OUP overcomes market challenges to report growth

Thursday 20 July 2023, Oxford: Oxford University Press (OUP)—the world’s largest university press—has released its 2022/23 Annual Report, reporting £825m turnover and a growth of 5.6 per cent growth on prior year (2.6 per cent at constant exchange rates). Its surplus from trading was £107m, in line with that of the prior year. Digital-only sales grew by 10.7 per cent, demonstrating the publisher’s ongoing commitment to embracing new technologies to meet changing customer expectations.

Its results reflect a strong performance in the face of a range of global challenges, including the impact of high inflation and supply chain disruption caused by the war in Ukraine and the rapid recovery in economic activity post-Covid.

OUP’s Academic division continued its transition to digital publishing. It successfully migrated more than 42,000 books and 500,000 chapters, to join the three million journal articles already hosted on the Oxford Academic platform. It has received more than one billion visits to its online content since the launch of the platform in 2017 and digital revenues now account for 69 per cent of its turnover.

Working closely with educators, schools, and parents, OUP’s Education division developed educational resources in 71 languages, supporting 53 million learners worldwide. Important milestones included OUP India and OUP Pakistan celebrating their 110th and 75th anniversaries respectively, the launch of the Oxford Smart Curriculum Service—the first time that curriculum, resources, and assessment have been developed together—and the development of new AI-powered adaptive learning products, Bond Online Premium and Bond Online Premium Plus, in collaboration with edtech AI platform, CENTURY.

The English Language Teaching (ELT) division saw demand for access to English language learning rebound strongly following the pandemic. Digital product sales grew by 11 per cent and digital product platforms reached three million users. It also grew its online learner and teacher networks, continuing its work to connect the international English language learning community, and supported students affected by both the war in Ukraine and the earthquake in southern Turkey and Syria.

Reflecting on the year, Nigel Portwood, CEO of OUP, said: ‘Like many other organizations, we faced unexpected challenges resulting from global developments. However, thanks to the hard work, creativity, and determination of everyone at OUP, we achieved underlying growth and responded to the evolving needs of our customers. With new challenges come new opportunities and I look forward to seeing what the next year brings.’

The report features additional information on the valuable insights OUP has shared through various campaigns and research reports. This includes a case study on the annual Oxford Word of the Year which, for the first time, saw voters to choose between three contenders that best described the ethos and mood of 2022. The winner ‘Goblin mode’ secured 93 per cent of the 340,000 votes cast, generating worldwide interest and debate.