The company, which was previously known as Reed Elsevier, came into being in 1993, as a result of the merger of Reed International, a British trade book and magazine publisher, and
Elsevier, a Netherlands-based scientific publisher. The company re-branded itself as RELX in February 2015.
Reed International In 1895,
Albert E. Reed established a
newsprint manufacturing operation at
Tovil Mill near
Maidstone,
Kent. The Reed family were
Methodists and encouraged good working conditions for their staff in the then-dangerous print trade. In 1965, Reed Group, as it was then known, became a
conglomerate, creating its Decorative Products Division with the purchase of
Crown Paints,
Polycell and
Sanderson's wallpaper and
DIY decorating interests. In 1970, Reed Group merged with the
International Publishing Corporation and the company name was changed to Reed International Limited. In 1985, the company decided to rationalise its operations, focusing on publishing and selling off its other interests. Sanderson was sold to
WestPoint Pepperell, Inc. of
Georgia,
United States, that year, The company's paper and packaging production operations were bundled together to form Reedpack and sold to
private equity firm
Cinven in 1988. Reed expanded its publishing by acquiring
Technical Publishing from
Dun & Bradstreet.
Elsevier NV In 1880, Jacobus George Robbers started a publishing company called NV Uitgeversmaatschappij Elsevier (Elsevier Publishing Company NV) to publish literary classics and the encyclopedia
Winkler Prins.
Cahners Publishing Cahners Publishing, founded by
Norman Cahners, was the largest U.S. publisher of trade or business magazines as of his death in 1986. Reed International acquired the company in 1977.
Reed Elsevier and RELX Significant acquisitions Significant divestments In February 1997, Reed Elsevier divested its trade publishing group (including
Heinemann,
Methuen,
Secker & Warburg,
Sinclair-Stevenson, Mandarin, Minerva and Cedar) to
Random House. In 1998, Reed Elsevier sold the children's divisions of Heinemann, Methuen,
Hamlyn and Mammoth to the
Egmont Group. In February 2007, the company announced its intention to sell Harcourt, its educational publishing division. On 4 May 2007
Pearson, the international education and information company, announced that it had agreed to acquire
Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International from Reed Elsevier for $950m in cash. In July 2007, Reed Elsevier announced its agreement to sell the remaining Harcourt Education business, including international imprint
Heinemann, to
Houghton Mifflin for $4 billion in cash and stock. Between 2006 and 2019, in 65 separate deals, the company systematically sold its 300 print, business to business magazine titles, reducing the proportion of print revenues from 51% to 9%. Advertising, which had been the largest source of revenues when RELX was founded, represented just 1% of sales in 2018. In July 2009, Reed Elsevier announced its intention to sell most of its North American trade publications, including
Publishers Weekly,
Broadcasting & Cable, and
Multichannel News, although it planned to retain
Variety. Sister publication
Video Business to Variety was closed in January 2010. In April 2010, Reed Elsevier announced that it had sold 21 US magazines to other owners in recent months, and that an additional 23 US trade magazines, including
Restaurants & Institutions,
Hotels, and
Trade Show Week would cease publication. The closures were mostly due to the weak economy including an advertising slump.
Variety, the company's last remaining North American title, was sold in October 2012. In 2014, Reed Business Information sold BuyerZone, an online marketplace; emedia, an American provider of research for IT buyers and vendors; and a majority stake in
Reed Construction Data, a provider of construction data. In 2016, RELX sold
Elsevier Weekly and
BeleggersBelangen in the Netherlands. In 2017, the company sold
New Scientist magazine. In January 2019, RBI sold its Dutch agricultural media and selected international agricultural media portfolio (including
Poultry World) to Doorakkeren BV. In August 2019,
Flight International and
FlightGlobal were sold to
DVV Media Group. In December 2019, RBI announced plans to sell the
Farmers Weekly magazine title, website and related platforms, events and awards to MA Agriculture Limited, part of the Mark Allen Group. In May 2024, RX sold the
Gamer Network to
IGN Entertainment, division of
Ziff Davis. However, it retained the
EGX convention and
Popverse. == Operations and market segments ==