THE jobs of more than 130 hi-tech publishing workers are in the balance after WH Smith announced it wants to sell off an Oxford-based multimedia publisher.

Helicon, which was one of the first publishers in Britain to embrace the electronic revolution, lost £2m last year and WH Smith is now holding talks with potential buyers after admitting it is the "wrong owner".

The business publishes the Hutchinson encyclopaedias and other reference books, in print and on CD-Rom, and also brought three-dimensional, interactive crosswords to UK websites. It employs 51 staff and a further 80 on a freelance basis. Tim Hely-Hutchinson, of WH Smith, said: "We certainly hope to preserve as many jobs as possible but that will be a decision for the purchaser.

"Helicon publishes wonderful reference books and probably the best single-volume reference encyclopaedia there is.

"We feel Helicon will be better off owned by a specialist reference publisher. We think we are the wrong owners."

WH Smith paid £5.6m for Helicon three years ago in a bid to prove it was serious about becoming the next big Internet book retailer. It also bought the Oxford-based Internet Bookshop, which the high street giant has integrated into its Internet service.

Helicon, which earlier this year moved from Hythe Bridge Street to Cornmarket Street, was founded in 1993 in a management buyout from the Hutchinson reference division of Random House publishers.

Computer software company Microsoft took a stake in the company in 1996.

business@nqo.com