When Sara Miller McCune founded Sage in a one-room office in New York in 1965, one assumes that besides optimism she must have been bracing herself for the coming uncertainties. Zooming in on the present, one finds Sara as the executive chairman of this highly respected independent academic and professional publisher. Thus, it was truly the proverbial one small step towards a great journey, with the organisation reaching the golden jubilee milestone –– from its first publication “Urban Quarterly” in 1965 to now over 800 books and 800 journals a year.
The mission to build a publishing house to ensure dissemination of scholarly knowledge, though, was not different from what other institutions like university presses and commercial publishers had been doing. But the objective was different –– to build a focus around social sciences, give voice to first-time authors and most of all, bring value to the key stakeholders: the authors, the editors and societies.
On the question of achieving the mission, Vivek Mehra, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sage India, says, “It can never be fulfilled since the quest for knowledge is an eternally ongoing process. But if we stop at the 50-year mark and look back I would say that yes, the mission is on the right track and Sage has been able to carve out a clear space for itself.”
Sage India, which started in 1981, today has an active frontline list of over 1200 titles and is among the largest publishers of original journals in South Asia.
He goes on to emphasise, “This space is not clearly (parallel) with the objectives of the university presses and certainly not with the brutality of commercial publishing houses. I believe that is perhaps the greatest contribution Sage has made to scholarly publishing.”
Elaborating on this he clarifies that the publishing house has created a third segment which lies where two trends — one stemming from institutions housed in universities, like Oxford, Cambridge, etc., and the other from pure commercial publishers — converge. “It has the rigour of university presses and the academic disposition to go after research. At the same time it has led to value creation for its stakeholders through good commercial practices. Maintaining a delicate balance, it remains profitable to fuel its own growth engine.”
The publishing house’s global celebrations entail participation by the stakeholders. In India there were events engaging a large audience including academics, trade partners, scholars, the publishing fraternity and librarians. Significantly, this year will also witness Sage India launching into Indian language publishing under the Sage Bhasha imprint, initially with Hindi and Marathi (see box).
“India resides across multiple languages and multiple cultures, each of which has its own identity. There are many universities that teach in these languages and there is clearly a gap between the supply and the demand. Sage Bhasha in many ways will address this gap without compromising on quality and or content,” Vivek elaborates, adding, “Hindi is a natural choice for the sheer market size. Marathi is also a large market and we have a lot of experience in it.”
Over the years Sage India has brought three imprints, namely, Sage Response to cater to the Indian business and management community, developing a competitive list of original works, written primarily by Indian professionals and management experts; Sage Vistaar, bringing global content to South Asia at affordable prices; and Sage Advantedge which offers the best of Sage’s global education and teacher development publishing.
As for spreading scholarly knowledge and bringing value to authors, editors and societies, the CEO points out, “Sage brings value to all those who work in fulfilling its mission. We are fortunate to have a culture of respect, of nurturing each other and of aligning to a grander purpose. There are many individuals who started their careers at Sage and have or will retire from it. This is truly rare in any enterprise.” Amazing, considering the turnover in other sectors of the economy.
Since Sage’s products include academic and reference books, innovative teaching texts, journals and professional books that have gained recognition and respect from global academic communities, how is authenticity and correctness of the content ensured?
“The most transparent way of doing this is to instil a rigour that is similar to that of a university. Facts are verified by expert peers as much and as often as is possible. Today, state-of-the-art online tools ensure that content is even more easily and transparently verified.”
He notes that as one type of publication differs from the other, so does the process, “but at the core remains the value and rigour of ensuring only quality gets through.”
Having achieved much in the last 50 years and intending to continue to do so in future, Sage has a succession plan which Sara has taken a step further. Termed as the estate plan, it is the “long term guarantee of Sage’s independence” and will ensure that voting shares of the company are ultimately transferred to a trust.
“A board of trustees will ensure its continuance as a publisher. The key is that Sage will always remain an independent publisher committed to disseminating knowledge and will not become a commodity that is traded or an entity that changes hands and thus changes its focus,” comments Vivek.
Thus the mission will continue to benefit the students, readers, authors and society.
