By Kris Turner, Reference and Technology Services Librarian
Thomson Reuters has officially gotten out of print publishing for law schools. On Friday, February 2nd, the publishing wing of the legal research giant was sold to Eureka Growth Capital, a private equity firm located in Philadelphia. It seems that paper publishing is not something that Thomson Reuters will be involved with in the future, at least for legal research. According to spokesman John Shaughnessy, “It’s a segment of the market that, longer-term, we didn’t see as within the core of our legal research offerings…”, suggesting that Thomson Reuters will be focusing solely on electronic content in the near future.
Westlaw Next and other e-resources that Thomson Reuters provides will continue to be available to legal researchers. The publishing wing, which was sold for an undisclosed sum, will continue to publish various textbooks and study guides, but will now go under the name “West Academic Publishing”. Thomson’s legal business, of which the publishing was only a small part, will continue with sales of software and online databases.
For more information, see Eureka Growth Capital’s press release or read the brief articles covering the sale in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal or Wall Street Journal Blog.