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Based in Cheshire, UK, Texere Publishing specializes in life sciences and medicine publishing with titles as diverse as The Analytical Scientist, The Medicine Maker, The Ophthalmologist, The Pathologist, The Cannabis Scientist, and The Translational Scientist.
In March this year, it announced record revenues for 2021, with double-digit growth of 13% driven by an increase in demand for its digital products and services – email and newsletter products alone saw a 66% hike on the previous year, alongside a 45% increase in web traffic. Accompanying this growth was a heavy investment in Texere’s digital portfolio, expanding its team with digital and data specialists, as well as developing content and products for digital audiences.
We took a bold move to only send our communications ‒ editorial and commercial ‒ to our engaged digital audiences only. This investment is paying off; we achieve up to 45 percent open rates for our newsletters.
Ultimately, it is essential to do both – digital and print – and to do it better than anyone else.
Andy Davies, Cofounder & CEO, Texere Publishing
Product development and audience engagement aside, part of Texere’s success can also be put down to its focus on employee satisfaction, both in terms of staff wellbeing and morale, with the publisher shortlisted for ‘Employer Excellence’ in next month’s AOP 2022 Publishing Awards.
We have a team of fifty employees who all work together ‒ just as if they were a family ‒ to achieve the same goals and support the same vision. Our employees are at the heart of everything we do and we are proud of the team we’ve assembled. We were also recently awarded the “Investors in People” Silver Accreditation.
Andy Davies, Cofounder & CEO, Texere Publishing
North America in its sights
However, it is the significant expansion of Texere’s North American business that has caught attention, not least because this now accounts for more than 50% of the publisher’s sales – a hefty achievement for a specialist UK publisher founded just ten years ago.
In a written exchange with WNIP, Cofounder and CEO, Andy Davies says that Texere’s executive team knew that North America represented its biggest opportunity, “The founding team had many years of experience of working in our core markets for US-based publishing houses, and as such, we knew that our biggest growth potential lay in North America.”
At Texere’s inception 10 years ago, we knew that we would one day set up office locations in North America. With that in mind, our teams worked exceptionally hard to grow our client base, key opinion leader networks and readership there from day one.
Andy Davies, Cofounder & CEO, Texere Publishing
However, it wasn’t until 2017 that the publisher had generated sufficient momentum to create a foothold, “By 2017, we had grown our revenues, clients, readers and networks sufficiently to take the leap and set up our first US office in New York. Recruitment efforts began immediately, and today we have a team of employees based in New York, Colorado and Canada. Over the past three years, our revenues and readership have grown exponentially, making North America our largest international market.”
Davies says that the team’s pre-existing knowledge of, and experience in most of its primary markets (analytical science, ophthalmology, pharma, biotech) helped but added, “we saw areas of potential in new markets that were underserved”.
Niche markets and partnerships
Indeed, a key strategy for Texere’s growth has been its expansion into niche markets, something which Davies feels is particularly strong in North America. The Cannabis Scientist, for example, is a North American-only brand and the publisher has plans to launch several new brands and products to “drive further expansion in North America” in tandem with expanding its video, virtual event and social media capabilities.
The publisher was further assisted by establishing an official partnership agreement with the world’s largest society for laboratory professionals, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP). This was a significant milestone for its ‘The Pathologist’ brand, which saw its readership substantially increase to become the world’s largest circulated publication for pathologists and laboratory professionals.
Our approach is one of respect and partnership. We take the time to really understand our clients needs – this takes time, but it leads to long-standing relationships.
Andy Davies, Cofounder & CEO, Texere Publishing
Advice for other publishers
For other publishers looking to expand into the U.S., or indeed any other territory, Davies outlines a list of points but says that a laser focus on finances is paramount, “At the start of a new publishing venture, it is easy to lose sight of budgets, but we knew that running out of cash would be the end of the company… …this focus on finances has allowed us to continue to grow.”
He also reiterates the importance of strong content, adding, “Our writers are not only scientists, they’re journalists, they’re creative writers, and they are skilled at asking questions that nobody else does. The outcome: real stories from our industries’ most respected opinion leaders and their peers that our communities would not ordinarily have access to. Think the Economist meets Wired magazine for scientists and doctors.”
Davies concludes with an important rider, “our strategy for expansion has been simple: to be agile and to constantly adapt to the evolving needs of our readers and clients.”
