Journal wars

WHEN American antitrust officials gave the go-ahead on May 7th to Reed Elsevier, an Anglo-Dutch publishing giant, to buy Harcourt General, an American publisher, for $4.5 billion, the relief at Reed was as palpable as the dismay among scientists. The approval of the acquisition, announced last year, tightens Reed's grip on the science-journal market at a time when publishers of such journals face not only fierce denunciation by academics, but serious efforts to undermine their business.

Worth some $10 billion, the market is hugely profitable: margins in the scientific and medical business at Reed Elsevier are around 35%, compared with an average of 20% for all of its publishing interests. If a company owns the must-read title in, say, vibrational spectroscopy, it has a nice little captive market. When combined with Harcourt, Reed Elsevier will control some 20% of the science-journal market, and add a further 500 journals to its 1,200-strong stable.