Textbook publishers merge

When Cengage and McGraw-Hill—the second and third largest textbook publishers—announced plans to merge in May, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) began exploring ways to take action. In light of their work on community-controlled infrastructure, they have deep concerns over the implications for further consolidation in academic publishing, especially as it relates to terms of cost, access, and control of student data.

SPARC has been working with industry and antitrust experts to develop a complaint against the merger, which they plan to file with the U.S. Department of Justice in the coming weeks. While they acknowledge that stopping the merger may be an uphill battle, they have identified it as an important opportunity to educate regulators about concerns over publisher consolidation of data infrastructure and how loss of competition could harm students.

Earlier this week, student governments and consumer groups kicked off public opposition to the merger by sending letters to the Department of Justice (DOJ). SPARC applauds and supports these efforts, and they look forward to submitting a more detailed filing with DOJ in the coming weeks.

You can find more information about this on the SPARC website.