Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year
Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year Winner and Shortlist
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Tight library budgets and tough export markets made for challenging trading conditions for the academic, educational and professional sectors in 2024. These six contenders had to be at their agile and responsive best, and they impressed with their ability to pivot to new markets and sales channels. From small specialists to university presses to global players, they show the rich variety of publishers in these three sectors.
Winner
Class Publishing
After three successive years on the shortlist, this is a first ever British Book Award for Class Publishing. It is recognition for a mastering of its specialisms in content for paramedics and family law professionals. Class had its best-ever results in 2024 despite a tough market, publishing more titles than ever before and growing both international and domestic revenue.
The business celebrated its 35th year of independence in 2024 and is a textbook example of indies’ special ability to get close to their customers and content creators and respond nimbly to opportunities. Its team visited dozens of academic and professional conferences and bolstered their social media, increasing direct-to-customer sales as a result. “In an exacting market with a wide range of suppliers, Class stands out for quality, service and design,” said one partner. Staff care is excellent too, and it won a prize for best culture at the Investors in People Awards.
Most publishers in the academic, educational and professional sectors have been on a steady migration from print to digital in recent years, but Class has handled it better than just about anyone. It grew usage of its suite of apps by nearly half in 2024 and is now exploring ways AI Large Language Models can enhance their functionality and content. “Class knows its niches inside out and publishes into them brilliantly… it could be easy to take things for granted but it’s always doing innovative things on the digital side,” said the judges.
The Shortlist
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury has been shortlisted in 13 of this Award’s 14 years and has won it three times. That’s testament to the relentless growth of the division since Bloomsbury moved into the academic and professional sectors. In 2024 it acquired Rowman & Littlefield in the US to push its volume of titles to nearly 100,000, and there was more good work to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in research output.
Boydell & Brewer
Boydell & Brewer celebrated 55 years in humanities and social sciences publishing in 2024. Its sales and output numbers were among its best yet, despite huge pressure on its customers’ spending. It stepped up direct-to-consumer sales and several books broke beyond academia to mainstream channels. Boydell & Brewer rejigged internal roles to good effect and author care was outstanding.
Class Publishing
Class, a specialist in content for paramedics and family law professionals, is shortlisted here for the third time in a row. It had a best ever year of sales and profits, powered by exceptional customer engagement and outreach at numerous professional and academic events. Class has been a textbook example of how to migrate from print to digital, and its app subscriber numbers soared again.
Emerald Publishing
Emerald makes this shortlist for the sixth time in seven years. Highlights of 2024 included the acquisition of Information Age Publishing, the launch of a bookstore and app to grow direct sales, and a new ‘Open Lab’ to explore open access models. The business has a strong sense of mission, made good progress on sustainability, and won several awards for workplace culture and inclusion.
Princeton University Press
Princeton flies the flag for university presses on this shortlist. It celebrated 25 years of its European outpost in Oxford in 2024 and achieved double-digit growth in turnover, with new partnerships driving ebooks and some notable success in audio, often a difficult format for academic publishers. New for the year was an International Agents Conference.
Sweet Cherry Publishing
Sweet Cherry’s spot here, having been shortlisted several times for the Children’s Publisher of the Year, shows its versatility and passion for education. 2024 brought the launch of the new Every Cherry imprint to serve Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) children. Its books, full of sensory elements, are filling a glaring shortage of material for hesitant and reluctant readers.
