Reed Elsevier profits jump 11%

ANGLO-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier boosted profits by 11% to £433m on revenues up by just 4% to £2.26bn in the six months to June.

Chief executive Sir Crispin Davis said the science and medical and legal divisions had performed strongly. Business-to-business advertising is picking up and he forecast high single-digit earnings growth for the full year.

Reed, which is the world's largest publisher of scientific journals and owner of the Hollywood trade publication Variety, said turnover was affected by the weak dollar – the company does much of its business in the US.

Reed faces a potential challenge from a movement to make scientific journals freely available, widely known as the 'open access' model. It said there has been 'much comment but little market impact'.

Davis said: 'There are no real indications at the moment that the market is changing significantly,' Davis said. 'After five years, 99% of our customers are saying they're comfortable with the existing model. If that changes it's up to us to adapt.'