The Evolution of Thomson Learning: From Newspapers to Educational Powerhouse
The Thomson Corporation, a global information giant, underwent significant transformations throughout its history. This article delves into the company's origins, its expansion into various sectors, its foray into education through Thomson Learning, and its eventual merger with Reuters Group to form Thomson Reuters.
From Canadian Roots to Global Expansion
The Thomson Corporation's story began with Roy Thomson, later known as the 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet. In 1934, he acquired the Timmins Daily Press, a single Canadian newspaper. This marked the start of his journey into the world of media. Thomson's reach expanded beyond Canada in 1952 when he purchased the Independent of St. Petersburg, Florida. He then moved to Edinburgh and strategically acquired newspapers in the United Kingdom, with The Scotsman being the first in 1953.
Driven by the profitability he observed in the US television market, Thomson ventured into television, founding Scottish Television in 1957 with headquarters and studios in Glasgow's Theatre Royal. In 1959, he formally established the Thomson Organization.
During the 1960s, Thomson's UK publishing interests grew to include Thomson Publication (UK), which focused on consumer magazines and book publishing, and the prestigious newspaper, The Times. His accomplishments in publishing earned him the hereditary title of Lord Thomson of Fleet in 1964.
Thomson's ambitions extended beyond publishing. He created Thomson Travel and acquired Britannia Airways in 1965 and 1971 respectively, and participated in a consortium exploring for oil and gas in the North Sea. The profits from these oil ventures were strategically reinvested into acquiring smaller newspapers in the United States, starting with Brush-Moore Newspapers in 1967 for $72 million, a record-breaking sale at the time. By the end of the 1970s, Thomson Newspapers' circulation in the United States had exceeded 1 million.
Read also: Comprehensive Guide to Thomson Reuters Internships
In 1978, the Thomson Organization was reorganized into the International Thomson Organization. This move aimed to shift the operating base from Britain to Canada, circumventing British monopolies legislation, foreign-exchange controls, and dividend limitations.
The Rise of Thomson Learning
In 1989, the International Thomson Organization merged with Thomson Newspapers, giving rise to the Thomson Corporation. Under the leadership of Kenneth Thomson, who succeeded his father Roy in 1976, the company's value was approximately $500 million. Starting in the mid-1990s, Thomson strategically invested in specialized information services, delivered digitally, while divesting its newspaper holdings. This shift coincided with Richard J. Harrington's appointment as chief executive officer.
Thomson became a key provider of specialized information content for financial, legal, research, and medical organizations worldwide, enabling them to make critical business decisions and foster innovation. While maintaining its presence in publishing, Thomson prioritized electronic delivery. According to a 2006 article, Thomson's early and aggressive investment in electronic delivery proved advantageous, particularly in sectors where customers demanded information electronically, with the exception of its educational division, which continued to publish textbooks.
In 2000, Thomson Learning was created out of a restructuring of International Thomson Publishing. Later that year Thomson acquired the higher education title of Harcourt from Reed Elsevier, and the test prep publisher Arco from IDG Books.
Divestiture and Transformation
In 2004, Thomson acquired Tradeweb. Later that year, the Thomson Media group was sold to Investcorp. In October 2006, the company announced its intention to sell Thomson Learning in three parts. The first part, corporate education and training (NETg), was sold to Skillsoft for $285 million. In 2007, Thomson Medical Education (including Physicians' World and Gardiner-Caldwell) was sold to ABRY Partners.
Read also: Understanding PLCs
On October 26, 2006, Thomson officially announced the proposed sale of its Thomson Learning assets. In May 2007, Thomson Learning was acquired by Apax Partners and subsequently renamed Cengage Learning in July. Subsequently, on 15 October 2007, Educational Testing Service (ETS) finalized acquisition of Thomson's Prometric, its global network of testing centers in 135 countries, for a reported $435 million.
Merger with Reuters and Legacy
On 15 May 2007, the Thomson Corporation and Reuters reached an agreement to combine their companies, a deal valued at $17.2 billion. This led to the creation of Thomson Reuters on 17 April 2008. Jim Smith became the chief executive officer of Thomson Reuters, while David Thomson, formerly of the Thomson Corporation, assumed the role of chairman.
Thomson's legacy includes a diverse portfolio of well-known brands, such as Thomson ONE, Westlaw, FindLaw, BARBRI, Pangea3, Physician's Desk Reference (now published digitally as the Prescriber's Digital Reference), RIA, Thomson Tax and Accounting, Creative Solutions, Quickfinder, DISEASEDEX (now merged with IBM Watson Health), DrugREAX, Medstat, Thomson First Call (now a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group, known as Refinitiv), Checkpoint, EndNote (now produced by Clarivate), Derwent World Patents Index (now produced by Clarivate), SAEGIS (now produced by Clarivate), MicroPatent, Aureka (now owned by Clarivate), Faxpat, OptiPat, Just Files, Corporate Intelligence, InfoTrac (now owned by Cengage), Delphion, Arco Test Prep (now owned by Cengage), Peterson's Directories (now owned by Cengage), NewsEdge, TradeWeb, Web of Science (now produced by Clarivate) and the Arden Shakespeare (now published by Bloomsbury Publishing). Thomson formerly owned Jane's Information Group, now owned by Montagu Private Equity.
Cengage Learning: Carrying the Torch
Cengage Group is an American educational content, technology, and services company catering to higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets. Gale, Cengage's library reference arm, specializes in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools, and businesses.
In 2011, Cengage Learning acquired the National Geographic Society's school publishing unit and combined it with the Global ELT business to create the National Geographic Learning brand.
Read also: Learning Resources Near You
On December 5, 2017, Cengage announced Cengage Unlimited, a subscription service that provides students with access to all of Cengage's digital college materials for a single fee. This service became available in the summer of 2018 and quickly achieved its initial sales targets. The University of Missouri was the first university to offer this plan.
The company had acquired a large amount of debt through the course of its initial buyout and subsequent acquisitions, and had seen declining revenue through a shrinking market for paper textbooks. Cengage Learning filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 on July 2, 2013. Cengage Learning emerged from bankruptcy on April 1, 2014, eliminating approximately $4 billion of its funded debt and securing $1.75 billion in exit financing. Post-bankruptcy, the company decided to focus on developing digital study guides and other educational supplements, as well as hard-copy textbooks. In November 2016, Cengage Learning rebranded as simply Cengage.
In addition to organic growth, Cengage has expanded through acquisitions within the publishing industry. In 2016, based on its 2015 revenues, Publishers Weekly ranked the company 14 out of 57 publishers worldwide, a decline of three slots from the previous year.
tags: #thomson #learning #publisher #history
