You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Hachette is to sell its Health Sciences and Higher Education businesses to Taylor & Francis and transfer its Consumer Education business to Hodder & Stoughton.
Hodder Education c.e.o. Thomas Webster will leave his post, with current Schools head Lis Tribe taking over at the pared-back Hachette division, to include Further Education, Schools, Hodder Gibson and Philip Allan.
Philip Shaw, m.d. of the Health Sciences and Higher Education business, will leave the company at the end of October, after managing the transition to T&F. A Hachette spokesperson said "a small number" of staff working in Health Sciences and Higher Education would be transferring from Hodder Education to T&F, involving relocation to Oxford. The spokesperson declined to comment on whether there were any job losses among those staff.
Consumer Education sales and marketing director Tim Mahar will also leave the company at the end of 2012, after helping with the transition of his business to H&S.
In an internal memo to staff, Hachette UK c.e.o. Tim Hely Hutchinson said: "The Health Sciences and Higher Education business were a very small part of Hodder's education business. They were sub-scale and could not compete with the major, much larger, publishers in the area. After exploring a number of options, we decided that selling them to Taylor & Francis was the best outcome for them, for their authors and for the future of Hodder Education."
He went on: "Our plan is to concentrate on the areas of educational publishing where we are full scale, have a very strong position in the market and have further plans for growth: Schools and Further Education and Consumer Education, continuing our investment in digital and developing for every part of the business."
Consumer Education is being transferred Hodder & Stoughton because, Hely Hutchinson said, "the focus on consumer insight and digital development will add to its present strengths." As a result of the move, Consumer Education m.d. David Swarbrick will now report to Jamie Hodder-Williams with head of sales David Brand also moving with the business to Hodder & Stoughton. Of Mahar Hely Hutchinson said: "Tim has decided that there is not a broad enough role for him in the new organization and has therefore decided to step down."
As well as being promoted to Hodder Education m.d., Lis Tribe will join the Hachette UK board.
Webster will remain as a consultant to the business, Hely Hutchinson told staff, praising him for "a superb job" of mapping the future of Hodder Education "which included this plan."