Hi all,
In the spirit of 'don't expect anything from big business until they do it', here is an update I have had from colleagues at CAAT and elsewhere in academia.
Last June you will remember that Reed Elsevier said they would sell their defence fairs division by the end of 2007. Many of us were happy as it meant we now had a cleaner conscience in terms of publishing in elsevier owned journals (ie pol geog and geoforum) and book (the encyclopedia)
BUT - THEY DIDN'T SELL IT AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T!
Take a look at this article (extract below) and also
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article3107403.ece
And you can also read also a paragraph in CAAT news (page 6) "Reed slow on arms fair exit"
http://www.caat.org.uk/caatnews/pdfs/CAATnews207.pdf
We still need to keep pressing and discussing with editors of our elsevier owned geography journals and editors of the Encyclopedia of HG (1000s of us sent entries), as well as senior staff at Elsevier. The issue is far from over and we can all act to keep the pressure up. To do anything less is to condone the continued involvement of Geography in the arms trade.
Thoughts?
Cheers
Paul
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++++ Reed fails to sell arms fairs ++++
THE professional publisher Reed Elsevier has failed to sell off its controversial arms fairs by the end of this year as planned.
The tiny but highly profitable division was put up for sale in June after key customers and authors took offence at Reed's involvement in shows such as DSEi (Defence Systems & Equipment International), London's main arms fair, where some exhibitors were ejected this year for trying to promote leg irons.
Sir Crispin Davis, Reed's chief executive, was criticised at last year's annual meeting by antiwar campaigners. F&C Asset Management and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust also sold their shares in the company in protest.
Bids for the division, which includes the Abu Dhabi Idex fair, came in at close to £30m, but failed to progress. The sale is being handled by Price Waterhouse Coopers.
Reed said recently that there was "very active interest" in the portfolio.
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