In May 1907 Alfred H. Reed and his wife Isobel established their own bookselling and publishing business in Dunedin, New Zealand, initially concentrating on Sunday School supplies. In 1925 Alfred's nephew Alexander Wycliff Reed (q.v.) joined the firm and the company moved to new headquarters. By 1932 the business had grown to such an extent that a new branch was set up in Wellington, and the company decided to broaden its activities into general trade publishing. The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden was the first major book to be published, and the first truly secular book was the classic Tales of the Maori Bush by James Cowan, published in 1934. For the new venture into general publishing, A.W. Reed designed a logo incorporating the raupo, or reed, a distinctive symbol that is still used on Reed books today.
During World War II the company moved its headquarters to Wellington and closed its Dunedin office. With A.W. Reed as managing director, the company was registered as A.H. & A.W. Reed and subsequent books were published under this company name. In 1957 there were 300 Reed books in print, 60 of which had been authored by A.H. and A.W. Reed. The company had also diversified into publishing magazines and photographic sets, and in 1958 established Kiwi Records, which later released the first records by Kiri Te Kanawa and Malvina Major. A.H. & A.W. Reed became a public company in 1961, and A.W. Reed remained managing director until 1966. The publishing house extended to Sydney in 1963 and published works of Australian literature and history. The 1960s marked a new level of success for Reed Books, and many bestsellers ensued, including Mona Anderson's A River Rules My Life, and A Good Keen Man by Barry Crump. Meanwhile the educational side of the business, Read Educational, continued to grow, expanding into publishing for primary and secondary levels.
In 1984, Reed merged with Methuen to become Reed Methuen, and moved its headquarters to Auckland. In 1987 the British Publishing Group Octopus Publishing acquired Reed Methuen and merged the company with Heinemann New Zealand to form Octopus Publishing (NZ). For a short time books were published under the Heinemann Reed imprint but today they appear under the Reed name. Subsequently, the coincidentally named Reed International, a UK-based publishing conglomerate not affiliated with the A.H. & A.W. Reed firm, acquired the Octopus Group of companies. In 1992 Reed International renamed Octopus Publishing (NZ) as Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd. In 1993 Reed merged with the Dutch Company Elsevier to form the Reed Elsevier group, which has activities worldwide.
The company publishes three imprints: Reed Books, Reed Children's Books, and Heinemann (educational books).
