Global push boosts Blackwell

Blackwell Publishing boosted its operating profit by 24% to £35.4m in 2005. The increase comes in line with 10% turnover growth to £210m and a 5% rise in the cost of sales.

Chief executive René Olivieri puts the successful year down to "acting and thinking globally", with the establishment of a Singapore office to oversee offshore production and sales, and a Chinese office in Shanghai to publish local society journals. "We're developing our international reach. Our authors and the scientific community see themselves as part of a global community . . . often these soft-skill things are more important than having the biggest electronic delivery platform or marketing drive," he said.

But Blackwell also focused on its electronic offerings--a backlist digitisation programme for all its journals and investment in an e-book publishing platform that will begin launching e-books through Amazon, Google "and others" before Christmas.

Blackwell said its book publishing division has been growing strongly with a 7.5% increase in sales over the year. "We are publishing more, we are developing our books more successfully, and many of our copyrights come from the US market, which sets trends worldwide," Olivieri said.

He refused to comment on rumours that Informa, Springer and private equity groups continue to pursue an acquisition of the company. Taylor & Francis offered £300m for the company in 2002, but the sale fell through.

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