Haynes books may be about to go the way of the Dodo:

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gatoraptor

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Not exactly "Secret Projects" related, but I've recently seen a post from author Robert Hopkins in which he states that he has heard that Infopro, the new owners of Haynes Publishing, are going to terminate the publication of all print books and liquidate existing stocks. Obviously, this means that all books in work will be cancelled, including one on the B-47 that Hopkins was working on.

Is there anyone here who can confirm this? Haynes' website makes no mention of it, and in fact they have recently added a pdf of their full-line catalogue for the first half of 2021.
 
Well, with the new owner listing this as their resume, I'm not surprised. I don't see any room whatsoever for "dead tree media" nor for consumer-level products of any sort.

Infopro Digital is a leading independent provider of business-to-business (“B2B”) data and platforms, events and insight, committed to servicing professionals across the automotive aftermarket, construction, insurance and finance, industrials, public sector and retail sectors internationally. Leveraging a deep understanding of its clients and the professional communities in which it operates, Infopro Digital delivers business solutions that enable users to make better business decisions, increase their productivity and grow revenue by generating new business and sales opportunities.
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Haynes Manuals were good 20-30 years when you could fix a car with a basic spanner set and just needed guidance. Nowadays everything is under warranty or sealed under plastic shields or you need a computer to plug in and diagnose any issues.
As fewer people can fix their cars and manufacturers don't want amateurs fiddling with their machines the need for Haynes books has diverted into lightweight history volumes - Spitfire, Lancaster, Space Shuttle, Saturn Rockets etc.
The latest ones are pure puff - Baby Manual, The Dad, Modern Man, Zombie Survival, Forest Bathing :rolleyes:

I hate to admit it but bookshops are fading away as the internet and e-readers take hold. Reference books are being replaced with websites which are often more up to date and accessible.
 
Not as much of the accessibility as we would like to think. One dead modem at the same time as your washing machine or whatever and you can square the cost to that of the imagination of the unknown 'person with a spanner' and they can imagine pretty big imho.
 
Ah well, looks like The Works will just have to double their range of books on mass murderers, healthy diets and colouring books.

Probably no surprise, most of these were sold off at heavily discounted prices. Some of them looked good but others were rather fluffy.
I notice there is one on cancelled NASA programmes, that might be worth a look.
 
Nick said:
Reference books are being replaced with websites which are often more up to date and accessible.
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Up-to-date? That is totally dependent on the subject. E.g. most information on WW2 Japanese aircraft on English-language websites is basically ripped-off from Francillon's Putnam book. I don't know a single English site on Soviet, Japanese and German WW2 aircraft based strictly on archival research.
 
It is sad that the Haynes manuals are closing down and going the way of the internet. I would have thought that Haynes would have published their books as e-books instead of going onto the internet, it would have made more sense doing it that way.
 
The main value of the "special interest" manuals from Haynes on historic aircraft, cars, tanks, etc. was in the coverage of restored and operating examples and the interviews with the people who operated and maintained these vehicles. A lot of those insights probably wouldn't be available anywhere else.
 
I'm sorry to see the aircraft and space titles die although it has to be said that they were a bit variable in content. The best ones were excellent. I wonder whether the frivolous/humorous titles helped prop the series up or were responsible for its downfall?

I spent many hours on my back under a succession of cars and found the original car manuals invaluable. Working on the clutch hydraulics and fuel system of a Mk1 Range Rover in Egypt would have been horrendous without the clear instructions and photographs in the book.
 
As someone with a huge and chaotic library of books as well as piles of disorganised cuttings and old magazines I am also delighted to be able to use the excellent resources online, notably this site.
However I still am sorry when an agreeable format like Haynes ceases to be available.
I expect, however, that by the time I am shuffled off into a care camp I will be able to download everything by a brainjack directly into my cortex.
 
Got word from an author of several of these books. The new owners have decided to focus on the core products... tech info for lubricants and seals and such. Existing titles will continue to sell, but no new ones of the kind and stop-work orders have been issued for those not yet published. So if it is not yet available for sale... it won't be. But there was a hint that things might be moved elsewhere. I suppose they won't be under the "Haynes" label, though.
 
If the series found a new home, the new publisher would be most wise to take a look at what is good and what is not in the series. The series is supposed to be a "gearhead" series, yet in many aircraft volumes the technical content might be less than half of the page count. Second, had Calum's book been as poorly laid out as these, it would have had at least 1000 pages. I.e. the layout is extremely wasteful with very large font and lots on blank areas. In fact, very much the opposite of the original car manuals. In short: an ideal aircraft manual assuming 160 pages total would:
-devote a maximum of 10 pages to development and variants
-have zero coverage of operations
-have the rest devoted to structures, flying and maintenance with emphasis on how it was done in wartime, not warbirds (assuming a non-current type)
-would eliminate excessive blank areas and use a max. 10 pt. main font
 
I think there is scope for the more serious books to continue but probably not under the Haynes badge. That said, I could see them offloading the brand or licensing it to new writers in a few years.
I do wonder if the accountants have decided these books simply don't make money like they used to?

They could move into car history books by focussing on subjects like the Ford Escort 1968-2000 or the VW Beetle 1938-2003 with chapters on each major model, race variants, popular models etc - a potted history of a type.
 
aim9xray said:
Well, with the new owner listing this as their resume, I'm not surprised. I don't see any room whatsoever for "dead tree media" nor for consumer-level products of any sort.

Infopro Digital is a leading independent provider of business-to-business (“B2B”) data and platforms, events and insight, committed to servicing professionals across the automotive aftermarket, construction, insurance and finance, industrials, public sector and retail sectors internationally. Leveraging a deep understanding of its clients and the professional communities in which it operates, Infopro Digital delivers business solutions that enable users to make better business decisions, increase their productivity and grow revenue by generating new business and sales opportunities.
Click to expand...
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Having taken a look at Infopro and the sentence highlighted I can see no traditional business reason why they would buy Haynes.
Their previous identity Incisive Media Services Ltd (until 06/2017) suggests that the UK unit is operating as a 'Brexit Insurance' vehicle and is utterly dependent on overseas parts of the business group, the personnel changes previous support this. Buying Haynes could be an attempt to appear as a legitimate UK based unit in order to keep the Group's options open especially for tax purposes. In old money they could be described as an advertising agency or a UK tax-loss branch of an overseas corporation.
My thoughts are that Haynes brand is seen as having value and, when the Brexit dust has settled, could be sold on at a profit once no longer needed. If they are halting new projects but liquidating the stock then that is the trademark of a typical shell company and will work for the purposes above.
Most of The Works stock came from the US supply chain where, presumably, they sold rather less than Haynes expected. This wouldn't be the first time a UK company has been brought down by an American adventure.
 
I sent Infopro an email today suggesting three courses of action I felt they should consider taking:

1. Delay the termination of the Haynes line until June 2021; publish all the previously announced new titles with one print run each, and then they can do whatever they want. I told them I felt they owed that to the authors and the people who had been patiently waiting for these items to appear.
2. Issue them as ebooks only; not my first choice, but that would be better than nothing, and it would save them the costs of production, distribution and storage. After all, "digital" is in their name.
3. Split the Haynes line, keep the traditional automotive database (the real Owners' Workshop Manuals!) and sell off the "Practical Lifestyle" manuals (as Haynes calls them) to another British publisher, like Crecy, Helion, Osprey or Pen & Sword, or the Anglo-American Casemate.

Obviously, I don't have much hope that any of this will work, but I felt that I had to say something.
 

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