Editing Pergamon Press

{{short description|British publishing house}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox publisher
| image        = 
| parent       = [[Elsevier]]
| status       = 
| founded      = {{start date and age|1948}}
| founders      = [[Robert Maxwell]], [[Paul Rosbaud]]
| successor    = 
| country      = United Kingdom
| headquarters = [[Oxford]]
| distribution = 
| keypeople    = 
| publications = 
| topics       = Science and Medicine
| genre        = 
| imprints     = 
| revenue      = 
| numemployees = 
| nasdaq       = 
| url          = 
}}

'''Pergamon Press''' was an [[Oxford]]-based publishing house, founded by [[Paul Rosbaud]] and [[Robert Maxwell]], that published scientific and medical books and journals. Originally called '''Butterworth-Springer''', it is now an [[imprint (trade name)|imprint]] of [[Elsevier]].

==History==
The core company, Butterworth-Springer, started in 1948 to bring the "[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] know-how and techniques of aggressive publishing in science"<ref name=Haines>Joe Haines (1988) ''Maxwell'', Houghton Mifflin, p. 137. {{ISBN|0-395-48929-6}}</ref> to [[Great Britain|Britain]]. [[Paul Rosbaud]] was the man with the knowledge. When Maxwell acquired the company in 1951, Rosbaud held a one-quarter share.<ref name=Haines/> They changed the house name to Pergamon Press, using a [[logo]] that was a reproduction of a Greek coin from [[Pergamon]]. Maxwell and Rosbaud worked together growing the company until May 1956, when, according to Joe Haines, Rosbaud was sacked.

When Pergamon Press started it had only six serials and two books. Initially the company headquarters was in [[Fitzroy Square]] in [[West End of London]]. In 1959, the company moved into [[Headington Hill Hall]], a country home rented from the city of Oxford.

In 1960, Brian Cox joined Pergamon Press as subscription manager. After the founders' deaths, Cox has become the primary witness to the phenomenal rise of Pergamon Press in the Science, Technology, and Medicine (STM) sector of publishing. The 59 Pergamon [[academic journal]]s in 1960 became 418 journals in 1992. Cox recalls that in the process some 700 were launched, many transmogrifying rather than ceasing. Cox says "The secret of Pergamon's success was to publish a large number of journals, so that the established titles could support the new ones during their formative years".<ref name=Cox>Brian Cox (1998) "The Pergamon phenomenon 1951&ndash;1991: a memoir of the Maxwell years", ''Logos: forum of the world book community'' 9,3 135&ndash;40</ref>

In 1962, Pergamon Press started the series called ''The Commonwealth and International Library of Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Liberal Studies''. By 1970, this series had 1000 titles. Brian Cox says that in all, Pergamon published 7,000 monographs for various authors.<ref name=Cox/>

In 1964, Pergamon Press became a [[public company]]. With its growth and [[export]] performance, the company was a recipient of one of the [[Queen's Awards for Enterprise]] in 1966. That year saw construction of a new office block and warehouse at Headington Hill. Pergamon ventured to produce an ''Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Physics'', in nine volumes and four supplements in the decade from 1961.

In 1969, Maxwell lost control of Pergamon and was ejected from the board.<ref>Nicholas Davenport [http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/18th-october-1969/22/money "Money: The End of the Affair"], ''The Spectator'', 17 October 1969, p. 22</ref> An inquiry by the [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Department of Trade and Industry]] (DTI) under the Takeover Code of the time reported in mid-1971:<ref>{{cite news|last=Whitney |first=Craig R. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/06/world/robert-maxwell-68-from-refugee-to-the-ruthless-builder-of-a-publishing-empire.html?pagewanted=all |title=Robert Maxwell, 68: From Refugee to the Ruthless Builder of a Publishing Empire |work=The New York Times |date=6 November 1991 |access-date=2018-05-25}}</ref> "We regret having to conclude that, notwithstanding Mr Maxwell's acknowledged abilities and energy, he is not in our opinion a person who can be relied on to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company." It was found that Maxwell had contrived to maximise Pergamon's share price through transactions between his private family companies.<ref>{{cite web|author=Dennis Barker and Christopher Sylvester |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1991/nov/06/obituaries |title=Robert Maxwell obituary |work=The Guardian |date=6 November 1991 |access-date=2018-05-25}}</ref>  Maxwell reacquired Pergamon in 1974 after borrowing funds.<ref name="ketupaRM">[https://web.archive.org/web/20020818222600/http://www.ketupa.net/maxwell.htm "Robert Maxwell: Overview"], ketupa.net</ref>

Pergamon continued with ''International Encyclopedias'' in biotechnology, chemistry, education, engineering, entomology, linguistics, materials science, and pharmacology and toxicology. The education volume won the [[Dartmouth Medal]] from the [[American Library Association]] in 1986 as the best reference work of the year.<ref name=Cox/>

Pergamon also has offices in [[Elmsford, New York]], in the United States.

Pergamon is the publisher of several works of the [[Club of Rome]], such as ''Beyond the Age of Waste'', ''Energy, the Countdown'', ''No Limits to Learning'', ''Towards more Effective Societies'', ''Dialogue of Wealth and Welfare'' and ''Microelectronics and Society''.

== Business approach ==
In 2017 [[Stephen Buranyi]] described Maxwell's approach in the ''Guardian'':<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Buranyi |first=Stephen |date=2017-06-27 |title=Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science? |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science |access-date=2023-05-08}}</ref>

{{bq|Maxwell insisted on grand titles – "International Journal of" was a favourite prefix. Peter Ashby, a former vice president at Pergamon, described this to me as a "PR trick", but it also reflected a deep understanding of how science, and society's attitude to science, had changed. Collaborating and getting your work seen on the international stage was becoming a new form of prestige for researchers, and in many cases Maxwell had the market cornered before anyone else realised it existed.<ref name=":0" />}}

The consequences of Pergamon Press business strategies during this period has been described by [[Mark W. Neff]] in the academic journal ''[[Issues in Science and Technology]]'':<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Neff |first=Mark W. |date=1 Dec 2020 |title=How Academic Science Gave Its Soul to the Publishing Industry |pages=Issue 36 no. 2 (Winter 2020): 35–43. |work=[[Issues in Science and Technology]] |url=https://issues.org/how-academic-science-gave-its-soul-to-the-publishing-industry/ |access-date=8 May 2023}}</ref>

{{bq|Between 1959 and 1965, Pergamon grew from 40 titles to 150. Whereas scientific norms at the time viewed scientific publishing as a public good that should not be subject to profit motives, Maxwell understood that scientific publishing was a market unlike others because there was an almost ceaseless growth of demand, and free labour. Scientists would pressure their institutional libraries to secure access to any serious journal publishing work relevant to their own.<ref name=":1" />}}

==Sale to Elsevier== 
Maxwell sold Pergamon Press to [[academic publishing]] giant Elsevier in March 1991 for £440 million; the funds were used to repay the large debt taken on by Maxwell in taking control of ''[[New York Daily News]]''.<ref name=Bower>Tom Bower (1991) ''Maxwell the outsider'', Viking Penguin, p. 436. {{ISBN|978-0-749-30238-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/30/business/profits-dick-snyder-s-ugly-word.html|title=Profits – Dick Snyder's Ugly Word|last=Cohen|first=Roger|date=1991-06-30|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-04-03}}</ref>

Maxwell retained Pergamon's US books (which became part of sister company [[Macmillan Inc.]]), the [[Chess Magazine|''Chess'']] and [[Bridge Magazine|''Bridge'']] magazines, and some smaller properties.<ref>{{Cite news| issn = 0000-0019| volume = 238| issue = 27| pages = 19–| last = Feldman| first = Gayle| title = Going Dutch: Wolters Kluwer and Elsevier are quietly building PSP empires on both sides of the Atlantic| work = Publishers Weekly| access-date = 2019-05-05| date = 1991-06-21| url = https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&u=ubcolumbia&id=GALE%7CA10908845&v=2.1&it=r}}</ref> The imprint "Pergamon Press" continues to be used to identify journals now published by Elsevier.

==See also==
* [[Verlag Harri Deutsch]]
* [[Patricia Wakeling]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://cenv.wwu.edu/people/mark-neff Mark W. Neff]

{{Reed Elsevier}}
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[[Category:Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Elsevier imprints]]
[[Category:Publishing companies established in 1948]]
[[Category:Robert Maxwell]]