Looking Back: People and Places – August 1999

When the SSP website first launched in 1999 a popular section was People and Places which recapped industry news and shared employment news for members of the community.  The original posts from the archived SSP website will be shared periodically, with contact information removed.

People and Places, August 1999

News about Members

Two members create two new consultancies.
After 11 years, Brian Lewis has left RCP Consultants Ltd. to set up his own company, Brian Lewis Consultants Ltd. Brian is perhaps best known for the production and marketing of RMTS and RPTS, the leading tracking systems for peer-review management and production workflow in learned journals. These systems are currently installed in 30 different countries with over 1000 users and are the recommended tracking systems for a large number of international journals publishers. Prior to working at RCP, Brian was responsible for IT at Blackwell Science in Oxford for 12 years. In his new role, Brian will be offering consultancy to the journals publishing market with emphasis on workflow in the editorial and production areas.

Against the Grain Editor Katina Strauch reports in a recent “If Rumors Were Horses” column that “the continuingly urbane and very lively John Cox has established an international consultancy. John Cox Associates will specialize in international scholarly publishing issues such as content management, electronic publishing, licensing and consortia negotiation, and in seminar planning and management.

A long-standing member retires.
After many years in scholarly publishing, Brenda Rauner is retiring from her position as Publications Manager and Executive Editor at the American Physiological Society. Her successor will be Margaret Reich, formerly of the American Heart Association and most recently, Director of the Annals of Emergency Medicine at the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Two corporate members are now one.
Cadmus Communications Corporation acquired The Mack Printing Group, as of April 1, 1999. This acquisition continues Cadmus’ strategy of creating leadership positions in select niche markets. The addition of Mack increases Cadmus’ annual revenues by over 40% and solidifies its position as the world’s leading producer of scientific, technical, and medical journals. The acquisition brings to Cadmus new capabilities to better serve the faster-growing “short-run” segment of the STM market, and significantly strengthens Cadmus’ magazine business by adding new production and distribution capabilities.

Steve Gillispie, President, noted in the press release on the company’s website: “This acquisition is a giant step forward both operationally and financially. Cadmus is now one of North America’s five largest periodical printers. With our increased size, we will capture operating benefits from enhanced synergies and economies of scale. Financially, we are strengthening Cadmus by adding a business with a solid track record of consistent growth, double-digit operating margins, and strong cash flows.”

Paul Mack, Mack’s chairman, commented on the transaction by saying, “We are delighted to be joining forces with a market leader that has a well-established reputation for offering world-class, digital solutions to journal and specialty magazine publishers.”

Industry News

Another acquisition occurred.
Daniel Halloran has assumed the position of president and CEO of Blackwell’s Book Services, the company’s global library bookselling division, following the purchase of Academic Book Center of Portland, Oregon by the Blackwell Group, Ltd. from Halloran and his partner, Barry Fast.

CARL and UnCover purchased by chairman Ward Shaw.
Chairman and CEO of CARL since its founding, Ward Shaw has purchased both CARL and UnCover from The Dialog Corporation for $2.25 million. Quoted in Against the Grain, Shaw “emphasized the benefits to CARL’s library system customers. ‘We have always partnered with visionary libraries, CARL’s independence will re-energize these partnerships.’”

New journal focuses on interactive media.
The Open University in the UK has launched an interactive journal for interactive media called JIME, the Journal of Interactive Media in Education (http://www-jime.open.ac.uk ). A peer-reviewed journal, JIME’s use of Web and downloadable multimedia makes it particularly well suited for reporting work 1) describing innovative multimedia, and 2) work which presents audio/video data. Its primary author constituency will be educational multimedia researchers and practitioners, but JIME is also an action research project into new forms of scholarly publishing and discourse, as made possible by the Internet and the World Wide Web.