Richard Charkin on Publishing's Legacy
Industry veteran Richard Charkin argues that publishing's true strength lies in its inherited legacies, financial, reputational, and cultural, rather than
Publishing veteran Richard Charkin has called for the industry to pay more attention to the legacies it inherits. In a column for Publishing Perspectives, he contends that annual reports focus too heavily on recent triumphs while overlooking the foundational backbone built by predecessors.
Charkin, who worked at Oxford University Press from 1975 to 1988, identifies several types of legacy that sustain publishing houses. These range from financial reserves and reputational prestige to strategic acquisitions and cultural authority.
The Forms of Legacy
He provides clear examples from across the industry. A financial legacy can be a cash reserve, like the one Harry Potter created for Bloomsbury. Reputational legacy comes from a title like the journal Nature, founded in 1869, which now underpins SpringerNature. Strategic legacy is seen in Penguin's children's business, built on the acquisition of the Peter Rabbit series and Allen Lane's original vision.
Market positioning legacy emerged from the merger that formed RELX, drawing on Elsevier's 1880 foundation. A managerial legacy exists at Waterstone's, which Tim Waterstone founded with his redundancy money. The most profound, however, can be cultural.
A Cultural Inheritance at OUP
Charkin describes his own formative years at Oxford University Press. He notes that the power of the OUP brand opened doors he later realized were not for him personally, but for the institution's inherited prestige. This cultural legacy was built on decades of shrewd and sometimes heroic publishing decisions.
One project was the International Series of Monographs on Physics, conceived in the 1930s. OUP sought out brilliant physicists like Dirac, Mott, and Chandrasekhar, many working under Nazi rule, securing a cornerstone for its science publishing. Another legacy was born in a prisoner-of-war camp.
During World War II, OUP salesman John Brown was imprisoned in Changi. There, he negotiated for OUP to take over a fellow prisoner's dictionary project. That book became the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, arguably the 20th century's most profitable book and the catalyst for OUP's global English Language Teaching business.
Perhaps the greatest intellectual property was the New English Dictionary, which OUP rescued from languishing at Mill Hill School. This became the Oxford English Dictionary, a flagship product Charkin later helped transition to digital formats.
Building on the Past
Other legacies set the stage for global expansion. Salesperson Raymond Brammah was sent to Malaysia to build a branch, leveraging the growing Bahasa Malay educational market. This move formed the basis for long-term investment across Asia, extending OUP's Commonwealth-facing network.
OUP celebrated its quincentenary in 1978. Over centuries, it has built one of the world's largest and most prestigious catalogues. It uses the legacies from past decisions to fund new publishing and pay dividends to the University of Oxford.
Charkin does not undervalue current success or future investment, especially in today's tech-driven climate. But he urges today's leaders to acknowledge the legacies their success is built upon. He also asks them to consider what legacy their own tenure will leave for those who follow.
