Today’s announcement about the planned merger between BioOne and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Press is noteworthy for two reasons. First, while mergers and acquisitions are commonplace among commercial companies, they are rare among not-for-profits – the only one I’m personally aware of is the NISO/NFAIS merger, which happened just before I joined NISO in late 2019. Second, the most senior levels of our industry continue to be dominated by men, despite the fact that there are estimated to be around twice as many women working in scholarly publishing. And yet this merger was developed, led, and will be executed by three women: Lauren Kane (CEO, BioOne), and Barbara Kline Pope, and Wendy Queen (respectively, Executive Director and Chief Transformation Officer, Hopkins Press).

I’m very grateful to the three of them for this chance to discuss the union of their two highly-respected and successful organizations – why they decided to join forces, what they’ve learned along the way, what the future holds, and more.

Your two organizations have been working together for years — what sorts of things have you been collaborating on?

Lauren Kane: It’s hard to point to just one thing because we’ve been in each other’s orbit for so long. Our mutual adoption of Subscribe to Open is the most significant. Project MUSE was a year ahead of BioOne Complete with their implementation, and so we had the chance to learn a great deal from them — sharing in the excitement (and anxiety) of working on something new and novel. I think a thing that is rare and special is that we’ve never acted like competitors although of course we were in some sense. There’s always been a mutual respect that we were trying to solve the same problems from slightly different angles.

Wendy Queen: Right, that sentiment goes back decades. This formal merger wasn’t a sudden partnership — we’ve spent 20 years comparing notes, sometimes agreeing, sometimes challenging each other. There’s a comfort in that kind of history, but also a little pressure because you don’t want to risk the trusted relationship you’ve built.

Barbara Kline Pope: I walked into this relationship on day one. Literally it was my first week at Hopkins Press and BioOne was at the table at our Project MUSE advisory board meeting. At that time Wendy was director of Project MUSE. It was crystal clear that BioOne shared our mission and vision.

When and why did you first start talking about moving beyond collaboration to a formal integration — did the idea evolve over time or was there an “aha” moment?

Lauren: When I rejoined BioOne in 2022 as CEO, the organization was nearing its 25th anniversary. As the Board and I considered our strategic plan, we talked a lot about how to secure the mission not just for another five years, but for another 25, another 50 – long after we would all be involved. It’s a challenging and uncomfortable exercise that I encourage all organizations to consider.

One of the potential paths we identified during this process was the possibility of a merger: the opportunity to be stronger in tandem with another mission-aligned organization.

So, at that time, we began quietly talking to other nonprofits with shared values about potential avenues for partnership. There was a lot of interest, but over time it became clear that Hopkins wasn’t just a good fit — it was the fit.

Wendy: I’ll admit, I’d been thinking about a more formal structure for years — maybe even a decade. But thinking about something and doing it are very different things. It wasn’t until Lauren took the helm at BioOne that this idea started to really move forward. Just as BioOne was strategizing about the future, at Hopkins Press, we were developing our innovation plan. That plan included working to expand the disciplinary coverage in our aggregation business. BioOne’s biological, ecological, and environmental focus areas are a lovely complement to MUSE’s leadership in the humanities and social sciences. Everything in life is about timing, and suddenly about a year or so ago, the timing felt right.

Lauren: Exactly. It was less of an “aha” and more of a slow burn. We’d been building towards this for a long time, and now was the moment to go beyond mere collaboration and pursue something more ambitious.

What did the governance approval process look like? With the BioOne Board, they were voting for their own dissolution, did that present a challenge?

Lauren: [Laughs] The governance approval process – on both sides – was a big challenge. Understandably! I give the BioOne Board a huge amount of credit for their foresight and lack of ego in this endeavor. It’s not a simple matter to consider your own redundancy, even if you’re doing so for the sake of something far bigger than yourself. What’s more, BioOne is a robust and financially healthy organization, and so the Board was being asked to consider this move at a time of great strength.

To their credit, they kept coming back to the same question: will this serve the mission and our community better over the long term?

Barbara: On our side, it wasn’t simple either, but it was different. We laid out our plans for our Provost to consider, including a risk analysis. She spent quite a bit of time with us, asking some tough questions, but ultimately the upside was undeniably compelling. Still, the deal didn’t just sail through. We engaged in a substantial due diligence process. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t overlooking anything.

Lauren: We had a few non-negotiables: guarantees that we sought for the BioOne staff, for our partner publishers, and for preservation of the BioOne brand. The Board and I felt strongly that if we couldn’t protect these core things, the deal shouldn’t happen.

Barbara: We went back and forth on exactly how to best realize those guarantees. And now with all those decisions made, it has become even more clear that we will be stronger together. Beyond operational efficiencies, there are opportunities in shared infrastructure and systems, accessibility, and expanded reach, not to mention leveraging our scale to address the impacts of generative AI on discovery.

Transition periods are always difficult — it’s impossible to predict how everything will go! What plans and processes have you put into place to ensure the smoothest possible transition for stakeholders? 

Wendy: We’ve been intentional about putting people first. I know that the BioOne Board had at their top of mind the wellbeing of the BioOne staff. I believe that the Board appreciated the work that we do every day to make Hopkins Press an inclusive and learning culture. I can imagine that this deal wouldn’t have gone through otherwise. But still, we know that change is unsettling. So, we’ve put great effort into onboarding processes and transparent communication and removing as much uncertainty as possible from the transition. But there will be bumps. There always are.

Lauren: Absolutely. We’ve aligned on the big things — protecting staff, maintaining the brand, taking care of our publishers — but alignment doesn’t mean perfection. We know there will be tough moments despite everyone’s best intentions.

That being said, there’s a lot of continuity here: the entire BioOne team except for myself will be moving to Hopkins Press, and we’re retaining our partnership with SPIE for platform hosting, which means there will be no migration worries for our partners or users.

Barbara: And we are thinking about the impact on our existing staff at Hopkins Press too, of course. We acknowledge that not everyone will love this development. Some people are energized by change, while others find it challenging. That tension is real, and we need to recognize and address it thoughtfully.

The BioOne brand and product suite will remain intact under the Hopkins Press umbrella – why is that important and how do you see that evolving over time?

Lauren: If BioOne were to lose what has made it such a vibrant and impactful organization for the last 27 years, then what was the point? The goal isn’t to absorb and erase — it’s to strengthen. Of course, this is something that will need to be demonstrated over time. But the design of this merger is to be additive and not reductive: in financial sustainability, in services, and in future opportunities driven by scale.

Wendy: Yes, BioOne is a distinguished brand. That kind of history carries weight. We’re not interested in flattening that — we want to build on it.

Mergers and acquisitions are very much the norm in the commercial space, but rare for not-for-profits. Why is that and do you think this will change — will this inspire other not-for-profits to follow suit?

Lauren: There’s more M&A in the commercial world because typically, the biggest driver there is money — making more of it, saving more of it. With nonprofits, the double bottom line means that mission is of equal import. We asked ourselves, is this an opportunity to have a greater collective impact for our communities than we could have separately?

Let’s be honest. It’s incredibly hard to pursue a deal like this let alone to execute it. It takes a certain boldness and appetite for risk that many organizations don’t possess, and sometimes with very good reason. But there is a conservatism at play with many nonprofit organizations that can also hold them back.

Wendy: It’s rare for a CEO to step aside in this way. Lauren, herself, is being bold and courageous.

Barbara: Agreed — she’s really putting her organization first. At the start of internal conversations about this merger, some people asked me why BioOne was doing this when everything looks so good. The answer was and is that Lauren and her Board are selfless and strikingly visionary.

Lauren: Thank you for that. I think it’s going to be difficult — perhaps impossible — for small not-for-profit publishers to face what is on the horizon without coming together more formally. So, I hope what we’re doing can be a powerful example of what is possible.

What have you learned from working together on this? What advice would you give others who are considering this kind of transformation?

Lauren: Choose your partner wisely — the success of the future union depends on the people with you in the process. Part of the reason why I’m so confident about this union is that we’ve been in the trenches for over a year and we’ve come through periods of conflict all the better for it. I can’t say enough about Wendy, Barbara, and the entire Hopkins team. They are such smart, creative, and thoughtful people to work with. I have no pause in seeing BioOne move to its new home because I know who is going to be behind this next phase, ensuring that it is a success.

Barbara:  Thanks so much for that vote of confidence, Lauren. Frankly, as we worked through this entire project, a bit of life experience didn’t hurt. We all know what it looks like when we make the wrong choices when it comes to partnering. So, we went into this with our eyes wide open. That probably made us more candid, more careful, and maybe a little tougher in the right moments.

We can’t end without asking what’s next for you, Lauren?

In the short term, I’ll be focused on the successful transition of BioOne into Hopkins Press. In the longer term, I’m interested in replicating this sort of transformation for other organizations in our space, whatever that might look like. I might need a long European holiday in there, too.