UW Press buys pop culture publisher

In a move that will establish the University of Wisconsin Press as a top publisher of popular culture studies, the UW Press has purchased the Popular Press from Bowling Green State University.

The purchase price was $20,000, plus an annual royalty of 10 percent of net sales of existing titles.

The transaction brings 20 new titles and approximately 325 backlist titles to UW Press, adding 90,000 copies to press inventory.

“With the retirements of Popular Press co-founders Ray and Pat Browne, Bowling Green State decided that it would be impossible to continue with the Popular Press,” says Robert Mandel, UW Press director.

The Brownes have been pioneers and key figures in the field of popular culture studies. In addition to establishing the Popular Press, they also founded the Popular Culture Association of America some 40 years ago.

In recent years, Popular Press has published such titles as “Baseball and Country Music,” “Hounds of the Road: A History of the Greyhound Bus Company,” “Sundae Best: A history of Soda Fountains,” “I Was a Cold War Monster: Horror Films, Eroticism, and the Cold War Imagination” and others. The Brownes will continue to edit a series of books to be published with the Popular Press imprint under UW Press auspices.

Mandel says the transaction already has begun to pay off for UW Press. “I suspected that many bookstores and major book wholesalers hadn’t had an opportunity to purchase titles from the Popular Press backlist, so we’re in the process of approaching them,” he says.

So far, one wholesaler has indicated that it will order copies of all Popular Press titles. Mandel anticipates sales of around $40,000 from this single transaction, easily absorbing the purchase price of the Popular Press.

“Cultural studies is an excellent area not only for academic research but also the popular market,” he says, adding that this acquisition could go far in helping UW Press meet its budgetary goals.

Mandel adds that titles published under the Popular Press imprint also will enhance the UW Press existing concentrations, which include regional titles, history, Jewish studies, anthropology, biography and autobiography, literature, film, Latin and Hispanic studies, classical art history, gay and lesbian studies, environmental history, African and African American studies, and Irish and Irish American studies.

“During the early negotiations some thought that the Popular Press should remain attached to a university in Ohio, but I was able to convince the Brownes that Wisconsin will preserve their legacy,” Mandel says. “At the same time, that legacy will help us build UW Press.”

The UW Press already has begun to expand its popular culture list. In fall 2002 the Press will offer a new book on Elizabeth Taylor by her former personal photographer, books on sports legends Hank Aaron and basketball coach Al McGuire, a biography of entertainer Theodore Bikel and others. For more information on forthcoming and recent titles, visit: http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/.