utb is a group of highly respected, medium-sized private publishers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They co-operate in university textbook publishing under the label utb for more than thirty disciplines.
utb is a unique model of co-operation where publishers share the advantages of a bigger entity without renouncing individually the essential elements of publishing: the choice of what and how to publish and bearing the financial risk.
It all started in the late 1960s when an emerging mass market in education demanded textbooks and paperback editions of scholarly books at reasonable prices. For all their knowledge and experience in all matters editorial, and catalogues teeming with classics and highly recommended reading, smaller publishers failed to gain access to the market.
In the face of these challenges, a small group of 11 renowned scholarly publishers in Germany joined forces to produce a common series of textbooks and classics. While the typesetting and the printing of the books are being done by the individual publishers, utb produces the covers of the books and is in charge of marketing and distribution. In business terms, utb is a private company of which the publishers and utb each hold shares.
