Business and academic publishing group Reed Elsevier is expecting a tough first half of 2010 as the effects of the recession continue to bite, the Anglo Dutch company said on Thursday.

Last year, the group booked a 1% increase in operating profit at constant currencies of 1.57bn sterling. Turnover was almost flat at 6bn sterling, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The group’s academic publishing unit Elsevier, which accounts for 44% of operating profit, saw turnover rise 4%.
But revenue generated by Reed Exhibitions, (10% of operating profit), was down 21% as corporations cut back on marketing spending, the company said.
CEO Erik Engstrom said he has no plans to sell the company’s trade magazines as a single block or the exhibitions business, which he said is at the bottom of a cycle.
But according to the Financieele Dagblad, he did say a further reorganisation was on its way at the magazine division and he may sell off individual titles.