Informa Plans to Separate Taylor & Francis, Its Academic Publishing Arm

What happens to one of the world's biggest academic publishers when its parent decides it no longer fits? Authors at Taylor & Francis are about to find out. On October 6, 2026, the London-listed events and information group Informa announced "plans to separate its Academic business, Taylor & Francis," so that the rest of the company can focus on business-to-business live events.

"Informa is today accelerating the focus on our core B2B business, as we announce plans to separate our Academic Markets business, Taylor & Francis," said Stephen A. Carter, Informa's group chief executive.

Taylor & Francis's imprints include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, CRC Press, F1000 Research, Dovepress, and PeerJ, according to the publisher's own website. It has been part of Informa since 2004.

A separation, but no buyer or structure yet

Informa has not said how the separation will happen. Its announcement says it has "formally launched a separation process to review all options that will best support the business going forward," and that "the outcomes of this review will be provided alongside Informa's 2026 Full Year Results in March 2027."

On the investor webcast that followed the announcement, an analyst asked about Informa's criteria for selling the business. Carter replied that a sale "may well be an outcome, but there may be other outcomes." He said the separation process "will run through the first half of 2027."

He also set out the tests Informa will apply: "Our criteria for outcome will be what's the best thing for that business, what's the best thing for our authors, our researchers, our colleagues, our customers, and what is the most sensible thing from the point of view of our shareholders who today own 100% of that business."

Asked whether Informa had already explored a private sale, Carter said the company had "had approaches over the years," but that "that isn't what has provoked this decision." He called the decision "an absolute judgement" that "it's ready to be a standalone business."

The numbers Informa gave for Taylor & Francis

According to Informa's announcement, since Taylor & Francis joined the group in 2004:

• Annual published articles have grown nearly five times, to more than 170,000.
• Specialist reference titles have grown fivefold, to more than 185,000.
• Revenue has grown four times, to about $1 billion.
• Underlying revenue growth has doubled, from less than 2% to 4%.

Informa says the business has more than 2,700 peer-reviewed journals and a "leading Open Research platform," and is moving "from traditional academic publishing towards its ambition to become a knowledge marketplace." Carter credited Taylor & Francis chief executive Penny Ladkin-Brand and her team as "a very credible management team of experience and depth."

Why now: a £2.24 billion events deal

The announcement came alongside a much larger move in Informa's main business. Informa is buying Clarion, the UK-based owner of more than 100 B2B live event brands, from Blackstone for an enterprise value of £2.24 billion. It is funding the deal partly through an equity placing of about £940 million, and expects it to complete toward the end of the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.

Carter told investors the two announcements were "two coincidental processes," made at the same time "for the purposes of transparency." He said the review of the academic business had reached the conclusion that "it was time," because as the B2B side grew, Taylor & Francis risked losing out in the competition for capital within the group.

The AI licensing backdrop

Taylor & Francis content is already licensed for AI use. In a May 8, 2024 market update, Informa announced a non-exclusive "Partnership and Data Access Agreement" with Microsoft that includes access to Taylor & Francis's Advanced Learning content and data "to help improve relevance and performance of AI systems." Informa said the agreement pays an initial data access fee of more than $10 million plus a recurring payment across 2025, 2026, and 2027.

Informa's October 6 announcement does not mention AI licensing as part of the separation. But any new owner or standalone company would inherit those agreements and decide how to handle future ones.

Why it matters for authors

Your contract does not change today. Informa has announced a review, not a sale, and has not announced any change to author agreements, royalties, or the imprints' publishing programs.

Watch March 2027. That is when Informa says it will report the route it has chosen. Informa has not said which route it prefers, and a sale and a standalone listing would bring very different kinds of owners, with different priorities on pricing, open access, and AI deals.

Know what you signed on AI. If you publish with Taylor & Francis or Routledge, read your contract's language on licensing and "new uses" of your work, and keep copies of any notices you receive about AI agreements. Ownership changes are a good moment to know exactly what rights you granted.

This reaches a lot of authors. With more than 185,000 specialist reference titles and more than 2,700 journals, Taylor & Francis's next owner will matter to a large share of academic and professional writers.

Sources

• Informa: Growth, Focus and Expansion (company update, October 6, 2026)
• Informa: October 2026 Investor Webcast Transcript (October 6, 2026)
• Informa: Market Update (Microsoft agreement, May 8, 2024)
• Taylor & Francis: About Taylor & Francis