Reed Elsevier’s Ex-CEO: RBI Price Must Drop

When we brought up the problems with the Reed Business Information sale yesterday, we mentioned that it was bound to be a topic of discussion at the “Future of Business Media” conference later in the day—and paidContent.org tells us what Reed Elsevier‘s former CEO had to say about the deal: “The price expectation has to come down,” warned Jim Casella. “It’s going to have to be adjusted.” He also suggested that “a new owner is going to want to follow a more focused strategy” with RBI’s assets, which could include both jettisoning some parts of the portfolio and acquiring other assets (specifically exhibition events) to complement whatever assets remain.

In terms of how that could affect the book publishing industry, that suggests any number of possibilities for Publishers Weekly or Library Journal-themed events that might or might not compete with current Reed Exhibitions offerings like BookExpo America. Or smaller events like “Book Publishing 101,” the one-day writer’s conference PW sponsored last month. Or maybe something else entirely—what sort of events would you build around those brands?

(That’s assuming, of course, that it’s the publishing-related magazine brands a future owner would want to hang onto rather than, say, all the magazines about the construction industry or interior decorating.)

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