MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
January 29 – February 6, 2009 Edition
Oxford University
Press Cuts 60 Jobs
In Two U.S. Offices
United Kingdom (Authorlink News, January 29, 2009)–Oxford University Press, the world’s largest university press, laid off 60 people last week in its New York and Cary, N.C. offices. OUP has 500 employees in the US divided between New York City and the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. OUP publishes about 500 new titles annually.
OUP President Tim Barton said the layoffs were “a result of the difficult economic environment impacting the publishing industry.” Despite staff cuts, the press is not planning serious cuts to its publishing program or other strategic initiatives, according to spokesperson Christina Purdy. The decision was partly prompted by anticipated cuts in state and library funding for next year.
Oxford University Press in the USA is Oxford University Press’s second major publishing center, after Oxford (UK). It publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. OUP USA is by far the largest American university press and perhaps the most diverse publisher of its type. It publishes at a variety of levels, for a wide range of audiences in almost every academic discipline. Of the 500 titles published each year in the USA, 250 are scholarly research monographs. OUP also imports close to 800 such works from our UK and branch offices. OUP USA has 3,300 scholarly books in print and stocks another 8,700 imports from other OUP offices around the world.
Oxford University Press had its origins in the information technology revolution of the late fifteenth century, which began with the invention of printing from movable type. The first book was printed in Oxford in 1478.
