Thursday, February 21, 2008

LJ up for sale?

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the LJ Academic Newswire this afternoon. Here's the brief paragraph, to save you a click:


Library Journal for Sale as Reed Elsevier Says It Will Divest B2B Publishing Business

Reed Elsevier today announced plans to sell Reed Business Information (RBI), the parent company of Library Journal and sister publications Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and Críticas. In a statement, Reed Elsevier CEO Crispin Davis said that the company was divesting its advertising-based business-to-business publishing unit and moving more aggressively into a "risk management business," fueled by a $4 billion acquisition of ChoicePoint, a company that provides data and analytics to the insurance industry. Davis did not identify potential buyers for RBI, and had no timeline for the sale, but expected "a strong level" of interest in RBI from both "strategic and private equity buyers."

I wonder who those buyers might be. (NB! Do not read anything into this. I know nothing!)

1 comment:

Patricia Martin said...

Good catch, Alice. And there's bigger story. I just returned from having dinner with the head of HR from a major newspaper. She shared the inside story on the convulsions the print media is undergoing. This isn't a restructuring,she told me, it's bringing the house down to the studs. In a fortnight, Chicago Tribune fired 2,500 staff and NY Times fired 100 reporters. How could lil' ol' Library Journal stand a chance in this environment?