DELEGATES OF THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Annual Report 1st April 1977 - 31st March 1978

The Delegacy

The Proctors for the year were Mr. J. C. B. Gosling and Dr. M. B. Powell; the Assessor was Mr. J. S. Flemming.
Professor W. F. Bodmer took office as Delegate on 1 April 1977 and Dr. R. H. Lonsdale and Professor Sir Peter Hirsch (vice Professor D. W. Holder) on 1 October 1977. Professor N. Davis was appointed member of Finance Committee.

General

During 1977-8, in money terms and in the world as a whole, both the sales of the Press and its trading surplus were almost the same as in the previous year. In real terms they fell somewhat. Liquidity deteriorated but the balance sheet remained very strong.

Different parts of the Press, as might be expected, fared differently. In the U.K. we published more books than in the previous year but not as many as we had hoped. We suffered from the loss of all the production staff of the former London Business, none of whom chose to move to Oxford, and the resources of the new combined department in Oxford were for a time inadequate to the demands put upon them. The publication of books was as a result frequently delayed and sales were held back. More recently the rate of publication has increased but troubles at the Neasden distribution centre have affected the growth of sales. O.U.P. New York had a disappointing year financially but its expanding editorial programme has now begun to increase sales. The Branches as a whole had a good year; total sales were less than in the year previous but almost entirely because of a reduction in the very high figure formerly reached in Nigeria.

The Printing division reported improved figures, as did the Wolvercote Mill. [page 7]

During the year the Wolvercote Paper Mill was sold to Brittains Ltd. and plans were being made to sell 60% of the Press's assets in Nigeria. The first divestment was in the interests both of the Press and those who work at Wolvercote; it has been apparent for some time that it would be better for the Mill to be part of a larger paper-making group. The second divestment is being forced upon us by Nigerian law; we shall be a major shareholder in the new indigenized company and shall seek to play a full part in its development.

Indigenization laws similar to those in Nigeria have also been introduced in India; in the latter country, however, exemption was granted to the Press in recognition of its special constitution and aims.

Within the U.K. much time and attention has been devoted to the process of job evaluation. It has been for some time desirable, and since the London move urgently desirable, to have a rational salary structure uniform to the publishing operation as a whole. Special panels of staff members were therefore set up, in co-operation with the recognized union, ASTMS, and these allocated jobs with a system of grades. It then remained to work out a corresponding new salary structure and to devise a way of transferring staff to it. During this same period a new and improved pension scheme has been introduced. It is now clear that in terms of both salaries and pensions, the Press offers terms of employment as good as those of other large publishing businesses.

1978 was of course Quincentenary Year and the occasion of many celebrations throughout the world. These have made us better known to others and caused us to think more about ourselves. We have had ample evidence of the respect in which we are held throughout the world and not merely for our antiquity. The Press's service to scholarship is well known; less well known in Oxford is the contribution it has made to the educational and cultural development of other countries, many of them in the so-called third world. During this century there has taken place an international extension in the role of the Press in which the University can take pride. And it is proper to recognize the dedication and enthusiasm with which the aims of the Press and the University are pursued by the staff of all our branches overseas.

Quincentenary Year saw the retirement from the Press of Mr. D. M. Davin as Academic Publisher, and Mr. V. H. [page 8] Ridler as Printer. Both served it for many years and with distinction. Mr. Davin is succeeded by Mr. Robin Denniston, who has held important publishing posts in London; the new Printer is Mr. E. J. Buckley, formerly head of the U.K. Publishing Services within the Press.

Academic Division

Although total sales exceeded those for the preceding year, the increase was disappointingly small and below expectation. True, in 1976-7 the sixth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary was an exceptional item and this year no reference book was published of corresponding financial significance. It had been hoped, however, that this lack would have been made up by a greater number of new books. The hope was frustrated partly by staffing and space problems and partly by industrial action which delayed publishing programmes. The net effect of these two factors prevented the Division from making a contribution to corporate overheads that would keep pace with inflation. The difficulties of the year were considerable but appear now to have been overcome by new production and staffing arrangements and there is every reason to hope that the Division will rapidly return to growth without loss of quality.

The same two factors prevented full advantage being gained from the special Academic Department recently set up in New York in order further to improve the promotion and sale of learned books within the United States. It was nonetheless clear that, given a proper flow of new titles and reprints, the new arrangements will be most helpful.

The Quincentenary year saw the publication of two works of marked distinction: The Oxford University Press and the Spread of Learning by Nicolas Barker (himself the son of a great Press author, Sir Ernest); and The Oxford University Press: An Informal History by P. H. Sutcliffe.

In the course of the year the Academic Division published 226 books, of which 24 were published on commission and 9 were official university publications and lectures.

Notable contributions in the field of classical scholarship were Rhodian Funerary Monuments by P. M. Fraser, Oliver Taplin's The Stagecraft of Aeschylus, and J. J. Coulton's The Architectural Development of the Greek Stoa, the first [page 9] comprehensive treatment of its subject. Another distinguished volume was added to the Oxford Classical Texts Series with L. D. Reynolds's edition of Seneca's Dialogues.

And somewhere between the classics and English literature falls the autobiography of the great scholar E. R. Dodds, Missing Persons, which won the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize and gave a fortunate audience the occasion to hear the recipient deliver a speech of characteristic modesty, wit, and gravity.

Biblical Studies were well served with Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, Volume VI, by R. de Vaux and others, and B. M. Metzger's The Early Versions of the New Testament; and A History of York Minster edited by G. E. Aylmer and R. C. Cant was a particularly handsome contribution to domestic religious history.

In economics publication continued active and a fourth volume in the Glasgow edition of the Works of Adam Smith, The Correspondence, edited by E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, calls for special mention, as does yet another distinguished book by Sir John Hicks, Economic Perspectives.

The continuing vitality of our philosophical ancients was affirmed by Terence Irwin's Plato's Moral Theory, Iris Murdoch's The Fire and the Sun, and R. G. Mulgan's Aristotle's Political Theory. Two more volumes appeared in the Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy, The Probable and the Provable by L. Jonathan Cohen (general editor of the series) and R. G. Swinburne's The Coherence of Theism.

The strength of the English literature list was sustained by further publications: the posthumous work of a distinguished scholar Geoffrey Tillotson, A View of Victorian Literature, was edited by his widow, Kathleen Tillotson; and she herself, in collaboration with Nina Burgis, produced Volume IV (1844-6) in the majestic Pilgrim Edition of Dickens's Letters of which she has been so long a general editor. An important new series, that of Thomas Hardy's Letters, was inaugurated with the publication of Volume I, edited by Richard Purdy and Michael Milgate. Another great Victorian was the beneficiary of a close and appreciative study, The Novels of Anthony Trollope, by James R. Kincaid.

A new Shakespeare Department was established with the principal object of eventually producing a new Oxford Shakespeare, as near as may be to offering a definitive text and [page 10 - further detailed publication reports omitted]

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Wolvercote Paper Mill

Last year's Report recorded the start of recovery in the later months of 1976-7. The background then was one of moderating inflation and somewhat improved demand. It was noted, however, that the condition of the industry was still one of convalescence at best, with recovery dependent upon sustained improvement in the economy.

Improvement did continue in 1977-8, though not so rapid as might have been hoped, and not without hesitation. The most significant external factor was the fall in the world price of pulp, accentuated for U.K. purchasers by the strength of sterling relative to the dollar. The sale prices of some papers also declined, but those of Wolvercote's coated and specialist grades proved more resilient, and their margins were fully maintained. While the overall tempo of industrial activity remained rather subdued, an increase in volume of shipments was nevertheless achieved, and operating expenses were well controlled. Development activities were also sustained, and the benefits will be felt increasingly in the future.

Overall, the Mill's performance in 1977-8 was very satisfactory; it reflects great credit upon its Manager, Mr. G. H. Nuttall, and his team. Gratitude should also be expressed to Mr. J. Moxon for over twenty-five years' service; he retired as Sales Executive during the year.

Welcome as these results were, the major event of the year was the announcement on 26 January 1978 that agreement had been reached in principle for Brittains Ltd. to acquire Wolvercote's assets and business. The transaction, which was completed on 3 April, is reflected in the financial accounts for this period. As well as taking a substantial shareholding in Brittains Ltd., the University retains ownership of the site and buildings at Wolvercote and is represented on Brittains' board.

The Press acquired the Mill in 1872, and its disposal after 106 years was of course considered very carefully by Delegates and Officers. The transaction was fully discussed with managers [page 21] and staff at Wolvercote, and generally welcomed. The interests of employees were fully protected, and employment continues with Wolvercote Mill Ltd.

In earlier years, paper-making represented a logical extension of the Press's publishing and printing activities. More recently, however, O.U.P. has seldom taken more than 10-15% of annual output, with the remainder representing commercial and industrial grades supplied to a wide range of customers in the food, beverage, detergent, and stationery industries. The Mill thus no longer seemed an integral part of the University Press. Moreover, the cyclical nature of the industry, with fluctuations both in earnings and in requirements of funds for working capital and expenditures on plant, made it unsuitable as an investment. Likewise, for the Mill itself, it was increasingly evident that prospects for growth and development would be be better with a more 'conventional' industrial grouping.

Conditions in the industry, as in the economy at large, are still far from ideal. Demand remains somewhat sluggish and uneven, with margins under pressure from increases in expenses of many kinds. Meanwhile, the rise in interest rates underlines the need for unremitting attention to working capital and liquidity. For the longer term, the Delegates believe that the prospects for Wolvercote Mill should be enhanced by membership of the Brittains Group, with whom commercial relations have been long and cordial.

Supplementary Note

In 1977 the Oxford University Press applied for exemption from U.K. Corporation Tax on the ground that its trading surplus is earned in direct pursuit of its charitable objectives and devoted entirely to their fulfilment. In September 1978 this claim was accepted. Little tax has in fact been paid in recent years because the Press has benefited from the possibility of tax deferment offered by the provision of Stock Appreciation Relief; nevertheless, the change in status will permit the Press to plan with confidence on the basis of this exemption and should enable it better to fulfil its proper purposes. The Inland Revenue decision relates to U.K. Corporation Tax only; the Press is still liable to pay taxes in countries where exemption has not already been granted.

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