“Harvard University Press published 142 new titles in the fall of 2016. Last fall, it put out just 26.”

And “revenue from new books — the ‘frontlist’ — declined by half since 2018.”

These figures are from a lengthy investigative report published at The Harvard Crimson about Harvard University Press (HUP).

What explains the drop?

Reporters William C. Mao and Veronica H. Paulus write:

In September 2017, George T. Andreou ’87 became the director of HUP. Since then, press staff alleged — in interviews with The Crimson, union surveys, and letters to Harvard administrators — that he has belittled HUP employees to their peers, instilled a fear of retaliation and layoffs, and mismanaged the publishing house.

That environment has caused an exodus of talent, staff say. Since 2018, at least 50 employees have left the press — and, in interviews and in letters obtained by The Crimson, several cited Andreou’s leadership as a key catalyst for their departures…

“I have never in my professional life in trade publishing experienced the kind of abusive, egotistical and unprofessional behavior that I have seen consistently over the course of the last two and a half years,” a former editor wrote in a 2020 letter to [then-provost Alan] Garber that called for Andreou’s removal.

The reporters note that circa 2020 decline in output “was not unusual among academic presses as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.” Still, “university presses at some peer schools, however, recovered from their pandemic-related dips in output after several months. HUP did not. Instead, its publishing numbers fell precipitously over the next several years,” as you can see on the following graph:

Read The Crimson’s report for further details.