Money problems at UNM Press showing progress

Publisher is $7 million in debt but managed to exceed budgetary forecasts in first quarter

After years of mounting losses, the bleeding may be slowing at the University of New Mexico Press.

The state’s largest publisher has for several years registered annual deficits of at least $500,000, accruing what is now a $7 million debt to the university. But officials say cutbacks and changed business practices are helping.

Interim UNM Press Director Richard Schuetz told a Board of Regents committee last week that the UNM Press had actually exceeded budgetary forecasts in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018, making $51,000 more than it spent.

Book sales typically wane in the spring, and Schuetz still projects a $340,000 deficit by the 2018 fiscal year’s end. But that’s about half of 2017’s over-run, and interim UNM President Chaouki Abdallah has pledged enough money from his discretionary fund to help the publisher break even.

“The key thing is we don’t want the (cumulative) deficit to continue to grow,” said Nicole Dopson, financial operations director for academic affairs, the division now overseeing the press. “We feel very hopeful in the Provost’s office that we’ve kind of mitigated it so far.”

UNM has customarily relied on its reserves to cover the press’ annual shortfalls. But the university’s own budget trouble — the result of reduced enrollment and state funding — have lent urgency to addressing its problems.

Regent Suzanne Quillen deemed the latest results encouraging.

“This is a trajectory we haven’t seen, so this is really positive,” Quillen told Schuetz.

The changes have not been painless; the press cut staffing from 29 positions to 22, some by way of layoffs.

It has also trimmed annual output from about 75 new titles to 50 and raised prices on about 12 percent of its books.

The press is still not self-sustaining, but Schuetz cautioned that few university presses are.

“I understand everybody’s concern about the Press’ budget deficit, but I want to remind everybody that I think university presses in general — with few exceptions — don’t generate enough revenue to cover their costs; they require financial support from the university,” he said.

Administrators continue weighing other moves, such as out-sourcing the press’ warehousing and order fulfillment. Local book publishers who contract with UNM Press for their own distribution have criticized that option, and Schuetz said a 2010 out-sourcing evaluation showed it was not cost-effective.

But Schuetz said that may have changed; UNM solicited bids for the service and is considering five out-of-state proposals.

Once UNM determines how it will handle warehouse operations and also whether to move the press under the University Libraries umbrella, Dopson said it would likely determine an “appropriate subsidy” for the UNM Press moving forward.