Company History
A complete history and timeline of key developments are provided.
The Early Years
Blackwell Publishers
The family's entrance into the publishing arena came in 1897 when B H Blackwell (the booksellers) published its first book. In 1922, a separate publishing house under the name of Basil Blackwell & Mott was established in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Blackwell Science
Sir Basil Blackwell founded Blackwell Scientific Publications (1939) with funds provided by B H Blackwell and Blackwell & Mott. Initially the company was going to be called Blackwell Medical Publications, but the name was changed to Blackwell Scientific Publications (BSP) to give it greater editorial scope.
1950s
Blackwell Publishers
In the pre-war years the company published exciting young authors such as WH Auden, Graham Greene, JRR Tolkien and Enid Blyton. In the post-war period the company became a major schools publisher. Although scholarly works had always been a part of the publishing plan, a major advance came in 1953 with the agreement to publish the entire legacy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, negotiated by Henry Schollick.
Blackwell Science
Through the early years, BSP was essentially an Oxford-based medical publisher enhancing its list and profitability by distributing books on behalf of North American medical publishers. In the 1950s, Managing Director and Publisher, Per Saugman, started a journals list by launching British Journal of Haematology. The company broke new ground in medical publishing by actually going out to the medical schools, identifying young potential authors (many of whom later became eminent professors) and persuading them to write textbooks.
1960s
Blackwell Publishers
By the early 1960s the company held 90,000 active accounts with book buyers. The employee friendly firm made the change to a 5-day workweek. Leadership of the company also transitioned, with Richard Blackwell taking the reins as Chairman and Basil Henry Blackwell (the Gaffer) as President.
Blackwell Science
The Edinburgh office, which opened in 1966 to support book publishing, became solely devoted to journal production. From the mid-1960s BSP gained international status, expanding into biology, and building its expertise in journal publishing. In 1963 the company purchased Munksgaard of Copenhagen which was to strengthen its journals list in dentistry, dermatology, immunology, and transplantation.
1970s
Blackwell Publishers
In the late 1970s the company acquired Martin Robertson and with it a new managing director, David Martin, who transformed the company into a world-recognized publisher of outstanding academic books.
Blackwell Science
In 1971 BSP started a joint venture company in Melbourne, Australia. This venture developed into a wholly owned subsidiary (1984) under Mark Robertson who built up a program of journals with societies in Australia, then Japan and more recently from other parts of Asia.
1980s
Blackwell Publishers
The first North American office of Basil Blackwell was opened in New York in 1984. René Olivieri took over as Managing Director in 1987. The company set up a joint venture with Polity Press to publish innovative new work in social and political theory. With financial demands of building up the scholarly book publishing program and the introduction of the National Curriculum in the UK, the company decided to sell the education list and concentrate more on journals.
Blackwell Science
By the 1980s the journal list was significant enough for the largest publishers of journals to invite BSP to join the Adonis consortium (an early attempt to deliver journal articles in machine-readable form). At that time journals were contributing two-thirds of the company's total sales. In 1987 BSP moved its North American office from Beacon Street in Boston to Cambridge, Massachusetts to maintain its journals growth. At the same time Robert Campbell took over as Managing Director from Per Saugman. Publishing businesses were bought in France and Germany to strengthen the company's position in Europe. Collins Professional & Technical was acquired in April 1987, becoming the basis of the Professional Division.
1990s
Blackwell Publishers
By the early 1990s Blackwell Publishers had became the leading international publisher of journals for societies in social sciences and humanities. In line with this orientation, the US offices were moved from New York to Boston to be in closer proximity to the many fine institutes of learning in the area. During this time Blackwell Publishers was awarded the UK Investors in People certification. In publishing it focused on growing its list of international textbooks and journals. The transformation into a true transatlantic company was complete by the end of the twentieth century, at which time more than half the company's sales and new copyrights were coming from the American market.
Blackwell Science
In the mid-1990s BSP invested heavily to make all its journals available online. To reflect the wider range of services BSP now offered, the company changed its name to Blackwell Science in 1993. The company's European offices successfully developed sales to the pharmaceutical industry (known as "special sales"). To support this growth the company started Blackwell Healthcare Communication Ltd (BHCL), a medical communication company working primarily with the pharmaceutical industry. 1999 was a busy year for the company with the merger of BHCL and Bullet (acquired in 1997) to form Avenue and the acquisition of Iowa State Press. The company also launched Blackwell Synergy in 1999, a new online service offering full text with linking.
In 2001 the two companies legally merged.
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Blackwell Publishing Ltd (BPL) was established by merging Blackwell Publishers (founded 1926) and Blackwell Science (founded 1939). This merger created Blackwell Publishing, the world's largest independent society publisher. The Boston merged company became Blackwell Publishing Incorporated. Divisions in Australia and Japan became Blackwell Publishing Asia. Munksgaard in Copenhagen and Blackwell Publishing Professional (formerly Iowa State Press).
In 2007 Wiley completed the acquisition of the outstanding shares of Blackwell Publishing (Holdings) Ltd., for $1.1 billion (£572 million), making it the largest acquisition in the companys history. One of the worlds foremost academic and professional publishers, Blackwells publishing program is being merged with Wileys global scientific, technical, and medical business to form what is now called Wiley-Blackwell, the largest of Wileys three businesses. The combined business will publish approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals as well as an extensive collection of books with global appeal.
