Mediaboss Marketing

By Janese Silvey

Monday, July 2, 2012

University of Missouri Press employees reported to work as usual this morning, even though the phase-out of the university system's publishing house officially started yesterday.

It's unclear when the press office will actually close. UM System spokeswoman Jennifer Hollingshead said there is no timeline, even though the system 2013 budget, which no longer includes a $400,000 subsidy for the press, went into effect yesterday.

There were no signs of the office closing shop this morning at the building off LeMone Industrial Boulevard. The titles still in print were on display on a front office bookshelf, and copies of the current catalog were up for grabs at the reception desk. Also on display was a copy of the press's history by former interim UM President Melvin George, written to mark its 50th anniversary four years ago.

Employees declined to come out of their offices to speak with a Tribune reporter. No press employee has left since May, when UM President Tim Wolfe made the announcement that the press would close, interim director Dwight Browne said last week, clarifying misinformation the MU Faculty Council had received.

Reached by phone, Editor-in-Chief Clair Willcox said he and another acquisitions manager at the UM Press expect to be the first to go, although they have not yet received a layoff date. Some employees could remain on the payroll through late fall, he said, because the UM Press is contractually committed to a fall list of books that still must be edited, designed, produced, distributed and marketed.

"We have not been given a timeline in terms of when we will be laid off as individuals or an exact timeline for when the press itself will end," publicity manager Jennifer Gravley said in a phone conversation.

Wolfe has said the Columbia campus is exploring ideas for a new type of press that would be self-supporting. Those involved in the discussions on campus said it is too early to announce details, although the system has suggested student interns would be used.

Ned Stuckey-French is in the English department at Florida State University and is helping to lead efforts to protest the closure. He fears a new model will ignore the need for a professional editorial staff and a marketing department. He also worries any new press would live off proceeds from the existing back list of 2,000 titles the UM Press created over its 54-year history.

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UM Press employees await word on layoffs