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Annual Report of the Press Syndicate for the year 1999

The PRESS SYNDICATE beg leave to report to the Council as follows:

During the academical year 1998-9 the Syndicate met eighteen times, the main business of these meetings as usual being to consider all new proposals for publication, whether of individual books, series, journals, Bibles, software, or other items, and to have regular reviews of the Press's principal activities.

This Report surveys the whole of the Press's printing and publishing activities in 1999 worldwide, under the following headings:

Executive summary

Chief Executive's report

Publishing activity by group

Humanities and Social Sciences

Science

Professional

Education

English Language Teaching

Journals

Bibles

Publishing sales from Cambridge

United Kingdom

The Press Bookshop, Cambridge

International

Branch reports

North America

Australia

Africa

Iberia

South America

East Asia

Printing activity

Overview

Sales, marketing and customer service

Production groups

University Printing Services

Appreciation

Departmental reports

Computer and Information Services

Distribution

Finance

Legal Administration

Personnel

Appendices

(i) Awards and prizes won in 1999

(ii) Press publications in 1999

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S REPORT

(Chief Executive, R. J. Mynott)

Publishing and printing performance in 1999

The consolidated results for Cambridge University Press, combining both Publishing and Printing, demonstrated a satisfactory improvement on 1998. Income from the supply worldwide of academic and educational publishing and printing services grew by 8% to reach £110.8 million. This represented a considerable achievement in view of the highly competitive worldwide environment in which the Press operates and the current difficulties in particular publishing markets and almost all printing markets. The year was also a good one for investments, with an overall growth of £7.7 million. Expenditure was well controlled, and increased by 5%, well below the 8% growth in sales. The overall surplus was £10.2 million, of which £3.6m was transferred to the University of Cambridge, and £6.6m was retained within the Press.

Net assets therefore rose from £126.6 million to £133.2 million, of which £7.9 million was held in designated funds for specific University purposes. The increase of £6.6 million was applied to fixed assets (£2.1 million), invested funds (£2.4 million) and working capital (£2.1 million). The investment in fixed assets mainly reflected buildings expansion on the Press's main site in Cambridge. During the year, it was decided to withdraw £4.4 million from invested funds to finance the Press's future expansion plans: despite this, invested funds were £2.4 million higher at the end of the year than at the beginning. The investment of the additional £2.1 million in working capital was necessitated by the growth in Publishing sales.

The Publishing Division succeeded in increasing the value of its publication output from £93.4 million in 1998 to £101.0 million in 1999, an increase of 8%. North American Branch sales remained strong, supported by a still-buoyant American economy, with particularly good results for Humanities and Social Sciences, Professional and English Language Teaching (ELT) publishing. There was also a welcome resurgence in International sales, after the severe difficulties in Asian markets of 1998, with especially notable performances in Africa (with spectacular growth arising from the new educational publishing commissioned from Cape Town), Australia (in Academic, ELT and Education publishing) and in Central Europe (in particular, Poland). Net contribution rose from £4.6 million in 1998 to £6.7 million. Cash generation of £4.0 million compared very satisfactorily with the £3.5 million of the previous year. These improvements in cash and accounting surpluses were secured by sales growth, excellent cash collection worldwide and tight control over all cost centres.

The Printing Division had a much tougher year, as predicted, with the value of work supplied at £22.9 million, a reduction of 2% from the previous year. There was intense competition for work, arising from over-capacity in the market, and correspondingly strong downward pressure on prices exerted by all publishers. Margins accordingly suffered across the whole industry, and both nerve and judgement were required to maintain an appropriate response. Some of the Printing Division's competitors discounted prices too readily and too far in a vain attempt to maintain market share, and paid the ultimate penalty in closure. These pressures had to a large extent been foreseen in the Printing Division's strategic plan and the negative net contribution of £0.6 million in 1999 was rela-tively insignificant. In the circumstances, it was very creditable indeed to achieve a positive cash contribution of £0.5 million. The plan, and expectation, is that the year 2000 will see the beginning of the recovery of sales and margin envisaged in the strategic plan, and Mr Bourne, Mr Willett and their colleagues explain in more detail on pages 21-5 of this Report the combination of investment, cost management, sales initiatives and new product development that is intended to bring this about.

In 1997, the Press Syndicate made a single transfer of £4 million to the special funds designated for the University, representing transfers for the three years 1997, 1998 and 1999 inclusive. The transfer of £1.3 million attributable to 1999 was therefore included in the accounts for 1997. In addition, the Syndicate paid £3 million to the University for early termination of the property lease on the adjacent School of Education. Finally, the Syndicate provided further support of £0.6 million, which included a transfer of investment income, funding for production of the University Reporter and the University Prospectus, and support for the Development Office. Total support attributable to 1999 was therefore £4.9 million, of which £3.6 million is reflected in the accounts for the year.

Publishing output

The Press issued 2,113 new publication units in 1999, a programme with very great breadth and depth, as can be seen from table 1.

It is a cardinal feature of the Press's constitutional practice, and probably a unique one, that all the publications from each of its publishing centres are approved centrally (by the Syndicate in Cambridge) and are thus presented to the world as part of an overall publishing programme that is at once unified but also international in its scope and articulation. As table 1 illustrates, the Cambridge office still generates over half of the total number of publications. But the output of nearly 500 academic publications from North America and 50 from Australia, considered separately, more than matches that of any competing 'local' university press. The annual output from some of the leading US university presses (table 2) gives a useful comparative benchmark (the figures are in each case the most recent available, mostly 1998).

South Africa and Spain are also now well established as active publishing centres in their own right, to be followed later no doubt by other regional centres like Singapore and São Paulo.

Across the list as a whole the Press now has royalty accounts with over 25,000 authors in 107 different countries of the world. The major sources of authors in 1999 are shown in table 3.

Tables 1 and 3 give a sense of the international range of the Press's publishing in respect of its source and authorship, and that range is reflected even more fully in its worldwide sales and distribution network. Table 4 indicates the principal world markets respectively for Academic, Education and ELT titles.

A summary of the distribution of revenue by category and market for the main publishing centres further demonstrates the effects of the Press's strategic regional developments over recent years (tables 5 and 6).

TABLE 1. 1999 publication units, by publishing centre

TABLE 2. Title output from US university presses

TABLE 3. Where Press authors come from, 1999

TABLE 4. 1999 sales revenue ranked by country

TABLE 5. 1999 results (% rounded) by market, subdivided by category

TABLE 6. 1999 results (% rounded) by category, subdivided by market

Printing output

The trends of Printing Division activity over recent years can best be summarised by table 7.

This indicates how activity levels can remain high, and indeed increase, while there is adverse pressure on sales values and margins. The number of titles printed shows steady growth but there is a decrease in the units, resulting from shorter run lengths which in turn are the publishers' response to the market pressures they face.

Of particular interest is the recent growth in the production of electronic pages for publication on the World Wide Web. This new service follows months of development work by a team of programmers and the introduction of a new typesetting system specifically designed to produce automatically a variety of electronic data formats. As a further response to this business opportunity, the Printing Division has established a trading partnership with an Indian type-setting company which has the necessary typesetting skills.

The proportion of Printing Division work undertaken for the Publishing Division was in revenue terms about 60% in 1999. Both Printing and Publishing Divisions are actively working together to harmonise working practices which can fully capitalise on these new electronic publishing opportunities, ensuring that the Press as a whole remains at the forefront of technology and its practical application.

TABLE 7. Printing Division - levels of activity

  Cambridge North America Australia South Africa Iberia Total
Humanities & Social Sciences 650 359 50 0 6 1,065
Science 241 85 0 0 6 332
Professional 38 32 0 0 0 70
Education 183 0 30 149 0 362
ELT 196 45 0 0 5 246
Bibles 8 0 0 0 0 8
Other 27 3 0 0 0 30
Total 1,343 524 80 149 17 2,113
Yale 283
Chicago 272
California 257
Princeton 248
Johns Hopkins 234
SUNY 219
MIT 188
Washington 188
Cornell 172
Harvard 170
Michigan 168
Indiana 160
Nebraska 157
New York 145
Columbia 125
Stanford 117
Texas 105
UK 9,708
USA 8,955
Australia 1,532
Canada 907
Germany 561
France 558
Netherlands 327
Italy 295
Israel 240
Japan 193
Switzerland 160
New Zealand 148
Sweden 141
South Africa 135
Russia 128
Academic Education ELT
USA UK USA
UK Australia Brazil
Japan USA UK
Australia South Africa Spain
Germany Ghana Japan
Canada Jamaica Mexico
Netherlands Germany Germany
Italy Canada Poland
Spain Trindad Italy
France Austria Argentina
Taiwan Hong Kong France
Sweden Argentina South Korea
India Singapore Greece
South Korea Uganda Switzerland
Greece Egypt Taiwan
Switzerland Spain Peru
  Academic Education ELT Journals Bibles Other Total
UK 36 39 10 11 4 0 100
Africa 20 72 9 0 0 0 100
Iberia 18 2 81 0 0 0 100
North America 63 3 14 18 0 1 100
Australia 33 36 16 0 0 15 100
Other international 24 2 52 19 0 3 100
Total 41 13 28 15 1 2 100
  Academic Education ELT Journals Bibles Other Total
UK 20 66 8 15 98 4 22
Africa 1 9 0 0 0 0 2
Iberia 1 0 8 0 0 0 3
North America 55 9 18 43 0 18 36
Australia 3 10 2 0 1 26 4
Other international 20 6 64 42 1 53 35
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
  1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 98-99
% change
Journals parts printed 970 1,035 1,116 1,021 1,064 4.2
Book titles printed 2,499 2,629 2,765 3,110 3,183 2.3
Book and journal output (millions of units)
Case-bound 1.7 1.3 1.2 1.1 1.3
Paperback 7.7 9.7 9.5 9.5 9.2
Wire-stiched 2.0 1.7 2.4 2.9 2.4
Craft-bound 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
Total 11.6 12.9 13.3 13.7 13.1 -5.0
Book and journal sheets printed (millions) n/a n/a n/a 96.96 102.47 5.7
Book and journal pages (conventional setting) 86,000 80,000 65,000 63,000 84,000 33.3
Book and journal pages (electronic setting) 93,000 86,000 144,000 302,000 395,000 30.8

Highlights of publishing and printing activity

The reports by Group that follow this overview give details of the major publications and new developments in each of our main areas of activity. A few of the highlights from this very rich and varied programme include:

Printing highlights include:

Branch development

The Press's publications now sell into 195 individual countries worldwide, and these markets are serviced by an ever-growing network of Branches and representative offices. The latter promote the Press's publications to potential purchasers, but do not themselves trade; they do not raise invoices or receive remittances from sales. Questions of taxation do not therefore generally arise. Once the scale and nature of Press activities in a region increase to embrace the active selling and distribution of Press publications, as well as local publishing activity, such questions have to be addressed in the context of establishing Branch status. Uniquely, the Press's Branches are free from the pattern of taxation applicable to a commercial trading operation, and it is a prime tenet of Press policy to move to Branch status only when assured by the regulatory authorities of the recognition of the charitable nature and purpose of the Press.

The North American and Australian Branches have long enjoyed such official recognition, and have been joined more recently by the the Iberian Branch (Madrid) and the African Branch (with its head office in Cape Town). In 1999 charitable status, or the local equivalent, was also secured for two more Branches, both of them key in terms of future sales and publishing development. In Brazil, where regional responsibilities for the whole of South America are based, the Press was favoured with a Presidential decree permitting the establishment of a Branch. And in Singapore too, where an office was established in 1998 to act as the centre for our operations in East Asia, the government granted the Press not-for-profit status, following a notable celebration early in 1999 attended by the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and the Minister of Education for Singapore.

The Press's regional structure therefore now looks like this:

North America (including the USA, Canada, Mexico and Central America)

Australia (and New Zealand)

Eurasia (Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian Subcontinent)

Iberia (Spain and Portugal)

Africa (Sub-Saharan Africa, plus the English-speaking Caribbean)

South America (including the Hispanic Caribbean)

East Asia (and Oceania)

The Press now sells nearly 80% of its publishing outside the United Kingdom, hence the award of The Queen's Award for Export Achievement in 1998, which the Press will be proud to hold for five years. The establishment of these new Branches as publishing centres as well as sales operations can be expected to raise that proportion even higher in the future. Indeed, among the highlights of the 1999 publishing worldwide two Branch projects which illustrate this deserve special mention:

The Iberian Branch commissioned a multi-level course for the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language, a project requiring active collaboration from the South American and North American Branches, thus emphasising the need, and the capacity, of the Press to exploit its unitary international structure. It also recognises the emergence of Spanish as a second global language alongside English.

The African Branch published another 80 titles in its pioneering Cambridge African Language Library (CALL) programme, bringing the total published in just two years up to a remarkable 275 publications in 22 different African languages. This is a venture of enormous educational importance in the countries in question.

Meanwhile, the 'senior' Branch in North America celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its opening in April 1949 in a small office with eleven staff in Madison Avenue, New York; the first day's takings were just $560 but the Branch made its first-year budget of $200,000! All of the Branch's five former Directors are still going strong, which must be a promising sign for the present incumbent, Dr Richard Ziemacki; and the Branch is of course now responsible for the largest single market the Press serves and the largest source of new authors.

Academic and monograph publishing

In celebrating the individual successes and the exciting diversification in the annual publishing list, it should always be remembered that the core of the publishing remains the huge academic programme. In addition to some 150 scholarly and scientific journals produced by the Journals Group, the Academic Publishing Groups produced nearly 1,500 publications worldwide between them, and monographs or other primary contributions to research represented by far the largest single component in these figures. This is a category of fundamental importance to the Press: it has traditionally been the core of our academic publishing, especially in the Humanities and Social Sciences; it comprises a major part of our overall title output; and our commitment to it has always been regarded as a central part of our distinctive function and responsibility as a major university press. As has been explained in several previous annual reports, however, monograph publishing has been under severe economic pressure for many years and sales of the more specialised titles have now declined to very low levels. The Press has needed to make corresponding adjustments to its policies, conscious on the one hand of the growing difficulty in sustaining a large-scale monograph publishing programme on just the same assumptions as before, but also on the other hand of a growing sense of responsibility as many other academic publishers abandon this kind of specialist work almost completely.

While the Press therefore continues to improve the management and control of its monograph publishing and effect some progressive changes in the balance of the overall publishing output, the 1999 publishing programme reconfirms the Press's commitment to its constitutional function to support and disseminate the most significant new scholarship in the areas in which it is active. The scale of the Press's current activity can be illustrated through two more tables. Table 8 is an analysis by subject of all the academic hardback publications issued in 1999.1 This demonstrates the very large output of monographs in areas like literature, history, philosophy, economics, politics, mathematics and zoology and also the great range across subjects. Table 9 lists by subject the new paperbacks published last year and the total number of paperbacks in print, and these figures underline the commitment to disseminate the academic publications to as wide a readership as possible, wherever significant sales to individual students and scholars can be realistically forecast.

To put these two tables in perspective, it is worth comparing the total academic output from some of the leading US university presses which was given in table 2.

1 This is not exactly equivalent to the number of 'monographs' published, but is a close enough approximation to make the general point. The figure will include a few textbooks and reference works published only in hardback, particularly in Science and Professional, and some textbooks published simultaneously in paperback, but almost all the hardbacks will be library and specialist purchse only.

TABLE 8. New hardback publications in 1999 from the Academic Groups

TABLE 9. Paperback publishing in 1999 from the Academic Groups

Electronic developments

Reference is made at many points in the departmental reports that follow to the challenges and opportunities presented by new electronic technologies, and in particular by the dramatic growth of the Internet. The Press is well positioned to be in the forefront of these developments: by virtue of its sphere of academic and educational interests, its integrated activities in printing and publishing, its unitary global structure, its massive and ongoing resource of publications ('content') under one of the world's most respected imprints and, not least, the potential for fruitful collaborations within its parent University.

Among the more immediate developments, the following may be noted:

These are just a few of the exciting possibilities being actively developed. It is crucial that the Press be both creative and responsible about such developments in this fast-moving transitional period. That means making careful distinctions between the kinds of opportunities presented in such very different arenas as production, marketing, sales, distribution, communications, product support and electronic publishing. In some of these, new modes of operation may be expected to replace earlier practices, and in some to complement them in more or less important ways. The phenomenon is one of not fully proven technologies finding their way in markets which are often more precarious and immature than the conspiracy of excitement supporting them would suggest.

There are also important new issues arising for authors' rights which we would wish to champion, in the context of the long-term supportive and trusted relationships the Press has always sought with its authors.

What is however perhaps most striking, and reassuring, about these many changes is the reaffirmation they give to the central constitutional objective of ensuring the integrity and validation of the Cambridge name and imprint.

Site and facilities development

1999 was another remarkably busy year on the property front, the most obvious public manifestation of which was the refurbishment of the reception area of the University Printing House. The imposing new entrance now fittingly welcomes its customers to a business which embraces the best of traditional skills and leading-edge technology.

We also completed the acquisitions of two important pieces of land adjacent to the main Press site, namely the former Charringtons oilyard and the triangle alongside the old Bedford railway line down to the Long Road bridge. Following the previous year's acquisition of the School of Education building, these transactions conclude the Press's current programme of strategic land purchases at Shaftesbury Road. All were designed to provide the Press with long-term flexibility and growth potential, as well as providing for more immediate needs arising from the continued expansion of the business. In particular, there is now a pressing need for an expanded Distribution Centre, whose design specifications were agreed in 1999 and for which planning consents were achieved early in 2000.

The other major, and related, piece of our property jigsaw has been to find a new and larger site for our North American Distribution Centre, which is under even more severe space pressures. This has proved to be a far more difficult and frustrating exercise, but we are optimistic that our search will bear fruit in 2000.

Organisational change

There were two new appointments to the Press Syndicate, with Dr David McKitterick and Professor Andrew Holmes replacing Dr Peter Johnson and Lord Lewis respectively.

Within the Press there were, as always, a large number of important organisational changes to staffing to sustain the Press's performance, anticipate changing circumstances and new opportunities, develop key staff and replace retiring officers.

The most senior retiring officer of all was of course the Chief Executive, Tony Wilson, who had worked at the Press since 1972 in an ascending sequence of cen-tral management positions: Senior Editor (1972-3), Director of Publishing Operations (1973-82), Managing Director of Publishing (1982-92) and Chief Executive (1992-9). Tony will be very warmly and respectfully remembered by all his colleagues. Among his many qualities and achievements, one should mention in particular his complete professional dedication and integrity; his mastery of constitutional, legal and fiscal detail, combined with the larger vision that gives those details their significance; his Napoleonic ambitions in extending and protecting the Press's physical boundaries; and his personal modesty in exercising all the above virtues.

The Syndicate appointed as successor Dr Jeremy Mynott, whose earlier positions at the Press included those of Editorial Director, Publishing Development Director, Managing Director (Publishing) and Deputy Chief Executive.

Trevor Dunkley retired in January 2000 as Managing Director of Printing after a remarkable career of 43 years at the Press, spanning an unprecedented period of change in the history of printing to which he personally contributed at all levels, drawing on his great experience with a salty shrewdness which will be missed.

In the consequent restructuring Stephen Bourne was appointed Chairman of the Printing Board and Director of Central Resources, with Rod Willett being promoted to become Director of Operations at the Printing Division. The two Divisions of Publishing and Printing are being brought progressively closer together in organisational and operational terms to make the fullest possible use of the joint asset they represent. The infrastructures of the hitherto separate Personnel, IT and Finance functions are accordingly being integrated under the direction, respectively, of Lynn Hieatt, Chris Milne and James Berry.

Succession plans were also completed for the Press's Branches in Australia, where Sandra McComb became Director in succession to Kim Harris, and in Africa, where Hanri Pieterse succeeds Tony Seddon early in 2000. Both women had previously worked at a senior level for Oxford University Press, as it happens, and both bring important new experience to the Press to help us strengthen our management and further develop our publishing in these Branches. Kim Harris and Tony Seddon are each retiring after long, varied and successful careers at the Press, ending as Branch Directors in these two key publishing centres.

In Cambridge, Peter Donovan was promoted to Editorial and Publishing Director (ELT); Keith Rose (Education), Roger Saunders (Finance), Sarah Stanton (Humanities and Social Sciences) and Kevin Taylor (Humanities and Social Sciences) all became Associate Directors; Annemarie Young, Editorial Manager (Education), Patrick McCartan, Editorial Manager (Journals) and Lorraine Soulsby, Accounting Development Manager, were given larger roles and were promoted to the Senior Management Group; and Chris Hamilton-Emery was appointed to the new role of Publishing Division Production Manager, leading interdivisional collaboration in forward-looking production management and systems.

In North America, Mary Vaughn (Director of ESL Publishing), Frank Smith (Director, Social Sciences) and Terry Moore (Director, Humanities) were appointed to the Board of Management, and Alex Holzman took up a new position as Senior Editor: Books, Journals and New Media Products, designed to bring our book and journal publishing into closer relationship.

In the Printing Division, Steve Millard was appointed Production Development Director to develop new production operations and business streams; Steve Godden was recruited as Associate Director (Production Planning) with particular responsibility for improving service levels, and Alan Dunger was appointed Head of Process Improvement, responsible for the management of a new combined machine and plant maintenance department.

This list could be extended, and this rate and variety of change are typical of any year. The Press continues to evolve and adapt, as it needs to do, to the many changes in its business environment while reasserting its fundamental values and objectives. The management of change in the context of the Press's special culture, in a way that is at the same time firm, imaginative and sensitive to human considerations, remains a central preoccupation of its senior officers. The individuals mentioned above all deserve congratulations for their particular achievements, but the staff as a whole are to be thanked for collaborating in the large number of organisational changes that are required to keep the Press competitive and dynamic in a very demanding business environment, and for producing a set of results and a publishing programme which I believe are a credit both to the Press and to the University.

PUBLISHING ACTIVITY BY GROUP

Humanities and Social Sciences

(Director, Humanities and Social Sciences, Andrew Brown; Publishing Development Director, Humanities and Social Sciences, Richard Fisher)

The Humanities and Social Sciences Group had a successful year in 1999, achieving strong sales growth in North America and Australia (10% and 13% up, respectively, on 1998 levels), and showing a very significant recovery in the International markets (13% up overall on 1998), especially in Asia, where the ever-present demand for our academic publications was complemented by a partial recovery in key local economies. Disappointingly, but hardly surprisingly given the difficulties of the domestic book-trade, sales in the United Kingdom declined slightly. The total value of publications supplied was £25.3 million: 55% in North America, 21% in the United Kingdom, 21% in the International region and 3% in Australia.

Subjects recording outstanding growth, as a result of new publishing initiatives, were Psychology (46% up on the previous year, exceeding £1 million in global sales revenue for the first time), and Music (34% up), which has now established itself as unquestionably the foremost academic list in the field. Between them, Literature and History again accounted for almost 30% of the total value of publications supplied, a particularly satisfying result given the preponderance on both lists of research monographs - a category of publication whose importance to the academic world has been much discussed over the past year, and news of whose demise has been greatly exaggerated. In practice, across all subjects, our policy remains to publish the most significant and innovative research, and to complement this whenever appropriate with volumes of broader and more general appeal, such as Cambridge Companions and Concise Histories.

It is therefore doubly satisfying that in 1999 the American Political Science Association ranked the Press as the best publisher in the field, in terms of both quality and visibility. The APSA survey, covering areas of study like comparative politics, political economy, political science and international relations, reflected the strength of Cambridge as a global publisher of academic excellence. This pre-eminence is something we can realistically aspire to claim in several other fields - for example in Literature and History, Linguistics and Philosophy, Music and Anthropology.

A significant development in 1999 was the launch of a formal association with the World Trade Organization, for whom we now print and publish a number of major reports and documents series. We expect this relationship to be of long-term importance for both the Publishing and Printing Divisions of the Press.

Perhaps the single most significant publication of the year was the first volume of the third edition of the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. This standard work of reference was first issued in 1940, with a second edition in 1969. The third edition takes its place, canonically, in a satisfying generational cycle. The product of over ten years' work by 200 scholars worldwide, it epitomises the Press's commitment to long-term scholarly research, and to the investment (of time, expertise and capital) that the Press uniquely brings to bear on such undertakings.

The following new series were established by the Syndicate during the course of the year: Cambridge Introductions to Language; World Trade Organization publications, covering the print and electronic components of three series in the first instance (Legal Texts, Schedules, Dispute Settlement Reports), edited by The World Trade Organization Legal Affairs Division in Geneva; The German Philosophical Tradition, edited by Otfried Hoeffe and Robert Pippin; and The New Cambridge Bible Commentary, edited by Ben Witherington III; New Studies in European History, edited by Peter Baldwin, Christopher Clark, James B. Collins, Mia Rodríguez-Salgado and Lyndal Roper.

The following new series were launched during the year: Genres in American Film, edited by Barry Grant; Cambridge Studies in Intellectual Property Rights, edited by W. R. Cornish; The Evolution of Modern Philosophy, edited by Paul Guyer and Gary Hatfield; Cambridge Handbooks to the Historical Performance of Music, edited by Colin Lawson and Robin Stowell; Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine, edited by Colin Gunton and Daniel W. Hardy; Contemporary Political Theory, edited by Ian Shapiro; Cambridge Studies in Cognitive and Perceptual Development, edited by George Butterworth, Kurt Fischer and Giyoo Hatano.

The following Cambridge Histories were published in 1999: Judaism, Volume III: The Early Roman Period, edited by William Horbury, W. D. Davies and John Sturdy; The Book in Britain, Volume III: 1400-1557, edited by Lotte Hellinga and J. B. Trapp; Hellenistic Philosophy, edited by Keimpe Algra, Jonathan Barnes, Jaap Mansfeld and Malcolm Schofield; The English Language, Volume IV: 1776-1997, edited by Suzanne Romaine; Literary Criticism, Volume III: The Renaissance, edited by Glyn P. Norton; The Book in America, Volume I: The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World, edited by Hugh Amory and David D. Hall; New Medieval, Volume V: c. 1198 -c. 1300, edited by David Abulafia; American Theatre, Volume II: 1870-1945, edited by Don B. Wilmeth and Christopher Bigsby; Japan, Volume II: Heian Japan, edited by William H. McCullough and Donald H. Shively; American Literature, Volume VII: Prose Writing, 1940-1990, edited by Sacvan Bercovitch; and Medieval English Literature, edited by David Wallace.

Other important publications included: P. K. Feyerabend: Knowledge, Science and Relativism, edited by John Preston; Nancy Cartwright: The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science; Katherine M. D. Dunbabin: Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World; Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English, edited by Lorna Sage; Andrew Radford, Martin Atkinson, David Britain, Harald Clahsen and Andrew Spencer: Linguistics: An Introduction; International Environmental Law Reports, Volume I, edited by Cairo A. R. Robb; Susan Rose-Ackerman: Corruption and Government; Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, second edition, edited by Robert Audi; Steven Nadler: Spinoza: A Life; Michael Kennedy: Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma; Stuart Macintyre: A Concise History of Australia; The Centenary Companion to Federation Cultural Studies, edited by Helen Irving; Rachel Sutton-Spence and Bencie Woll: The Linguistics of British Sign Language; James P. Allen: Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs; Marianne Mithun: The Languages of Native North America; Inga Clendinnen: Reading the Holocaust; Brian Hamnett: A Concise History of Mexico; Michael Laffan: The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party, 1916-1923; Patricia Wallace: The Psychology of the internet; J. G. A. Pocock: Barbarism and Religion, Volume I: The Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon, 1737-1764, and Volume II: Narratives of Civil Government; Jean-Claude Favez: The Red Cross and the Holocaust; and Aris Spanos: Probability Theory and Statistical Inference.

The 1998 Annual Report made reference to a number of significant organisational changes introduced as a response to the changing requirements of the academic community worldwide. The first results of these are reflected in the substantial sales growth registered in 1999, and this rolling review of our publication programmes and procedures will be continued in 2000 and beyond. Editorially, this will be most evident in the further commissioning of textbooks and introductory studies, and in the new development of Cambridge Histories, subject-dictionaries, bibliographies, and similar major undertakings of academic reference. From a sales and marketing perspective, the aim is to maintain and indeed advance our current international profile as the academic publisher of choice, whilst acquiring increased 'electronic fluency' as a means both of disseminating traditional print-on-paper publications and of delivering Cambridge content in new, notably on-line formats. There is thus no shortage of immediate or medium-term challenges, but the positive momentum generated in the two years since the unified Humanities and Social Sciences Group was established will undoubtedly be maintained into the new century.

Science

(Director, Science, Alan Crowden)

The number of new Science titles published in 1999 fell significantly compared with the previous four years. In part this was the expected result of a policy decision to concentrate more effort on the development of text and reference books requiring high levels of editorial input. The decline in the number of new titles was, however, rather greater than predicted. The pressure on university scientists as a result of external reviews such as the Research Assessment Exercise and the work of the Quality Assurance Agency may be affecting the number of book projects being completed. Overall, the value of publications supplied increased by a slightly disappointing 2%, but there is some cause for encouragement in the fact that sales continued to rise despite a substantial fall in new book output. The strength of the Science backlist is a considerable asset. Among the pleasing features of the new publishing programme in 1999 was the increasing number of undergraduate and graduate textbooks, consolidation of the growing list of books on the applications of science in business and the professions, together with another very strong list of popular science titles.

In the Physical Sciences, the value of publications supplied increased by 7% over the previous year, making an increase of 40% in the five years since 1995. Physics had a good year, with the value of publications supplied increasing by 6%. Highlights included publication of the seventh edition of Principles of Optics by M. Born and E. Wolf, and The New World of Mr. Tompkins by G. Gamow and R. Stannard. Publications in 1999 also included several new textbooks, such as Thermal Physics by R. F. Baierlein, Analytical Mechanics by L. N. Hand and J. D. Finch, Superconductivity by J. B. Ketterson and S. N. Song, General Relativity by M. Ludvigsen, and Computational Physics by J. M. Thijssen. Also noteworthy was Introduction to Econophysics by R. Mantegna and H. E. Stanley, the first English textbook in this important new field. Astronomy and Astrophysics had its best year to date, with more new books published than ever before and the value of publications supplied increasing by 12.5% to its highest ever figure. Publications included six new textbooks, Formation of Structure in the Universe by A. Dekel and J. P. Ostriker, Introduction to Relativistic Gravitation by R. Hakim, Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei by A. K. Kembhavi and J. V. Narlikar, Cosmological Background Radiation by M. Lachieze-Ray, E. Gunzig and J. Simmons, Introduction to Stellar Winds by J. G. L. M. Lamers and J. P. Cassinelli, and Cosmological Physics by J. A. Peacock. As always, there were also a number of highly illustrated general astronomy books, notably the fourth edition of The New Solar System by J. K. Beatty, C. C. Petersen and A. Chaikin, and Majestic Universe by S. Brunier. A significant number of new textbooks were published in the Earth Sciences, notably Dynamic Earth by G. F. Davies, Taphonomy: A Process Approach by R. E. Martin, a second edition of Meteorites and Their Parent Planets by H. V. McSween, and Introduction to Seismology by P. Shearer. Two very successful popular science books on dinosaur extinction, Evolutionary Catastrophes by V. Courtillot and The End of the Dinosaurs by C. Frankel, were also published. Chemistry and Materials Science are two areas we plan to develop in the coming years, and 1999 saw the publication of three new textbooks, Fractography by D. Hull, Polymers at Surfaces and Interfaces by R. A. L. Jones and R. W. Richards, and Principles of Quantum Mechanics As Applied to Chemistry and Chemical Physics by D. D. Fitts.

Altogether, some 130 new publication units were published in 1999 in the mathematical sciences, a decrease of 14% over the previous year. This decrease was in part planned as part of the continuing change in emphasis of the overall publishing programme, and was accompanied by a growth of 5% in value of publications supplied. Several important new textbooks were launched: Elementary Number Theory in Nine Chapters by J. Tattershall, Geometry by D. Brannan, M. Esplen and J. Gray, Introduction to Mathematical Finance by S. Ross, Modern Computer Algebra by J. von zur Gathen and J. Gerhard, LEDA by K. Mehlhorn and S. Näher, Level Set Methods and Fast Marching Methods by J. Sethian, and Mathematical Explorations with MATLAB by K. Chen, P. Giblin and A. Irving. These titles have been well received and strong continuing sales are expected.

New titles in the SIGS program included Tried and True Object Development by A. Jaaksi et al., and Enterprise Java Computing by G. Seshadri. A new series in this programme, Breakthroughs in Application Development, has been planned, and though the first books will not be published until 2000, the orders received in advance indicate strong demand.

In mathematics, the Outlooks series was launched as part of the Syndics' co-operation with the Mathematical Association of America. Books in this series explain and illustrate not only the effectiveness of mathematics in traditional areas of science, but also how the mathematical way of thinking can enrich, and be enriched by, areas as diverse as music, genetics and politics.

Scientists and mathematicians based in Cambridge continue to be a major source of publications, including Communicating and Mobile Systems by R. Milner, Visual Motion of Curves and Surfaces by R. Cipolla and P. Giblin, and new editions of Linear Analysis by B. Bollobas, Analytic Pro-p Groups by J. D. Dixon et al., and Introduction to the Theory of Distributions by F. G. Friedlander and M. Joshi.

In the Biological Sciences the value of publications supplied fell, despite encouraging progress in some areas of the list. Two popular science books, Ever Since Adam and Eve by M. Potts and R. Short and Origins of Life by F. Dyson, were particularly successful. The textbook programme continues to gain momentum, and it was pleasing to see three new titles in the Studies in Biology series developed in collaboration with the Institute of Biology. These were the sixth edition of Photosynthesis by D. A. Hall and K. Rao, Microbiology in Action by J. Heritage, G. Evans and A. A. Killington, and Essentials of Animal Behaviour by P. J. B. Slater. The growth of interest in conservation science was reflected with the publication of books launching two new series. Conservation in a Changing World, edited by G. Mace, A. Balmford and J. Ginsberg is the first volume in the series Conservation Biology, published in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London, while Repairing Damaged Wildlands by S. Whisenant is the first volume in the series Biological Conservation, Restoration, and Sustainability. Two other titles looked at the particular issues in the conservation of the world's forest resources: Our Forests, Our Future by the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development and Maintaining Biodiversity in Forest Ecosystems edited by M. L. Hunter Jr.

A significant landmark in 1999 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the creation of the project to collect, edit and publish the Correspondence of Charles Darwin. Under the leadership of Frederick Burkhardt since the outset, the project team has produced 11 volumes of the Correspondence with the prospect of another 21 volumes still to be published by the Press. An anniversary event, hosted by the Wellcome Institute in London, attracted a large group of past and present members of the project team, Darwin scholars and eminent biologists.

Professional

(Director, Professional, Richard Barling)

1999 was the first full year of operations for the Professional Group, which unites our publishing for students, trainees and practitioners in the professional disciplines of medicine, engineering and management. It is gratifying to be able to report that Group sales in this first year exceeded budget by 19%.

The year's publications included, in medicine, a range of large format clinical references from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as a good spread of more compact handbooks and references for clinicians. In the first category, important titles included Pui: Childhood Leukemias, Shah and Kelly: Emergency Neurology, and James and Zumla: The Granulomatous Disorders. In the second, we have had good early sales of Butler: Radiological Anatomy, Katz: Multivariable Analysis, Bouras: Psychiatric and Behavioural Disorders in Developmental Disabilities and Mental Retardation, and Hodgson and Maher: A Practical Guide to Human Cancer Genetics, second edition.

Titles published on behalf of Mac Keith Press included Howlin: Behavioral Approaches to Problems in Childhood and Whitmore: A Neurodevelopmental Approach to Specific Learning Disorders, which complement the Press's own strong and growing list in developmental medicine.

Editorial activity in medicine continued to cover a key range of medical disciplines, including neurology, psychiatry, hematology, oncology, pediatrics, reproductive medicine and fertility. Areas under development included emergency medicine, respiratory and intensive care medicine, and palliative care.

Our engineering titles spanned the range of student texts, graduate texts and practitioner references that have characterised the programme in recent years. Publishing highlights included Brennan: Physics of Semiconductors, Lumley: Engines, Rutledge: Electronics of Radio, Attwood: Soft X-rays and Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation, Fielding: Introduction to Aircraft Design, and Anderson: A History of Aerodynamics, successfully reissued in paperback.

Editorial activity continued in our key areas of electrical, mechanical, chemical and aerospace engineering. Areas under development included biomedical engineering and industrial engineering, which have strong links with management, itself an area of designated growth for the Professional Group.

The international nature of publishing for professional and practitioner markets was reinforced by the continuing success of our engineering books in markets such as East Asia, while in Brazil we had a promising start with a new medical wholesaler.

The marketing strategy for the Group depends increasingly on targetted direct mail activity, involving United Kingdom and overseas booksellers wherever possible. Bulk sales of clinical books to the pharmaceutical industry continue to be an important source of revenue, and several such sales were negotiated during the year.

Education

(Director, Education, Andrew Gilfillan)

During the year educational publishing enjoyed worldwide growth as the value of publications supplied increased by 16% compared with 1998. The number of units supplied increased by 25% as output rose to 2.8 million units, assisted by new publishing originating from the recently established African Branch.

The value of sales within the United Kingdom increased by 15%, a satisfactory result overall, in view of challenging circumstances. Recent mergers and takeovers within the educational publishing industry have created conglomerates stimulating fierce and effective competition. Sales opportunities in the first half of the year were driven by the literacy market in the primary sector, but conditions changed in the second half of the year when the focus of attention switched to the Government's numeracy strategy and the introduction in September of a daily maths lesson. This change, although not unexpected, had an adverse effect on the sale of literacy materials and a feeling of literacy fatigue was evident in primary schools. Funding remained a difficult issue in the secondary sector, a situation acknowledged by the Chief Inspector when he reported that one-fifth of secondary schools were unable to teach the curriculum properly due to a shortage of books. Forthcoming changes to advanced level syllabuses proved to be a further influence as spending on existing texts decreased in anticipation of change.

In the course of the year new publishing included Preparing to Read, a brand new phase of Cambridge Reading aimed at children learning to read in the early years of primary education. For these young children, a range of alphabet books to develop phonic awareness and readers for group and guided reading were added to Cambridge Reading, and a series of plays were included for children in the junior years. The Cambridge Young Writers award provided one of the highlights of the year as schools from all over the country submitted autobiographical stories written by pupils for the competition. In September, the winners in each category spent an enjoyable day in Cambridge, culminating in a garden party and treasure hunt at Downing College, followed by the awards ceremony where prizes were given by the Secretary of State for Education, David Blunkett. In January 2000, the winning stories are to be published in an anthology entitled I'm Telling You, positioned within the structure of Cambridge Reading.

At secondary level there was evidence to show increasing adoptions for Science Foundations at Key Stage Four, and encouraging indications that Core Science is being well received for Key Stage Three. Further plays in the Cambridge School Shakespeare series were published and further volumes appeared in the advanced level series Cambridge Perspectives in History. Minimus, a textbook for young learners of Latin, was published, and the new full colour edition of the Cambridge Latin course received favourable reviews and achieved notable success.

1999 marked the first year of a strategic plan to rebuild the educational list over a five-year period. The strategy centres around project development teams in the main curriculum areas of English, Science and Mathematics. Team members drawn from all functions of the publishing process (sales, marketing, design, production, editorial) work together to produce curriculum materials appropriate for the classroom, and available at the most appropriate time to satisfy market expectations and the demands of government timetables. Development team work in progress will ensure SMP Interact, the next generation of material from the Schools Mathematics Project (SMP), will appear in January 2000 to be used in the first year of secondary school, and the first two years of Cambridge Maths Direct will be published in April 2000 for the Key Stage Two primary market. Both courses, representing major publishing development, have been well received with encouraging advance feedback, and involve rebuilding the list in a subject area where the Press enjoyed the reputation of market leader. This reputation was recognised early in 1999 when the Department for Education and Employment commissioned the Press to produce the National Numeracy Framework document.

Further publishing development has been undertaken in preparation for the introduction of new AS and A2 specifications in September 2000 (replacing the present A Level qualification) which will have a profound effect on 16-19 education. Early in 2000 the Press launches new publishing in nine subject areas for the new OCR AS and A2 specification, and texts in these series have been subjected to a rigorous quality assurance process in order to qualify for an endorsement by the OCR examination board. The SMP course, 16-19 Mathematics, will also be re-aligned to match a new AS and A2 specification from the Assessment and Qualification Alliance (AQA) examination board.

There was dramatic growth in the value of sales to international markets, with an unprecedented 57% increase. Growth was stimulated by the African Branch's energetic publishing programme which is described in the Branch's separate report. Sales were buoyant in other areas as well as Africa, with good increases to European and Middle Eastern countries, and the important Caribbean school publishing market nearly equalled 1998's record performance. There was a downturn in South American markets and a marked decline in East Asia as a result of the strength of sterling and the continuing effects of the financial crisis. Educational sales from the Australian Branch continued to develop, increasing by 26% during the year, as described in the separate report from the Branch.

Educational sales through the North American Branch experienced an unwelcome 20% decline, due to a reduction in adoptions for the high school science course Coordinated Science. The value of sales from Latin publishing remains significant in this market, and English and History continue to make a good contribution. Cambridge Reading materials have been specially developed for the North American elementary reading market, and these will appear for launch in May 2000.

Despite difficult circumstances in the core UK market, and a decline in North America, satisfying growth of 16% was achieved worldwide. The coming year will be something of a watershed for educational publishing as it involves a substantial new publishing programme. The strategic aim will be to produce a balanced and appropriate programme across both the primary and secondary sectors, achieving critical market share in the main subject areas. All available resources will be focused to ensure delivery dates meet the demands of the market and these expectations must be fulfilled if we are to succeed and remain competitive.

English Language Teaching

(Press ELT and Educational Director, Colin Hayes)

English Language Teaching (ELT) experienced a strong recovery after the difficult trading conditions of the last two years. World sales were comfortably above budget, and 8% above those of 1998. The United Kingdom, Northern Europe, North America, South America, East Asia and Australia were all on budget or well above; only Southern Europe fell short. Once again sales of American English were extremely strong, with the United States emerging for the first time as our biggest single market. American English benefited other parts of the world too, and Japan and Korea staged strong recoveries, whilst we did particularly well in Mexico and in some of the smaller markets in South America. Australia benefited from a welcome return of students from Asia, together with some strong product for that market. Eastern Europe did well too, although conditions in Russia continued to be extremely difficult. Unit sales overall were 8% higher than in 1998 and represented over 50% of all book sales made by the Press. 92% of these sales were made outside the United Kingdom.

In our adult-level publishing, two powerful titles were added to the growing list of the In Use family. Martin Hewings: Advanced Grammar in Use was released in April to a market which had long been awaiting suitable grammar material at the advanced level, and it proved an instant success, attracting favourable comment from the profession and reprinting twice before the end of the year. McCarthy and O'Dell: English Vocabulary in Use Elementary completed the three levels of the vocabulary series and was similarly well received. An American English version of Redman: Vocabulary in Use Intermediate was also published. The New Interchange series by Richards, Hull and Proctor maintained its position as the leading American English course in the world, while a new edition of the Intro level was prepared for launch early in 2000. Among our British English courses, the beginner's level to Doff and Jones: Language in Use was published, completing the four levels of the series, and videos were added to the existing course by Gairns et al.: True to Life. For Cambridge Examinations we published Naylor and Hagger: Cambridge First Certificate Handbook in support of the Local Examinations Syndicate's most popular examination, and a series of materials to support their new suite of examinations for children. There were new editions too of our Skills series to support the First Certificate of English, and we published Jakeman and McDowell: Insight into IELTS, an examination which is growing fast, which we also expect to be very well received.

A notable new development in 1999 was the launch of Cambridge English Readers, a series of graded readers for extensive reading under the series editorship of Philip Prowse. The ELT Group took the decision not to embark on yet another range of simplified classics (often over-simplified) as other publishers have done, but to commission good, original fiction, at six language levels, attractively presented for adult and young adult learners. The first twenty titles received favourable reviews and are selling well beyond expectations.

Work continued apace, meanwhile, on our materials for younger learners. Four levels were completed of Littlejohn and Hicks: Cambridge English Worldwide, a shortened version of Cambridge English for Schools designed for those markets where fewer hours per week are devoted to English language teaching. The Polish edition of Cambridge English for Schools continued to perform extremely well, and a Russian version was launched towards the end of the year in partnership with the Russian educational publishers Drofa. For still younger children, we published an American edition of the first two levels of Puchta and Gerngross: Playway to English, our first venture into American English at this level. During the year agreement was reached with the Italian publishers ELI for the Press to publish an international version of the primary course Join In, also by Puchta and Gerngross, in early 2000. This will be a significant new development.

There were two notable events in our Reference publishing. The North American Branch published the Cambridge Dictionary of American English, a completely new dictionary utilising the best features of the Cambridge International Dictionary of English. It was released as a joint print volume and CD-ROM and attracted immediate interest. Shortly before, the Cambridge International Dictionary of English (CIDE) had been made available online, together with the Dictionaries of Idioms and Phrasal Verbs, all three dictionaries linked via one search program. By the end of the year this site had received more than one million visits from far and wide, and by no means confined to the world of English as a foreign language. The site is proving a strong platform for the promotion of Cambridge ELT in general, and indeed of the Press itself.

Two further electronic developments of note were the publication of a CD-ROM version of our well-known business English title by Naterop and Revell: Telephoning in English, and also a completely new CD-ROM for the development of writing skills at First Certificate level: The First Certificate Creative Writing Disk.

The Press maintained its leading position in the field of handbooks for EFL teachers and applied linguists. A record number of titles for a single year were released, notably several titles in the series Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers, now reinvigorated through the outstanding series editorship of Penny Ur. The Press once again won one of the available prizes in the field of ELT - Malderez and Bodóczky: Mentor Courses in the series Cambridge Teacher Training and Development won the International House Ben Warren prize for the best title contributing to teacher development. Gammidge: Grammar Works was shortlisted for the Frank Bell prize for the best title by a previously unpublished author.

During the year the Group carried out an extensive Strategic Review of the ELT market worldwide and the position of the Press in the field. As a consequence, the strategic objectives have been defined for Cambridge ELT over the next phase of its development; a number of operational adjustments are already being put into effect; and substantial additional resources are being added both in Cambridge and New York and in the new publishing centres now being established in the regions. Demand for the English language around the world remains very strong, and whilst changes and challenges are inevitable, the Press occupies a strong position in ELT and has plenty of further opportunities open to it.

Journals

(Director, Journals Publishing, Conrad Guettler)

The Journals Group made a steady and important contribution to the Press's overall performance in 1999, and the value of publications supplied worldwide increased by 5.5% over that of 1998.

The marketplace for journals is changing as academic institutions upgrade their campus networks and review and restructure their information and library services provisions: accessing information online is closer to becoming the norm, especially in the research-driven scientific disciplines. The rapid growth in the use of the internet provides opportunities as well as many challenges for faster and more cost-effective publication of scholarly material. Business models need to adapt to this new environment, and the Press's initial offer to journal customers which simply combined online access with the print subscription is now evolving to provide a wider range of options from print to online-only, together with licensing arrangements for university library consortia and those large companies that operate their own worldwide intranets.

The growth of the journals list continued in 1999 through the acquisition of four titles from other publishers: ARQ: Architectural Research Quarterly, previously published by Emap; the quarterly Antarctic Science published for the British Antarctic Survey; Glasgow Mathematical Journal, issued three times a year, published for the Glasgow Mathematical Journal Trust; and the bimonthly Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, published for the London Mathematical Society (LMS). With the acquisition of this last title, the Press now handles all three flagship journals of the LMS, deepening a long-standing publishing cooperation which also extends to several book series.

Submissions to many Press journals continued to increase, and pagination was increased for seven titles. Increased submissions were sufficiently important to warrant a change in frequency for five titles, with Combinatorics, Probability & Computing and Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK changing from quarterly to bimonthly publication, Journal of Plasma Physics and International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology adding two issues each, and Journal of Linguistics adding one issue.

1999 saw further growth in the Cambridge Journals Online (CJO) service. The number of journals delivered online reached 100 by the end of the year, and further titles will be added in 2000. The CJO service now includes quite a substantial archive of back volumes. The demands of online publishing continue to have an impact on our production processes; during the year the file processing, checking and loading were integrated with the Dataflow software developed for the Press's content management system, which has now become the archive for all our digital journal files.

Some intermittent performance problems with CJO prompted us to commission a thorough external evaluation of the system early in the year, and its recommendations were swiftly implemented by changing the internet service provider and by acquiring additional computer processing capacity. Usage of the CJO site grew steadily, and the site now provides a resilient service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with only a moderate drop in access during weekends.

The CJO software is now over three years old and the performance of our system and service has to satisfy the increasingly sophisticated needs of a demanding user community of scholars and researchers. The major commercial publishers continue to invest heavily in their online infrastructure, and the Press must remain competitive in a world of rapidly changing demands and expectations. Following a strategic review and critical evaluation of the current CJO service, proposals were invited during the summer for its next phase of development. The discussions with system and service providers have been constructive and encouraging, and the Press is committing itself to a significant further investment to maintain a leading position in the online field.

Bibles

(Manager, Bible Publishing, Christopher Wright)

The value of Cambridge Bibles and Prayer Books supplied in 1999 increased by 19% worldwide over 1998. This very encouraging development was largely due to an overall growth of 32% in the value of Bibles supplied in North America. The main reason for this was the substantially increased level of sales to the major retail chain in the US Christian book and Bible market, and it is expected that this will be sustained in 2000. The US market is large, receptive and generally buoyant; and the growth there continued the trend of recent years. In the United Kingdom, the overall market has been static or in decline for some time, so an increase of 3% in the value of publications supplied in 1999, while modest, is still notable, in that it reverses the downward trend of the past few years.

The most significant new publication of the year was an edition for North America of a New International Version Single-Column Text Bible in bonded leather and calfskin, which made an important contribution to the 1999 result. The NIV now represents over 13% of the total value of Bible publications supplied, and the Cambridge list in this popular modern translation will be further strengthened during 2000 by the publication of five new bindings (in various colours and leather styles) of the NIV Pocket Cross-Reference Edition, and a NIV 'Celebration' Edition in a top-quality goatskin binding. A cross-reference edition of the Revised Standard Version will be reintroduced to the list, both in fine bindings and in paperback in Cambridge Low Price Editions - the first Bible within this programme. In 2000, we also expect to publish a new text edition in the New Revised Standard Version, in hardback and in fine bindings, thus continuing the process of increasing the range we offer in the modern Bible translations.

PUBLISHING SALES FROM CAMBRIDGE

United Kingdom

(Director, United Kingdom Sales, Nigel Atkinson; UK Sales and Marketing Manager, Ken Rhodes)

The value of publications supplied in the United Kingdom in 1999 was 1% ahead of budget and 5% ahead of that of 1998. The majority of this growth was achieved from sales of Education and English Language Teaching titles. There were, however, many other areas where results were pleasing, although there were some disappointments.

It is in the nature of the book club market that the value of sales can change dramatically from year to year, and in 1999 the Press failed to repeat its excellent 1998 performance, with a marked 70% decline in book club sales generally and particularly of Humanities and Social Sciences titles. Without this disappointment the value of UK sales for this Group would have increased above inflation.

The most welcome 1999 result was the growth achieved with our library supply customers, which was nearly 5% ahead of 1998. This was a considerable achievement in a very competitive marketplace, where library purchasing consortia are increasingly dominant and evidence suggests that spending by libraries is, at best, static. Library consortia manage the purchasing of large groups of libraries and thus demand high discounts from library suppliers. Nevertheless, the Press has succeeded in negotiating an increased market share in this key area of supply.

Two major customers who continue to grow rapidly are the wholesalers Gardners and Bertrams. By offering outstanding service levels - rapid supply, increasing stock range from all publishers, consolidated invoicing - they have attracted an increasingly wide range of booksellers including, most notably, the new internet booksellers (particularly Amazon.co.uk, Bol.com and WHS-online) who are likely to play an increasingly central role in bookselling.

The rapid growth of these internet booksellers poses a challenge for bookshops selling academic books. By using high quality bibliographic data and sophisticated search software, internet booksellers are able to offer wider range, better availability and often lower prices than their 'bricks and mortar' competitors. As a result, the Press saw a steep decline over the year in its sales to academic bookshops.

Overall, the book trade in the United Kingdom remains volatile. Blackwell's purchased Heffers, and the wholesaler Bertrams merged with a library supplier, Cypher. Lindsay and Howes (a library supplier) were taken over by Yankee Book Peddlar (an American library supplier), who in turn were taken over by Baker and Taylor (another American library supplier). Borders opened five 'superstore' format shops, bringing their total to six, and Waterstone's opened the largest bookshop in Europe on Piccadilly. It remains unclear how successful this type of bookselling is likely to be in an environment where congested city centres and high rents for prime retail sites are the norm.

The future ownership of Waterstone's remains a subject of speculation, and the viability of several other retailers, wholesalers and library suppliers is being questioned. As the rate of technological development increases and the reality of a global book and information economy dawns, the face of bookselling in the United Kingdom is difficult to predict. Adaptability will increasingly be a key skill in managing the Press's relationship with its varied and constantly changing United Kingdom customer base.

The Press Bookshop, Cambridge

(Director, Press Bookshop, Jenny Jullien)

1999 proved to be the Bookshop's most difficult trading year to date, although it maintained its position as one of the largest single UK outlets for Press publications. The shop also hosted an ever-growing number of events to celebrate local authors and important visitors to the University, including a reception for Sir John Lyons to celebrate his many years of successful publishing with the Press, and several receptions for delegates attending the national and international conferences that took place in Cambridge during the year.

The breakdown of sales by Publishing Group showed very little change:

Social Sciences 25%

Science 21%

Humanities 24%

English Language Teaching 12%

Education 7%

Journals, including The Reporter 5%

Bibles 2%

Professional 1%

Miscellaneous 3%

As in previous years, English Language Teaching titles and titles of local interest dominated the year's best sellers. Six new titles appeared in the top 25: Raymond Guess: Morality, Culture and History, David Ford: Self and Salvation, Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber: The Cambridge Companion to the Organ, Roger Penrose: The Large, The Small and the Human Mind, Peter Stein: Roman Law in European History and J. Kelly Beatty et al.: The New Solar System, fourth edition.

Mail order continued to be an important service offered to customers and a useful source of revenue. Approximately 1,200 orders were despatched during the year, the majority being sent on the day the order was received with the balance sent within 48 hours. The new gift range brought additional sales.

The disappointing aspect of the year's trading was the general downturn in sales to customers visiting the shop. Although this was in part a result of a downturn in the UK book trade in general, the major contributing factor was the fact that the front of the shop was boarded up from March to October. It had been planned to re-render the shop in March in the expectation that the work would be completed by June 1999 in time for the Graduation weekend and the start of the tourist season. However, at an early stage it was discovered that about 20% of the facade was covered in rare hanging tiles, requiring work to cease while the possibility of re-tiling was considered. In the end, it was decided to continue to re-render, but even when that work was completed (in October), work still continued on the pavement outside as part of the King's Parade renovation. Thus for much of the year the shop resembled a building site.

We shall continue in 2000 to seek new opportunities to increase our sales and our service to the local and University community.

International

(International Director, Nicholas Reckert)

Some terminology, first: 'International', for the Press, defines all those areas of the world which are administered by the International Sales Department, and excludes those areas that are separately administered: the British Isles, North and Central America, and Australia and New Zealand. In 1998, International was sub-divided into five Regions:

Each Region - except Eurasia, which operates from Cambridge - is run from a Regional Office, and each is headed by a Director. All Regional Offices have local tax exemption and Branch status in force or pending; in other words, they have the capacity at least to undertake local publishing and distribution, and the Iberian and African Regional Offices are already actively engaged in both those activities. With each Regional Office increasingly undertaking all the functions of a fully fledged publishing operation, it is becoming less appropriate to talk of an International Sales Depart-ment.

Separate reports from four of the Regions are included in the Branch reports that follow, and this introduction is therefore limited to Eurasia, where the value of publications supplied was 5% up on 1998 and slightly ahead of budget. The countries with the best performance were Germany (though the 15% growth there was largely due to the unpredictable English Language Teaching ordering cycle), Greece and Switzerland. In percentage terms, the star was India, with a very commendable 55% increase. The major disappointment was Russia, which showed few signs of recovery from the collapse of the rouble. Another currency which slid - though not quite so spectacularly - was the euro; some 40 customers in the single currency zone took up our offer of a euro account, and derived an unexpected windfall from our pegged exchange rate. Their temporary good fortune was our misfortune, of course, and in Eurasia as elsewhere we felt the effect of the continuing high value of sterling.

Overall, the value of publications supplied to the International Region was 2% ahead of budget, and nearly 10% up on 1998.

Finally, an excellent set of results were recorded by the Rights Section, whose receipts were 17% ahead of budget. In part that was due to improved trading conditions, particularly in East Asia, but in large part it was also due to operational efficiencies in the wake of a major restructuring.

BRANCH REPORTS

North American Branch

(Director, North American Branch, Richard Ziemacki)

Overview

The North American Branch enjoyed another year of steady growth in 1999. The value of books supplied by the Branch increased by 5.3% compared with that of 1998, and was 2.7% above budget. While the value of journals supplied missed the budgetary target, it increased by 2.2% over that of 1998.

[Graph]

The performance of the book publishing Groups was mixed. Humanities and Social Sciences ended the year 7.4% ahead of budget; Science and Professional after a flat year was 1.8% behind budget; Education had a poor year and ended 23.6% behind budget (though this figure was affected by a change in certain distribution arrangements); and English as a Second Language (ESL) exceeded a very aggressive budget by 5.6%. Most notable in this last category was the excellent performance by Mexico, where sales of ESL books rose by over 14%, and it should also be mentioned that Central American ESL sales rose (from an admittedly low level) by over 55%. These figures indicate the success of the renewed attention we are paying to these markets.

The context of this steady sales performance was one of continuing substantial change in the publishing environment. The marketplace for Press books was subject to further shifts, with continued shrinkage in the importance of independent bookstores and further growth in the business going through the major chains. This continued evolution in retail was accompanied by turmoil in the wholesale arena. The unsuccessful attempt by Barnes & Noble (the biggest retailer) to acquire Ingram (one of the largest wholesalers) was followed by the merger of two of the other biggest wholesalers, Baker & Taylor and Yankee Book Peddlar: that combination has produced the Branch's largest single customer for its books.

Even more significant and far-reaching, however, was the enormous growth of book sales made via the internet. The Branch launched its own web commerce server in the spring of 1999, allowing secure credit card purchases direct from our website. However, sales made via this avenue are very small (and are likely to remain so as long as we offer no discounts), and the growth in internet sales came from the activities of the ever-increasing numbers of online booksellers, most notably Amazon.com, but also the proliferating sites devoted to the sale of textbooks to college students. Because of the substantial proportion of business done via wholesalers who supply these internet sellers, it is impossible accurately to assess the level of sales made via the web, but from a tiny proportion in 1998, it is probably safe to say that in 1999 well over 10% - perhaps even 15% - of Press books sold by the Branch were ordered over the internet. This trend will inevitably continue. There is unquestionably some cannibalisation of sales from brick-and-mortar stores, but equally the new easy availability of backlist titles is stimulating their sale.

Books The value of book publications supplied in 1999 was 5.3% above the figure for 1998, an increase of almost $2.3 million. A total of 2,755,576 books, excluding books supplied to book clubs, was supplied in 1999, an increase of 7% over 1998. The number of new releases in 1999 was 1,617, compared with 1,752 in 1998. The Branch had budgeted for a decline in the number of new titles, and while the number of new releases was somewhat less than planned, it was broadly in line with expectations.

Journals The value of journals supplied in 1999 increased by 2.2% over 1998. The Branch published 152 journals in 1999, as compared with 148 in 1998, including two distributed for the Mac Keith Press. Of these, 35 were managed from the Branch. A total of 700 journal issues and supplements were published, of which 151 were manufactured in the United States.

Editorial development

Books The Press Syndicate accepted 373 titles originated by editors in the Branch in 1999. This represented a very healthy increase of some 26% over the number in 1998. 105 of the books were in the Humanities, 130 in the Social Sciences, 121 were Science or Professional, and 17 were ESL.

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Two new book series were initiated by the Branch in 1999: The German Philosophical Tradition and Comparative Perspectives in Business History.

Journals The most important development in Journals during 1999 was the definition and selection process for a new subscription system for the Branch. This was successfully concluded and the new system will be implemented in 2000. Significant development work was also done on Cambridge Journals Online.

The number of ISBNs received into stock in the Branch was 503 in 1999, a decrease of over 8% compared with 1998, but in line with expectations.

A more notable feature of the year was the massive expansion of reprint activity: 745 reprint titles (2,304,380 units) were received into stock, an increase of 53% in the number of titles reprinted and a 54% increase in units.

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Marketing and sales

Direct marketing efforts remain a vital component of the Branch's overall promotional strategy. In 1999, we produced over 200 direct mail brochures and attended over 100 academic and trade shows. We placed thousands of advertisements for our publications in trade and academic journals.

Our promotional activity has been greatly strengthened by the addition in 1999 of important staff positions in publicity and college marketing. In another major development the Branch website was redesigned to be more user-friendly and enhanced by the addition of a commerce server featuring 'shopping basket' technology to make it easier for customers to order directly.

On the retail front, the introduction of our new simplified retail discount schedule received a very favourable reaction from the Branch's retail accounts. This was the year in which the internet bookseller Amazon.com became the Branch's leading retail account after a huge increase in the level of business. A growing number of individual consumers, including students, also bought Press books from new virtual bookstores such as Varsity Books.com, Fatbrain.com, and Big Words.com. This has contributed to continued uncertainty among university bookstores; while some university administrations (e.g. Stanford) decided to have their stores managed by leasing companies such as the Follett Higher Education Group or Barnes & Noble College Stores, others like Duke University opted for continued university management.

In Canada, both independent trade and college stores faced increasing competition from the growing Chapters chain which by the end of 1999 had 68 superstores and a fast-developing internet bookstore.

General

1999 saw the Branch celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation. On 4 April 1949, the Press opened an office at 51 Madison Avenue in New York with a staff of eleven directed by Ronald Mansbridge. From a small sales office, the operation has grown steadily over the years into the substantial publishing enterprise described here, selling Press publications in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America. There are now days when the value of orders processed in our distribution centre reaches one thousand times the levels of 1949.

The anniversary was celebrated at a function held in the New York Public Library during our spring sales conference, and was attended by five of the six directors in the Branch's history - notably Ronald Mansbridge himself. It was an occasion for nostalgia and satisfaction, but perhaps most importantly it reminded us of the continuing importance of Cambridge University Press, as represented by the Branch, in North America: not only in simple terms of sales and business, but as an upholder of genuine excellence, of all that is best in scholarly and educational publishing.

Australian Branch

(Director, Australian Branch, Sandra McComb)

Overview

The Australian Branch enjoyed a successful year in 1999, while undergoing significant internal change and development.

The overall value of publications supplied increased by 19% compared with that of 1998, due largely to an expanded schools publishing base which grew by 23%. The value of academic publications in Australia grew by 5%. English as a Second Language (ESL) regained much of what had been lost in 1998 as a result of the economic problems in Asia and the consequent decrease in the number of Asian students in Australia, with the value of publications supplied increasing by 29% over the 1998 figure.

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The growth in the schools area was due to the mid-year acquisition of the Hodder Education secondary school list, which is being gradually integrated into the Press imprint. The school season falls across the end of year in Australia, and the previously acquired Coghill list - now fully revised and integrated under the Cambridge imprint - saw a strong year-end which partially reversed the problems experienced at year-end 1998 and in early 1999, when the expected change of curricula in the senior school area adversely affected purchasing.

Cambridge University Press is currently a small player in the fiercely competitive Australian schools market, but the developments in 1999 establish a good base for future development. Given that the 1999 statistics of the Australian Publishers Association indicated a drop in value of 15% in the schools market in the state of Victoria in 1999, it is particularly encouraging that the Press held its position there, while at the same time benefiting from the Hodder acquisition which has New South Wales as its principal market.

Also encouraging is the fact that the Press is the only truly academic publisher of note in Australia, many of its earlier competitors having developed trade-oriented lists or ceased publishing in academic areas. While it remains a challenge to maintain an expanding monograph list, the Branch has an advantage over other Australian publishers because of its international sales and marketing support, and its ability to source authors who are researching and authoring titles on nearby Asian countries.

One of the reasons for other publishers diminishing their academic lists is that retail buying in Australia is now often dominated by chains who attract customers through their doors by discounting a small range of 'blockbuster' titles. Small independent booksellers - often the best outlet for academic titles - are threatened not only by the activity of the major chains but also by internet suppliers, mostly based in the United States. Fortunately, the contraction of other publishers' lists has strengthened the Press's profile with independent booksellers, with strategic alliances being suggested by one major customer that will provide additional promotion for the Press's list.

As an indicator of the spread of the Branch's business, the Branch's top customer is now a schools supplier, and four other schools suppliers fall into the top ten. While library funding is failing to support the needs of the market, library suppliers still hold second and fifth place in the top ten. The remainder are a university co-operative, a trade retailer and an ESL supplier.

The Australian publishing industry as a whole works against the background of a fairly stable economy, with a conservative government at the helm and no obvious crises on the horizon. However, it is difficult to predict the effect on the publishing industry in coming years of the forthcoming Goods and Services Tax. Legislation was passed in 1999, and the tax, which applies equally to books with only minor concessions for documented school textbook purchases, will be applied from 1 July 2000.

Editorial development

During 1999 a major review of the Branch's education publishing policy was undertaken, and it was agreed to direct resources to expanding this area, with special emphasis on mathematics, science, information technology and literacy textbooks, in both printed and electronic formats.

The first component of an electronic strand to complement our new primary maths series was published late in 1999, and the Branch has embarked upon a programme of electronic publishing for the secondary schools area, with the first e-books being planned for release in 2000.

The total number of education titles published in 1999 was 80, with the most successful being the six Essential Mathematics titles, addressed to the senior years of the secondary school.

Academically, the Branch has continued to develop its Australian and Asian publishing profile. Titles of note in 1999 included Drew Hutton and Libby Connors: A History of the Australian Environment Movement, Peter Pierce: The Country of Lost Children and Helen Irving: Centenary Companion to Federation; but especially noteworthy was A Concise History of Australia written by the prominent Australian historian, Stuart Macintyre, described by the Sydney Morning Herald as 'a masterful book'.

Marketing and sales

The Branch continues to promote all Press books relevant to the Australian market in a number of ways. The academic and general books market is reached through direct mailings to academics and representative visits to retail outlets, as well as through conference attendance. Towards the end of 1999 the Australian website went live and is expected to become an important source of sales activity for the Branch.

During 1999 the Education Group expanded its sales representation into schools in the two major states of New South Wales and Victoria, offering the possibility of broader coverage for the Education list as a whole, whether commissioned locally or from the Cambridge office.

Customer Service was upgraded during the year and now has a clear focus as a marketing service for the Branch, while the roles within the distribution area have also been clarified.

General

An important change for the Branch occurred in December 1999 when Kim Harris retired as its Director, after 15 years in the role, completing 36 years with the Press in all. In the previous July, the Deputy Director, Tony Davies, retired after 26 years with the Press.

During the year, the Branch was restructured to refine the roles of the Academic and Education Groups and to focus on the future needs of each of these discrete markets. In addition, new appointments were made to develop the financial, information technology and production areas, enabling the Branch more effectively to access developments in the United Kingdom and improve its own internal systems.

Finally, I would like to record my personal thanks for the unequivocal support I have received from my colleagues during my first year with the Branch. I look forward with enthusiasm to the Press's future development in this region of the world.

African Branch

(Director, African Branch, Tony Seddon)

1999 was an eventful year for the African Branch. In March, Hanri Pieterse joined as Publishing Development Director and Branch Director Designate. Then, in September, the Branch underwent the transition from functioning solely as a publishing centre to becoming a fully-fledged trading operation as well, with its own sales, marketing and customer services. As part of this transition, warehousing and distribution were contracted out to Publishers' Services and Distribution (PTY) Limited in Johannesburg. In October, consolidating this overall development, another important appointment was made when Colleen McCallum joined the Branch as Sales and Marketing Director.

The year proved to be an encouraging one in many respects. The value of all publications supplied to sub-Saharan Africa increased by 150% over that of 1998, while the value of books supplied to the Caribbean decreased by 1%. The combined value of all books supplied to the Region (sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean) increased by 97%. The value of academic books supplied to the Region showed an increase of 11%, while the value of education books supplied increased by 153%. In this connection, one of the most notable performances was achieved in South Africa where the value of education books supplied showed an increase of 503% over 1998. English Language Teaching titles also performed well, the value of publications supplied increasing by 38%. The value of Cambridge Low Price Edition (CLPE) titles supplied increased by 117% over that of 1998, accounting for 12% of the total value of books supplied to the Region in 1999.

Total revenue generated from the Branch's local publishing programme represented an increase of 672% over that of the previous year. Improved market conditions in South Africa, together with the publishing of more new product for Curriculum 2005, enabled sales of Branch originated product in the Republic to increase by 388%. A substantial part of this revenue came in April, when the Branch benefited from a large book procurement project in Ghana funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) for which 255,000 units to the value of R2,219,000 were supplied, mainly from the Cambridge Reading Routes programme. In another major development, the Branch collaborated with Insaka Press (the Press's agent in Zambia) and the Ministry of Education's Curriculum Development Centre in Lusaka to produce and supply 234,000 books in five Zambian languages as part of another international donor-funded project. Books to the value of R1,489,000 were supplied to the Ministry in November. In addition, a further 46,000 units of the Cambridge African Language Library (CALL) programme were supplied to Uganda and Zambia to fulfil book procurement orders funded by the Dutch Government and UNICEF respectively. A highly imaginative piece of marketing also resulted in the Branch supplying 2,000 copies of Teaching English in Japan to Cameroon!

Sales of the Cambridge Open Learning Project (COLP) were encouraging. A contract was signed with the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL) to supply 48,000 units of IGCSE Development Studies over a four-year period; the first 12,000 books were supplied in September. This contract was then extend-ed at the end of the year to supply a further 84,000 units of IGCSE Biology, (H)IGCSE Geography and (H)IGCSE Accounting over a three-year period starting in September 2000. In Southern Africa a small but significant first order for a range of COLP materials was received just before Christmas.

The Branch's publishing programme progressed satisfactorily. A total of 176 typescripts entered production and 149 new titles were published. Further development of Cambridge Reading Routes took place, and the majority of grade 3 titles (31 ISBNs) were published before the end of the year. The materials were approved in six of the seven provinces in South Africa which operate an approval system. Progress was also made with developing grade 7 materials in Science and English. Following approval of proof materials by the majority of provincial committees, Science Matters: Learner's Book and Teacher's Guide and English Matters: Anthology, Learner's Book and Teacher's Guide were published in the second half of the year. The focused marketing campaign that was then undertaken resulted in initial orders to the value of R1,449,000 being placed for grade 3 and grade 7 materials before the end of the year, with other orders expected.

Main course materials were commissioned in English, mathematics, science and social science for grades 4-9 of the new curriculum in South Africa. This commissioning, combined with the publishing already completed for grades 1-3, means that the publish-ing programme for South African schools, when complete, will span all three phases of Curriculum 2005 (Foundation, Intermediate and Senior). The publish-ing timetable for this programme will follow the government's timetable for implementation of the different grades over the next five years.

Progress in the development of the Cambridge Open Learning Project continued with the publication of HIGCSE Afrikaans Eerste Taal Modules 1-4 (plus an audio-tape) and HIGCSE Afrikaans Tweede Taal Modules 1-3. IGCSE First Language Zulu Modules 1-4 (plus an audio tape), (H)IGCSE Geography Modules 1-4 and (H)IGCSE Accounting Modules 1-3 were commissioned for publication in 2000.

Among the Branch's publications for the East African market, Biology for East Africa was published to wide acclaim before the end of the year and the production of the new edition of School Mathematics for East Africa neared completion. A typescript for East African Agriculture was delivered at the end of the year. In addition to this, the Branch contracted with the Uganda Government's Ministry of Education National Curriculum Development Centre in Kampala to develop a major four-year mother tongue course in four languages (Ateso, Luo, Luganda and Runyankore-Rukiga) for the new primary curriculum to be introduced in 2000.

Further progress was made with the Cambridge African Language Library (CALL) programme and 30 titles in three Ethiopian languages, 40 titles in four Malawian languages and 10 titles in Kiswahili were published during the year. The CALL programme now comprises 265 ISBNs in 21 African languages, and further titles in six Ghanaian languages are in preparation. In addition, it is planned to add another three Uganda languages (Lugbara, Luo and Runyoro) to the CALL programme.

Altogether, 1999 was a successful year for the African Branch. It underwent considerable internal reorganisation and restructuring in its transition to a full trading operation. Its recently created backlist began to be recognised for its quality and price competitiveness, and the Branch was able to bring out its new publishing on schedule, and in time to meet the tight deadlines imposed by the market. As a result of all this, the Branch was able to establish itself more firmly in the difficult and highly competitive market in which it operates, and the beginning of 2000 finds it in a strong position.

Iberian Branch

(Director, Iberian Branch, Cristina Martínez)

1999 was a year of consolidation for the Iberian Branch, with no large-scale changes in structure or in staff, and no radical developments in the profile of the publishing programme.

The value of academic publications supplied - both in English and in Spanish - was adversely affected by the departure on maternity leave of the academic representative and difficulties in finding a successor. The new representative appointed in November fortunately has wide-ranging experience in both publishing and bookselling and in both English Language Teaching (ELT) and academic books. In September the Branch's first academic editor was appointed, and her experience with Cátedra, a highly respected Spanish publisher with a strong reputation in Latin America, will stand the Press in good stead. The benefits of both these recent appointments should become apparent in 2000.

In ELT the Branch had particular success with an intensive and ambitious campaign for the Press's new range of supplementary readers. These have been widely praised by Spanish teachers for their excellence and their high production standards. 1999 also saw a significant increase in grammar sales, led by the appearance of Advanced Grammar in Use. The filming and production of the video to accompany the first level of the Branch's forthcoming secondary course, Clearways was completed during the year and, at the risk of anticipating the 2000 report, it seems likely to be very successful.

A further development, with enormous strategic significance for the Iberian Branch, was the approval by the Syndicate of a new multi-level course for the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language. This is the first time that the Press will have tried to apply the scale and ambitions of its ELT publishing to another language. The material is being developed with the active collaboration of the South American Branch, and is expected to involve the North American Branch as well, given that the increase in students of Spanish as a foreign language is a global phenomenon.

South American Branch

(Director, South American Branch, Riitta da Costa)

1999 was a significant year for the Press's regional structure in South America. The operation in Brazil was finally constituted as a Branch by Presidential decree in March 1999. By August, the office in São Paulo had moved to a new address in the financial district of the city, and small offices had been opened in Rio and in Santiago de Chile. The Branch held its first regional sales conference in September, to mark its role as the coordinating centre for the Press's sales and marketing activities in the Region and to prepare for its future role as a publishing centre.

During 1999 the Region suffered from several economic problems: the devaluation of the Brazilian currency by approximately 80% in January; a severe financial crisis in Ecuador in March; serious political and economic problems throughout the year in Colombia; and the worst recession in Argentina for many decades, with high levels of unemployment. These factors exerted severe pressure on book prices, especially those of the Press's academic list, and special pricing and discounts were necessary to keep Press books affordable. In addition, the supply of books to the Region via internet booksellers, particularly those in the United States, increased.

Given this adverse economic climate, it is satisfying to note that unit sales of both English Language Teaching (ELT) and academic titles increased in the Region: ELT units supplied increased by 11%, and those from the academic Groups by 51%. The volume of professional books supplied in 1999 was more than double the 1998 level. Over a hundred different academic titles were reviewed or referenced in the Region's media during 1999.

A special sales deal was successfully negotiated in Brazil for Wall Street to Main Street. The Iberian Branch's Historia de Chile featured in the list of best-selling titles in Chile for over three consecutive months, with several thousand copies sold. Increased attention was given to the promotion of the Press's Spanish-language academic titles, and new distribution options were found in other markets, from which positive results can be expected in the near future. The Cambridge bookshop in São Paulo, a joint venture with Martins Fontes publishers, organised a series of talks with well-known academics in the shop's seminar room throughout the year. One such featured A Concise History of Brazil, presented by its Brazilian author, Boris Fausto.

The collaboration with Editora UNESP, the publishing arm of the University of the State of São Paulo, continued in 1999, with the publication of several new translations of Press titles in the history of science and the history of thought.

In ELT, the Press continued as the publisher of the number one ELT text-book in Brazil - the Interchange series. Combined units supplied of the Intro, New Interchange and Interchange level 1 students' books rose by over 10% in 1999. During the year the Press made a serious attempt to enter the regular school market in the Region with Cambridge English Worldwide, and responded to the growing demand for coursebooks for young children by launching Playway to English. Very successful launches were also undertaken of the Cambridge English Readers series and the Cambridge Dictionary of American English.

Outside Brazil, there was a sizeable purchase of the Press's reference books and resource materials by the Chilean government. The most significant growth was achieved in Peru, where a very large American bi-national centre consolidated its adoption of a Press series for its entire nationwide operation. Of the emerging markets, the best performances were registered by Cuba (where the value of publications supplied tripled in 1999) and Venezuela (where the value more than doubled). Venezuela has, in two years, reached the same level of turnover as that achieved in a traditional market like Chile four years ago.

ELT promotion concentrated heavily on professional support to users of the Press's textbooks. Several thousand teachers in the Region were trained by the Press's own specialists or authors.

In conclusion, 1999 saw the consolidation of the Press's regional structure in South America and the foundations being laid for a local publishing programme. At the same time the Press's position in a difficult economic and competitive environment was successfully secured.

East Asia Regional Office

(Director, East Asia, Peter Davison)

1999 saw the first full year of operations for the Press's new promotional offices in Tokyo, Seoul (both for English Language Teaching) and Hong Kong (covering all publishing, for the whole of the People's Republic of China). These offices now produce publicity material in each of their local languages, principally for the convenience of the local book trade. Regional catalogues in mathematics, physics, engineering, English literature and linguistics, politics and economics are mailed directly to academics on the Press's databases now totalling some tens of thousands of names. The Press was able to increase participation in academic conferences dramatically over previous years.

1998 had been a difficult year in much of Asia, with the crisis in Korea hitting business particularly badly. 1999 saw a broad-based recovery, from which the Press benefited substantially. Value of publications supplied rose by 27% in the Region as a whole, and somewhat faster than that in the territories covered by the new offices. The increase was evenly spread across academic and ELT publishing. Best-selling titles came mainly from the ELT Group in the North American Branch: New Interchange had a particularly satisfactory launch over much of the Region.

Editorial activity based in the Singapore office now covers educational publishing, ELT and mathematical sciences. In the course of 1999 development work took place on a number of education titles commissioned for the Region from the United Kingdom. These will be published in the course of 2000. Author/translator teams were put in place for bilingual adaptations into four regional languages (Japanese, Korean, Thai and Cantonese) of some of the Press's self-study ELT materials. A publishing plan for locally originated ELT materials will be put in place during 2000. The academic mathematics programme saw a number of proposals accepted by the Syndicate in late 1999, and the first of these titles will be published in the course of 2000.

Shipping books from Europe or North America is generally expensive and often slow to Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. During 1999 a pilot project was carried out allowing the Press to reduce costs and freight times to Hong Kong, with generally positive results. It is expected that this approach will be extended to Singapore and Taiwan in the course of 2000.

An application for Branch status was submitted to the Singapore Registrar of Companies during 1999. At the same time, the East Asia Regional Office received approval in principle for charitable status from the Inland Revenue Authority. These two steps have established the constitutional base for the Regional Office to take on a fuller range of activities in the coming years.

PRINTING ACTIVITY

(Chairman, Stephen Bourne; Operations Director, Rod Willett; Production Development Director, Steve Millard; Finance and Administration Director, Sandra Ward; Sales and Marketing Director, Alan Whitelaw)

Overview

Market conditions

'The Middle is no place to be', proclaimed one of the printing industry journals in November 1999. It went on to discuss the fact that profitability and returns on investment had declined nationwide, and that the printers at greatest risk were those who held the middle ground - a view shared by the Printing Division.

Printing is said to be the fourth largest industry in the United Kingdom, ranging from a large number of sole proprietors with sales of less than £2 million per annum to the small elite, among whom Cambridge University Press's Printing Division numbers itself, with turnover in excess of £10 million. The problems faced by those in the middle are, first, the traditional pincer effect of competitors from above and below and, second, the fact that they lack the manoeuvrability to change direction as rapidly as small players, whilst at the same time having insufficient capital resources to bolster their position through investment in new technologies.

The Press, by contrast, is in the fortunate position of having generated a steady stream of operating surpluses over many years, with the result that the Press Syndicate is in a position to fund a reinvestment programme at this critical point in our future. And critical it is: for printing is merely a sub-set of the communication business, whose technologies are advancing on a daily basis. Those who are unable to meet the correspondingly increasing expectations of their customers will play no part in the dissemination of knowledge in the future.

But investment is not a solution in itself. Equally important are a clear view of the landscape (an 'identified market niche', in today's business parlance) and a business proposition which will distinguish one from the crowd (a 'unique selling proposition', or 'USP'). The Press's niche in the academic and educational markets is unmistakable; our USPs are the quality of our output and the comprehensive manufacturing service we are able to offer to publishers.

We also have a vision, namely to evolve into a disseminator of knowledge in whatever form that may take in the future, without limiting ourselves to the printed medium. The challenge lies in making the correct judgements as to which investments will achieve that objective.

This is, therefore a difficult period for the printing industry in general, and 1999 was a difficult year for the printing business of Cambridge University Press. However, we believe that the Press and its staff are well positioned to take up the opportunities that beckon.

Financial performance

Despite the challenging trading conditions, the value of sales supplied by the Division to third-party customers rose by 1% in 1999. This was an excellent achievement in the face of falling prices and competitors' efforts to keep their presses busy. Business with the Press's own Publishing Division declined by some 5%, reflecting a combination of reduced print-runs, lower prices and formats which were not optimally suited to the Printing Division's plant. Whilst the Division continues to maintain a broad balance between internal and external customers' business, the focus of both remains squarely on academic and educational products. Nonetheless, we have recently won a number of high-profile orders from the Fine Art market, which makes a welcome statement about the quality of the colour service we are now offering in pre-press and in the machine room.

The turnover of University Printing Services (UPS) passed the £3 million mark for the first time in 1999. Sales to the University and colleges rose by 16%, with significantly higher volumes of work being undertaken. The proportion of the Division's business now accounted for by UPS has risen to 15% (from 12% in 1998), and we can justly be proud of the service this unit provides to the University and the local community.

The underlying trends for product mix revealed changes which, in the most part, were not surprising. Revenue from journal manufacturing declined by 3%, making up 24% of the overall sales value. Books remained the core product line at 48%, but Bible sales grew to represent 10% of business (from 5% in 1998), providing a welcome demonstration of continued interest in the fine Bible crafts in which the Press excels.

The strongest challenge came from the decline in margins. In spite of determined efforts to pare and control costs, margins fell as prices were hostage to general over-capacity in the marketplace. The discounting of prices to maintain market share is not a sustainable strategy in the longer term; and indeed in 1999 pursuit of this strategy was probably the reason that some of the Division's competitors closed their doors on business for the last time.

The Printing Division is able to look back on 1999 as a time for planning and laying down foundations from which to build a stronger, modern and more flexible business. Investment in both plant and people was the main focus, with a view to achieving demanding business objectives in 2000. Principal among these are the return of the business to self-funding status and the generation of funds that will permit continued investment in developing technologies and staff, as the Division aspires to become 'Printer of First Choice' in its chosen markets.

Operational activity

Following capital investments made during 1998, the Division concentrated in 1999 on integrating new technologies, training staff and developing working practices around a smaller workforce. The year presented significant challenges to all staff, whether directly or indirectly involved in the change process. A key objective was to develop a positive attitude to embracing the new opportunities presented.

Overall, production activities increased year-on-year, with 8% more journal pages typeset, 5% more printing plates processed and 10% more sheets printed. The Bindery saw a reduction in the number of books bound, although increased average paginations and more sewn binding produced a net increase in production value. A continuation of this trend into 2000 will form the basis of plans to expand the capacity of the Bindery in the future.

The short-term disruption caused by introducing new technologies, and the inevitable learning curve associated with these investments, undermined at times our ability to provide adequate levels of service. By the end of the year, however, most of the phasing-in activity was complete and beginning to yield the positive results expected.

A number of new initiatives aimed at supporting the change process were introduced, including new terms and conditions for works staff, which seek to encourage and reward the development of individuals. The introduction of new pay structures was supported by a group of management consultants who worked with staff at all levels to ensure that everyone understood the operational objectives of the Division and the individual contribution they could make to achieving those ends.

In addition to the physical processes and support systems directly associated with the production of books, the efficiency of a motivated and well-trained workforce is critical to the achievement of high standards. Six members of the Division spent most of the year studying for a Diploma in Business Excellence, with the aim of using this as a model to manage the business in the future. This initiative will lead us towards achieving world-class standards in every aspect of the business and will ensure that the Press is known worldwide for the efficiency of its Printing Division.

As well as such internal initiatives, partnerships were developed with businesses outside the Press. It is a common feature of the printing industry that specialist tasks are undertaken by specialist suppliers and, in the case of the Printing Division, a significant relationship has been established with a typesetting company in Bangalore, India. Following the introduction of an advanced typesetting system that relies on a simpler coding structure, the Division has trained a number of representatives of this company, which now supports much of our typesetting requirements for journals.

The following brief journey through the University Printing House affords a view of a variety of departments involved in the business of producing fine books and journals, highlighting the activities in which their specialist teams have been engaged during 1999.

Sales, marketing and customer service

Recognising the twin phenomena of falling prices and the advantage to foreign competitors of the strength of Sterling, it was clear that the Division's best response lay in providing excellent and innovative service to its customers and thereby developing a range of solid business partners. A complete appraisal of the Division's chosen markets was therefore undertaken, and a programme of key account development put in place. As a result, new business streams began to flow from a number of market segments, each of which has its particular characteristics, as described below.

Academic journals provide a predictable flow of work for origination and manufacturing and tend to be at acceptable margins. However, electronic developments pose a constant challenge to the conventional printed product - a challenge to which we are responding by developing our own suite of electronic solutions and capabilities.

English Language Teaching and educational publishing are major sources of colour printing which can be highly seasonal when predicting workflows, but which offer welcome volumes of work to fill the presses.

Scientific, medical and professional publications keep our monochrome presses busy and enhance our reputation for producing quality products.

Fine art publications represent a prestigious but relatively new sector for the Press. For the second time, the Printing Division was shortlisted for the Printing World 'Fine Art Printer Of The Year' award, for its excellent work for the auctioneer Spink and for the British Museum.

The manufacture of Bibles is a small market, but a Cambridge speciality. It still accounts for over 10% of the Division's turnover, and our continued commitment to this market and to the highest quality of product gives us a clear USP and stimulates growth in our export markets.

A comprehensive export sales strategy is in place, to exploit those areas and countries offering growth opportunities. This is still a relatively untapped area for the Printing Division, but colleagues from the Publishing Division overseas are helpful collaborators in this export drive.

Absolutely crucial to the Division's progress in the Scientific and Academic markets is its ability to produce accurate electronic products from core data. This market is continuing to develop, and full implementation of the Cambridge Advanced Typesetting system will enhance growth in the coming years.

A number of new accounts were opened during the year and are now yielding significant returns. Notable developments in 1999 have included work with:

Blackwell Science

Elsevier Science

Taylor and Francis

Macmillan

Spink

Random House

John Wiley and Sons

The World Trade Organization

Oxford University Press

Edinburgh University Press

John Murray

The Folio Society

Academic Press

The British Museum

Deseret Books

Service to customers has been undergoing radical change. In November 1998, the former Production Office became the Customer Services Department and all Account Executives were refocused to concentrate on customer needs, rather than being largely 'production led' by the needs of the factory. Cultural change takes time, and throughout 1999 the members of these teams evolved into highly effective representatives of their customers' requirements. Enhancing and developing customer relationships has become a core activity, stimulated by five new Account Executives who commenced work with the Division in June 1999.

Consistent with the philosophy of becoming an outward-facing organisation, the reception area and customer facilities of the University Printing House were given a facelift, and now offer an appealing and modern first impression of the Press to the many visitors we receive. Among these were staff from a number of our customers, some from as far afield as California, who attended training courses in pre-press and printing techniques.

The year 2000 will see the launch of the Printing Division's website, representing another step in the development of the Division's role as a knowledge communicator for the twenty-first century.

Production groups

A new Associate Director, Steve Godden, was appointed in September 1999 to head the production planning team. He brings to the Division extensive experience of the journal and book printing markets, as well as a keen interest in computerised planning systems. As the Division is placed under increasing pressure to reduce manufacturing lead times, a more pro-active approach towards managing capacities and workflows will become essential.

The need for fast, accurate information has never been greater, and this prompted a thorough review of the Division's present system. In conjunction with our suppliers, we began an audit of our present capabilities, benchmarking these against other recognised printing systems. This review will extend well into 2000 and will ensure that the Division benefits from the most comprehensive management information available in our industry.

Electronic origination

The combination in 1999 of increased demand and reducing time schedules prompted the need for a better understanding of product mix and seasonal trends. The department was redesigned around a core group of skilled operators employed in Cambridge, increasingly supplemented by local freelance readers and the typesetting partnership in India. This mix not only provides the Division with greater flexibility but also increases capacity. The introduction of the Cambridge Advanced Typesetting system (CATs) placed great emphasis on training, which progressively increased during the year.

As part of the pre-press investment in computer-to-plate processes, the department began to transfer all existing journal titles over to the new system, resulting in a certain amount of recoding and parallel working. In the Drawing Office, a new service planning and processing files for book jackets and covers for the Publishing Division was successfully introduced.

Pre-press

Increased production, coupled with a trend towards shorter print runs and generally higher paginations, meant that the department was reliant on high levels of overtime and increased outworking during 1999. The introduction in June of our first computer-to-plate system did much to alleviate production bottlenecks, whilst also improving the quality of reproduction and printing. Our early decision to adopt thermal imaging technology, rather than the more common visible light systems, proved to be a great success and one which is now being mirrored within the printing industry as a whole. Introducing such advanced technology places great demands on staff who do not commonly possess these new computer skills. However, careful training and personal support has enabled a pre-viously traditional printing environment to meet these challenges in an almost seamless manner.

Printing

Following the investments of 1998, another 5-unit Heidelberg Speedmaster SM74 press was added to the department's ever-broadening range of equipment, together with a large-format Crabtree printing press, which was a direct replacement for presses over 20 years old. Both machines contributed to the improved performances during the year, with 9,000,000 more sheets printed in 1999 than in the previous year. Closer integration of the paper warehouse systems and improved controls over workflow also contributed to this achievement.

In order to complete the book jacket and cover printing service, the Division also invested in a thermal lamination machine. Production of covers in-house means that we are able to offer customers a more complete service, while reducing production lead-times and ensuring that all components of the production process are available when needed.

The year ahead sees a further expansion of capacity in the print room through working additional shifts over a 24-hour period, in order to capitalise on the higher output capabilities of the new investments.

Binding

A year of consolidation around a reduced workforce, together with the need for increased training activities to create a flexible, multiskilled team, at times compromised the ability of the department to meet demands for higher output. As a consequence, much greater levels of overtime and outworking were needed to attain high service levels. However, overcoming these challenges has led to much-improved performance levels throughout the bindery, and this progress will be further built upon in the coming year.

The Craft Bindery struggled at times to meet the increased demand for its Bibles, though the introduction of mechanical processes supported an overall rise in production output, whilst significantly reducing manufacturing costs. With the recent recruitment of a number of skilled bookbinders, the department is well placed for growth in the year ahead.

University Printing Services

(Director, Debbie Gray)

University Printing Services (UPS) is the publicity-printing and die-stamping section of the Press, which provides a competitively priced, consistently high-quality, flexible and, above all, friendly service to the University's Departments, the Colleges and other customers. The value of work supplied in 1999 increased by 17% over the previous year, to £3,323,000.

[graph]

1999 was another successful year for UPS, with the most significant growth in sales coming from external clients. As in previous years, most of this work is Cambridge-based, as UPS further develops a reputation as a four-colour printer of fast-turnaround publicity material, not only with the University and Colleges, but also with local commercial enterprises and educational institutions.

Our growing client list now includes the Royal Society of Chemistry, for whom brochures, leaflets, catalogues, die-stamped certificates and letterheads were produced. We also designed and printed the Prospectus for Hills Road Sixth Form College and a newsletter for the Perse School for Boys.

Outside Cambridge, the prestigious look that die-stamping brings to printed literature appealed to several London clients, in particular Christies, the National Portrait Gallery and Partridges, for all of whom a range of die-stamped stationery and brochures was produced.

The core business of UPS continues to be with the University and Colleges, and this year we added another College magazine, for Queens', to the many we already produce on a regular basis.

Since UPS started in 1983, the type of work produced and the range of clients served has changed markedly, yet this may not be fully recognised. To dispel any misapprehension that UPS is simply a jobbing printer, a brochure was designed and mailed to over 500 people in the University and Colleges, illustrating the range of high-profile publications now produced at UPS. This image was also repeated on the back cover of the latest Network Directory, and we look forward to applying our craft to the University's service in 2000.

Appreciation

Several references have been made above to the difficulties encountered by the Printing Division in 1999, and the effort that has been required to bring about the results which are now beginning to be seen. The progress that has been made is attributable to the commitment and long hours of overtime worked by all sectors of the staff, for which the Press is deeply appreciative.

Years of optimistic progress are often tinged with moments of sadness, and 1999 was no exception for the Press, as we lost two long-standing members of staff. Eric Walker, who worked in the Electronic Origination team and had been with us for 13 years, died in September. Mike Edwardson, who, as one of our two sales executives, became known to large sectors of the publishing community as the face of the Press, died shortly after the turn of the century. Both were fine colleagues and will be greatly missed.

We cannot allow this report to finish without paying tribute to Trevor Dunkley, who retired as Managing Director of the Division in January 2000, after more than 43 years' service to the Press. His own account of the changing world of the printing industry during that period was included in the 1998 report. Suffice to say, then, that Trevor was at the helm of the business during one of the most dramatic periods of change, namely the 1990s, and we place on record our appreciation and respect for what he achieved during those years.

DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS

(Press Business Development Director, Michael Holdsworth)

Computer and Information Services

Throughout 1999, the attention of Information Services was necessarily focused on Y2K (millennium) preparations. Every electrical appliance and computer system required investigation for compliance, and contingency plans were prepared for almost any eventuality. The principal focus had, of course, to be our core Vista business systems in Cambridge, Port Chester and Melbourne. Programming code was exhaustively analysed for possible date-related problems, and a significant number of corrections were made. Extensive testing principally involved the Distribution, Customer Services and Finance departments, and it is much to their credit that in the end the millennial transition passed more or less without incident at all our business centres.

The millennium exercise was not only contained within an extremely modest budget, but also allowed for a number of upgrades and enhancements. In Cambridge and New York, all desktop computers and printers over three years old were upgraded or replaced. In Port Chester, Vista was upgraded and moved to the Alpha platform. Other US systems that underwent Y2K-related upgrades or hardware changes included the Ceridian payroll system, the Fascor shipping system used by Vista, the EDI mapping software, and Pubnet (the US teleordering service). The total cost of the exercise was £178,000, charged to the accounts for 1998 and 1999.

Previous years' reports have stressed the continuing move towards globalisation of Press Information Services, and towards better integration of the core business databases. One final part of the jigsaw was the conversion in 1999 of the last of the US financial systems from the old AS400 to Vista. A large part of this consolidation work is infrastructural - improving the rigidity and resilience of existing core systems, upgrading servers, and building in better security and redundancy. This year particular attention was also given to helping users, with additional staff appointments made both in Cambridge and in New York. Cambridge-based help-desk engineers support over 500 desktop computers and printers, and are also involved in a rolling programme of replacements and upgrades. In New York, a dedicated computer room has now been commissioned to house the servers and network equipment for the first time in a secure and properly maintained space.

The largest Vista development for the year was the global import-to-order (ITO) project. We have for some years had a sophisticated ITO module which permits slow-moving titles, stocked only in Cambridge, to be sourced and drop-shipped from the Cambridge warehouse directly to any North American customer. Work during 1999 concentrated on extending the functionality of this system to allow ITO order processing and stock balancing between any Press distribution centre, current or future, and in any direction. The introduction, during 2000, of 'reverse-ITO', with selected slow-moving titles held for the first time only in Port Chester, will take the pressure off Cambridge space while the new warehouse extensions are under construction. Other Vista development in Cambridge introduced multi-currency invoicing, and improved integration of Cambridge Journals Online (CJO) with the Vista subscription ledgers.

A new direct high-speed link between Cambridge and New York was installed to support the increased volume of network traffic across the Atlantic - for the daily Vista updates required for ITO and for stock/sales information screens, for email, and for intranet access (in particular, for Content Management initiatives). This will become increasingly important as Press systems become centralised, rather than distributed, with web-browsers replacing client-server access. Investigation also began in 1999 into possible multi-point video-conferencing set-ups to enable better communication between Press offices and our business partners.

Within the Content Management initiative, attention focused on the creation of a journals archive and CJO post-production workflow. This is our first implementation of DataFlow file-management software from Media-Bridge systems. The system went live in the summer and now successfully manages the workflow used for CJO, whilst creating a central, in-house digital archive of journal articles that can also deliver content to external third-party aggregators. In 2000 the system is being extended to manage the archiving of journal covers. Journals production staff in New York also use the new system by remote access over the intranet.

In parallel with the Journals activity, a detailed requirements specification was prepared for the creation of a post-production Asset Store for the finished digital files both of books and non-print products. The Asset Store module, incorporating a new digital workflow for jackets and covers, will go live in 2000. In the interim, instructions have been prepared for the Publishing Groups for the centralised archiving of work-in-progress and completed files on existing servers. These procedures have allowed some improvements in marketing in advance of the larger project, namely the delivery of increasing numbers of jacket and cover images to our websites and to Marketing globally for publicity use in print form; and the mounting of sample chapter text elements, incorporating front matter and tables of contents. This is already paying dividends - titles with sample material are being ordered more frequently on our sites than titles without.

Journals have for some time been something of a Cinderella within Press systems development. This will substantially change during 2000 when significant investments will be made both in traditional print fulfilment and in online services. During 1999, the ageing Port Chester Journals system was moved to an upgraded AS400 platform to achieve Y2K compliance, but the centre of attention throughout the year was on research to identify its successor, and software that might eventually provide an integrated global solution for our Journals business. Towards the end of the year a joint New York/Cambridge project team selected Eclipse software from zzSoft, and this will be implemented initially in New York by mid-year 2000. Work continued simultaneously on identifying the requirements for a massively enhanced Phase B of CJO and to select an appropriate development partner.

Emphasis on web development continued throughout the year. In New York, the improved second version of the site went live in the Spring, offering true e-commerce through Vista for the first time. The site was built on Windows NT by a San Francisco based developer, using Interworld commerce software and Oracle. In Cambridge, development consisted mainly of enhancements to the existing site, including email alerting. The second half of the year focused on preparations for a wholly reworked and redesigned site, scheduled for launch in Spring 2000. Work on the Cambridge intranet continued, with the intention of providing, eventually, a one-stop-shop for staff in Cambridge (and those remote from Cambridge in the Branches and sales offices) for all their information needs. Customer Services now use this intranet resource whenever they require rich product information, as they daily face customers seeking increasingly comprehensive information on a particular Press publication - for example, similar titles, the target readership, or background on the author.

The importance of the internet was formally recognised at the end of the year by the creation of a new global web unit and a web steering group. The unit will ensure the integration of internet and intranet development and common data structures, to achieve maximum efficiencies and flexibility. The global steering group has been established to ensure that all web development throughout the Press, at all publishing centres and marketing offices, is managed in a consistent way, offering a uniform service and presenting a coherent design identity to our customers worldwide.

In 1999, BIC (UK Book Industry Communication), in conjunction with BookData and Whitaker, introduced BIC Basic Compliance as a new industry standard for timely and accurate bibliographical information for booksellers. The Press was delighted to be among the first of only four publishers to qualify for certification. We have long been acknowledged by the industry as a market leader in data provision, but compliance with this exacting new standard nonethe-less required a considerable amount of recoding and additional data capture. In addition, there has been an ongoing programme of loading marketing copy against backlist titles to enhance the information offered both on our websites and directly to customers.

For the marketing services teams, 1999 was largely a year of hard work and consolidation. The publicity designers produced 645 publicity items which, for A4 catalogues alone, resulted in a staggering 73,781,226 pages being printed. The Wyvern Magic marketing database continued to undergo refinements, and the data it holds is subject to an ongoing audit.

Distribution

(Press Distribution Director, Ian Bradie)

The very high level of physical distribution activity referred to in the 1998 report was maintained throughout 1999. In total, 18.91 million units (an increase of 0.7%) were shipped from our three distribution centres in the United Kingdom, North America and Australia. The volume of books and publicity material despatched to our customers from the Cambridge distribution centre reached 13,316,981, representing a marginal decrease on 1998 performance of 0.5% overall (or 67,326 fewer units). Within this total activity, the regular bulk transfers of stock to the Port Chester distribution centre in North America also decreased and 1,470,649 books were shipped under this category, a drop of 11.1% on 1998. However, the total number of journal parts despatched from the warehouse increased markedly to 834,945 (up 7.9% on 1998), of which 265,234 (an increase of 20.2%) were transferred to the North American Branch.

The number of books despatched from the Port Chester distribution centre also rose significantly during the year. The total volume of books shipped to our customers in the United States, Canada and Central America reached 4,977,078, representing an increase on 1998 performance of 4.37% overall (an additional 208,522 units). Within that total figure, bulk stock transfers of 1,174,813 books (an increase of 6.7% on the previous year) were shipped to the Edinburgh Building warehouse. The import-to-order system of supply to the North American Branch continued to prove its effectiveness, and produced the following activity for the year: consignments up 41.3% to 13,183; order lines up 6.8% to 31,345; and the number of books shipped, by airfreight, down 1.3% to 93,263. The total volume of books despatched from the Melbourne distribution centre reached 618,340 for the year, a decrease of 1.2% (or 7,553 fewer units).

At the end of the year, the actual stockholding of books in the three distribution centres was as follows: Cambridge - 10.2 million units (up 0.6% over the 1998 figure), including 881,000 units held at the temporary off-site store in Sawston; Port Chester - 3.9 million units (up 5.4%), including 705,000 units of Stanford University Press stock; and Melbourne - 880,000 units (up 0.3%).

The capital investment programme in systems and equipment continued throughout the year. In Cambridge, a multi-currency software module was integrated into the VISTA order processing system, thereby enabling us to invoice customers in euros, if requested. In Port Chester, a barcode scan-checking module was integrated into the warehouse management system, greatly improving the accuracy and quality of our shipments to customers; a new Q-10 automated packing machine was installed, significantly improving productivity in the area of small order consignments; and an upgraded and Y2K-compliant version of our carton manifesting and tracking system wasdeveloped and implemented. In Melbourne, a mezzanine floor and additional bulk racking were installed, allowing much fuller and more effective use of the existing warehouse space. In all three distribution centres, a great deal of effort was spent throughout the year in preparing and testing the various order processing, fulfilment, accounting and ancillary systems for Y2K readiness. In the event, that concerted effort was well spent, as the rollover to the new millennium was successfully achieved without any interruption to the distribution process.

Finance

(Press Finance Director, James Berry)

The Press is probably unique amongst international publishers in its unitary structure, which is reflected in the operations of the Finance Department based in Cambridge. One illustration is that approximately 20,000 royalty accounts are prepared in Cambridge for Press authors throughout the world. This centralised approach leads to high productivity, tight control and consistency of management information. The Department can, for example, provide immediate analysis of sales and margins for any category of publishing by the Press, from an individual title to the total output of one of the Publishing Groups.

A significant step in the process of centralisation was taken in 1999 with the creation of a treasury operation serving both Divisions and the Branches, aiming to maximise the yield on our investments, pool bank balances and so earn additional interest, manage foreign currency risk and ensure liquidity for daily operations. A further move towards closer integration is the plan for Publishing to provide a full accounting service to Printing. Interdivisional transactions account for one-seventh of the Press's worldwide expenditure, and the objective will be to process transactions as efficiently as possible, whilst still producing separate Divisional accounts.

The Finance Department made a useful contribution to the 1999 results by tight management of its operating costs. Over the last few years, Finance staff numbers in Cambridge have fallen by one-quarter, despite a relentless rise in workload. At the same time, staff quality and flexibility have improved, mainly through internal training, and three-quarters of UK staff have completed or are working towards a professional qualification. A number of key activities ranging from payroll to internal audit have been outsourced, with external partners selected by competitive tender.

Credit management staff performed particularly strongly in 1999. Receipts exceeded sales by 7%, thus making a significant contribution to the Publishing Division's cash surplus. Accounting staff also worked hard to satisfy management demands for more proactive budgetary control, faster and more accurate reporting, and advice on improving margins and reducing costs. The role of the Finance Department is essentially one of customer service, and it plays a key role in the Press's sales effort. As an example of such collaboration, in 1999 the Press became one of first UK publishers to invoice European customers in euros, shortly after the introduction of the new currency.

Legal Administration

(Legal Administration Director, Penny Carter)

A key function of the Department is the efficient management of intellectual property, and a number of administrative changes were introduced during the year to achieve that end. The ongoing review of the Press's standard contracts and licences proceeded throughout the year in order to ensure that the Press continues to observe best practice in the acquisition of rights; and in this respect a meeting with the UK Society of Authors was particularly useful. In addition, the development of the Press's publishing, internationally and into relatively new areas such as CD-ROM, video and online products, together with new collaborative initiatives, led to the drafting of a number of new standard 'templates' and an unusually high number of unique agreements. During the year, negotiations were concluded with service providers for the distribution of Cambridge books online.

The welcome growth in revenue from the licensing of subsidiary rights and permissions in 1999 derived not only from familiar areas such as foreign language rights and reprographic rights (via the Copyright Licensing Agency) but also, increasingly, from the licensing of electronic rights.

There was, sadly, no sign during the year that the illegal copying and piracy of Press publications throughout the world was in decline. Nevertheless, our pursuit of recognised book pirates met with some success, particularly in Turkey, and the International Copyright Enforcement Programme in East Asia, in which the Press is an active participant, should yield results in the future. As part of the effort to combat piracy and, most importantly, to protect the Press's identity throughout the world, the trademark CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS was registered in additional countries including Korea, India and Pakistan.

During the year, it was necessary to take account of many changes in UK and European legislation introduced or in progress relating to trade and competition, e-commerce, copyright and data protection. Among other activities, preparations were begun to ensure full compliance with the UK Data Protection Act 1998.

Personnel

(Press Personnel Director, Lynn Hieatt)

The Personnel Departments of the Publishing and Printing Divisions in Cambridge were restructured in 1999 to form a single interdivisional team with the new title 'Personnel Services'. This change, capitalising on the skills and expertise of the people who previously worked separately in the two Divisions, represented a considerable strengthening of the personnel function and the service provided to the Press and its staff. Recruitment, induction, staff training and development, remuneration, pensions and benefit administration, staff health and fitness programmes and all the essential office routines are now the responsibility of one team, avoiding unnecessary duplication of resources and enabling an improved service to be delivered with the same number of personnel staff.

Perhaps most significantly, the restructuring led to an upgrading of the personnel database, providing for better record keeping and thus enabling administrative tasks to be accomplished more efficiently as well as providing much improved management information. As the system is developed further, it will provide a resource not only for key functions such as the maintenance of accurate and secure individual staff records, career tracking and absence management, but also for forward planning for the two Divisions. The system will help us match the skills and experience of our existing staff with what is needed for new projects, new technology and new ways of working. The longer-term aim will be to help identify future skills shortages, and thus enable us to develop relevant staff training plans in good time and to recruit the right new people to meet the needs of the Press.

1999 also saw the introduction of a Performance Review scheme in the Publishing Division, creating a formal opportunity for staff and managers to review the previous year's work and agree future aims and objectives. Preparation, training and implementation for the scheme, in addition to the ongoing task of responding to a proliferation of UK employment legislation, kept the Department extremely busy throughout 1999.

MEETING WITH THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

During the course of the year, the Finance Committee of the Council held their annual meeting, chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, with members of the Press Syndicate and senior officers of the Press to consider the accounts of the Press, and they once again expressed themselves very satisfied with the Press's financial situation.

Humanities & Social Sciences
American history 12
American literature 8
Anthropology 10
Archaeology 10
Art 28
British history 22
Classics 21
Economics 46
Education 0
English language and linguistics 44
English literature 91
European history 27
European literature & language 18
Film 10
General 8
Geography 2
History (other) 47
Law 16
Music 25
Other literature & language 6
Philosophy 53
Politics 58
Psychology 38
Religion 23
Sociology 28
Subtotal 651
Science & Professional
Agriculture 1
Astronomy 22
Cell & molecular biology 0
Chemistry 3
Computer Science 14
Earth Sciences 23
Engineering 19
General Science 1
Materials Science 2
Mathematics 46
Medical Science 22
Physics 21
Zoology & Botany 39
Subtotal 223
Total 874
  New paperbacks in 1999 Total paperbacks in print
Humanities & Social Sciences
American history 6 83
American literature 3 94
Anthropology 11 151
Archaeology 9 61
Art 8 92
British history 7 137
Cambridge University publications 0 5
Classics 9 196
Economics 32 312
Education 0 5
English language and linguistics 33 279
English literature 25 326
European history 16 214
European literature & language 10 68
Film 9 40
General 1 5
Geography 0 21
History (other) 32 238
History of Science 4 57
Law 8 36
Music 21 147
Other literature & language 1 28
Philosophy 40 437
Politics 52 477
Psychology 28 165
Religion 18 158
Sociology 26 170
Subtotal 409 4,002
Science & Professional
Agriculture 0 24
Astronomy 19 109
Cell & molecular biology 5 103
Chemistry 1 18
Computer Science 9 131
Earth Sciences 10 97
Engineering 10 76
General Science 3 16
Materials Science 4 24
Mathematics 51 505
Medical Science 19 117
Physics 15 211
Zoology & Botany 27 238
Subtotal 173 1,169
Total 582 5,671
G. JOHNSON, Chairman P. E. EASTERLING S. OGILVIE
H. AHMED D. F. FORD O. O'NEILL
D. M. BROOM G. P. HAWTHORN E. S. PAYKEL
T. M. COX A. B. HOLMES R. N. PERHAM
J. L. CRAWFORD D. J. MCKITTERICK J. M. WOMACK
C. I. E. DONALDSON J. S. MORRILL

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Cambridge University Reporter Special, 16 August 2000
Copyright © 2000 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.