Earlier this year Ashgate Publishing was bought by Informa, owners of the academic publishing group Taylor & Francis. At the time Informa said that Ashgate’s ‘experienced team and strong brands will be highly complementary to our other major HSS [humanities and social sciences] brand, Routledge, the world’s largest English language publisher of academic content in HSS disciplines.’ But, now there is news that Ashgate’s US offices are to close on the 25th November, and it seems the a proposal to close the UK offices is ‘in discussion.’ This is seriously bad news for humanities scholars, including those working in art history. Ashgate has been a supportive publisher of humanities research, including new and emerging areas of scholarship, and of early career scholars. A petition has been set up asking T&F to save Ashgate publishing. I would encourage you to sign and to share.
From the petition
Independent academic presses like Ashgate have offered a safe haven for scholars working in certain subfields as University presses closed entire publishing specializations and fired editorial staff in response to campus austerity measures. Academic presses are more than profit margins, income from the backlist, utility bills, payroll, and marketing campaigns. Ashgate flourished through the bonds formed between editors and authors, the care and attention of copy editors, and above all, the good will of authors and readers. We the undersigned authors, readers, and reviewers of Ashgate books write to voice our appreciate for the accomplishments of Ashgate’s North American office. We urge Taylor & Francis to reverse course immediately and restore Ashgate’s US and UK offices.
You can sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/save-ashgate-publishing#petition-letter
Update: I have received information that the UK closure is definitely happening. It seems even th staff themselves have not been properly informed about what is happening. It appears that almost no Ashgate staff will move to T&F - meaning a huge loss of talent and expertise in the area of humanities publishing.
The UK office of Ashgate Publishing is scheduled to close at the end of December although Taylor and Francis has not made this official to staff. They have been severely lacking in information and nothing about the process is clear. A lot of UK staff are leaving the company at the end of November. There will only be a handful of UK staff left in December, with only a handful moving over to T&F.