Abstract

"Paperback Pioneers: WH Smith, Routledge and The Co-Creation of a Publishing Revolution"

Marrisa Joseph, Henley Business School, University of Reading (m.joseph@henley.ac.uk)

After 124 years there will no longer be a place for WH Smith on UK high streets after the brand was sold to Modella capital in March 2025 (Hooker, 2025). Yet, the brand has retained its travel division in hospitals, airports and train stations (Joseph, 2025). By prioritising these outlets WH Smith has gone full circle – returning to its Victorian roots as the leading retailer of books and newspapers in railway stations; the first bookstall opened in 1848. By 1850 WH Smith would embark on what would become an extremely profitable agreement with publishers George Routledge & Co., to supply books to the new market of readers who were travelling across the country by train. The partnership led to the popularisation of the yellowback (a precursor to the modern day paperback), combining affordability, portability, and visual appeal to reach a rapidly expanding readership (Hulse, 2011). This was a pivotal innovation in the history of popular publishing, yet there has been little discussion in a business context as to how it emerged as a co-creation between Routledge and Smith.
The paper examines the business practices of Smith and Routledge, to further explore how their activities prompted a dynamic shift in the Victorian publishing industry, which led to the yellowback becoming a dominant literary product. Drawing on archival material and published historical sources, the paper traces how yellowbacks helped to bring literature to the mass market, and how they laid the groundwork for the modern day paperback. Ultimately, it argues that the yellowback was a collaborative innovation in production and distribution that reshaped reading habits, challenged literary hierarchies, and democratised access to print in ways that continue to resonate in today’s publishing landscape.