits had just overtaken a UK publishing and printing loss of around £2.5 million.
The prime movers in OUP's recovery are perceived as being George Richardson, chief executive; Robin Denniston and Bill Andrewes, joint deputy secretaries; and Richard Charkin, head of the academic division. Mr Richardson retired at the beginning of this month, Mr Denniston retires at the end of the year, Mr Charkin left for Octopus (amid much press comment) earlier this year; Mr Andrewes alone will remain. The new chief executive, Sir Roger Elliott, is a distinguished physicist with little commercial experience. For all its differences from other publishers, OUP is at one with them in facing an increasingly hard, competitive business world. The make-up of the new management team will be of great importance if OUP is to maintain its hard-won situation of financial strength and success.
Click for Bookseller OUP accounts digest, 1989.
Click for related files:
The Waldock Report, OU's own investigation into its P (1970)
CUP's tax-exemption Chapter 15 of M. H. Black's Cambridge University Press 1584-1984.
Oxbridge accounts reveal assets of £2 billion Sunday Times, 16/11/97
Mammon's Imprint, by Valentine Cunningham (+ leader comment and campaign), OUP fights corner in poetry row (includes CUP's donations to CU), US presses enjoy tax freedom, The Times Higher (Education Supplement), 12/2/99.
OUP to invest £87 million in university The Times (Business section), 17/7/99
OUP denies breach of charity rules The Oxford Times, 5/11/99
Cooking the books? Cherwell, 12/11/99
OUP profit row Cherwell, 25/2/00
A Message from India Oxford Times 30/3/01 (includes admission that OUP's 1999 'donations' were bogus).
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