2015


Academic, Educational & Professional Publisher of the Year


[ TH E S HORTLI ST ]


Bloomsbury Academic & Professional has grown into an academic and professional powerhouse in just seven years of trading. Its online portals excel


Collins Learning (HarperCollins) is shortlisted for a fourth year in a row after it excelled on the back of a careful refocusing of its business


Oxford University Press, historic but thoroughly modern, impressed with its language resources in particular last year


WINNER: HODDER EDUCATION


EDUCATION PUBLISHING IS rarely an easy sector to be in, and changes to the National Curriculum added to the turbulence last year. But across both print and digital, Hodder Education did not just cope with the challenges—it thrived on them. Like many educational publishing


powerhouses it has grown through acquisition including, in the final weeks of 2014, its purchase of Rising Stars. The move will push it much deeper into the primary schools market, but like last year’s winner, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, Hodder owes its success to much more than a capacity to spend. Its previous acquisitions have been diligently integrated and it has consistently grown organically as well. Hodder impressed in 2014 with the breadth of its output, which on the digital front included e-textbooks, apps, whiteboard materials, assessment tools and webinars. The Dynamic Learning subscription platform was its standout digital product, launching in a second iteration


KEY STRENGTHS


last year and substantially increasing sales as a consequence. It excelled in print too, grasping the opportunity of curriculum changes by producing a wide range of new resources. Revision and assessment lists had strong years, while internationally it sold into 140 countries and acquired the Pearson Caribbean list.


SAGE Publications added more video content to an array of online resources. It celebrates its 50th anniversary this year


Scholastic Education responded nimbly to National Curriculum changes and ramped up export sales


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Hodder owes its success to much more than a capacity to spend


The judges admired Hodder’s ability to


carve out new partnerships and win major tenders—including with examining bodies AQA and OCR—and saw proof of its achievements at a human level, through strong author relationships, customer engagement and staff development. “It is formidably strong across the digital piece and is obviously a great place to work,” was the judges’ verdict.


Impressive increase in sales and profits in a tough education sector Wide-ranging suite of student and teacher-centric digital products Judicious acquisitions and shrewd integration of new assets Excellent author care and an outstanding staff retention rate


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