Markus Dohle Steps Down as Penguin Random House CEO
publishersweekly.com – Saturday December 10, 2022
Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle has relinquished his position at the head of the publisher, just weeks after a federal judge blocked the publisher’s attempt to acquire rival Big Five publisher Simon & Schuster. In a December 9 announcement, officials at PRH parent company Bertelsmann said Dohle will step down as CEO and resign his seat on the Bertelsmann executive board at the end of 2022 “at his own request and on the best of mutual terms,” though he will continue to serve in an undefined “advisory" role.
“Following the antitrust decision in the U.S. against the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, I have decided, after nearly 15 years on the Executive Board of Bertelsmann and at the helm of our global publishing business, to hand over the next chapter of Penguin Random House to new leadership,” Dohle said in a statement. “I have led our global book business with great enthusiasm and passion and I am proud of what we have achieved together.”
Literary agent Gregory to retire at the end of the year
thebookseller.com – Thursday December 8, 2022
Literary agent Jane Gregory has announced she is retiring at the end of the year.
She told industry colleagues: “The day has come at last when I retire from agenting and move on the next stage of my life, which I hope and expect to involve a great deal of fun, travel, getting up late, burning the midnight oil, writing ‘disgusted of Deal’ letters, extending my sea swimming season from May to September into the autumn..., reducing my ‘to be read’ pile of books, ‘spending more time with my family’ and I am sure that there are other things out there…”
Hachette UK acquires Welbeck Publishing Group
thebookseller.com – Monday December 5, 2022
Hachette UK has acquired independent Welbeck Publishing Group for an undisclosed sum, with an agreement made between the shareholders of Welbeck and Hachette UK on 30th November 2022.
Welbeck’s gift, illustrated and adult trade publishing will become part of Headline Publishing Group and Welbeck’s children’s list will become part of Hachette Children’s Group.
Hachette UK says the acquisition of Welbeck is part of its longer-term strategy to diversify into specialist areas by acquiring publishers that are “leaders in their field”; in recent years its acquisitions have included Paperblanks, Bookouture, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Laurence King, Summersdale, John Catt Educational and Short Books.
More than 150 literary agents to stop submitting books to HarperCollins US in support of striking workers
thebookseller.com – Thursday December 1, 2022
More than 150 literary agents have signed an open letter pledging not to submit new projects to HarperCollins US in support of workers at the company who are on strike.
Negotiations between management and the union began in December 2021 and in October 2022 union members overwhelmingly voted for another strike, following a one day walk-out in July, to take place from 10th November.
Chelsea Hensley, an associate assistant at the KT Literary Agency, organised the open letter in support of the striking workers, and the signatories include a number of other KT Literary Agency staff including founder and senior literary agent Kate Testerman, a number of Aevitas Creative Management staff, including director of foreign rights Erin Files and senior agent Jen Marshall and several people from Janklow & Nesbit, including agents Melissa Flashman and Mina Hamedi.
Astra House Shuts Its Literary Magazine
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday November 30, 2022
Astra Publishing House announced that its literary publication, Astra Magazine, is being shut down. The magazine published the first of its two issues in April, and the company said there will be no third issue. All operations, including web publication, will be closed by the end of the year.
The magazine was led by editor-in-chief Nadja Spiegelman, deputy editor Samuel Rutter, and managing editor Medaya Ocher. Its first two issues included prize-winning fiction, essays, poetry and comics from authors around the world. The magazine’s website featured criticism and personal essays, and promoted the work of emerging writers and artists. It had attracted 50,000 unique visitors each month.
Introducing Two Vocal Writing Contests
medium.com – Monday November 28, 2022
I recently joined Vocal Media and posted an article about my experience with this interesting platform. Those who missed it can view the article via the following link.
In this post, I’d like to mention another benefit of Vocal Media for writers. It is called writing challenges. After looking into them, I was surprised by the prizes.
Currently, Vocal has two challenges. I’d like to briefly introduce them.
The first one is called the Mystery Box Challenge.
Penguin scraps $2.2bn deal to buy rival publisher
bbc.co.uk – Tuesday November 22, 2022
Publishing giant Penguin Random House has scrapped a $2.2bn (£1.9bn) planned takeover of rival Simon & Schuster.
Last month, a US court blocked the deal, saying it could "substantially" weaken competition in the industry.
Penguin's parent company Bertelsmann said Paramount Global, the owner of Simon & Schuster, decided not to appeal the ruling.
The proposed deal would have cemented Penguin Random House's position as the world's largest book publisher.
"We believe the judge's ruling is wrong" the company said in a statement.
"However, we have to accept Paramount's decision not to move forward," it added.
‘Very scary time’ for Irish book publishers as print and paper costs soar
irishtimes.com – Monday November 21, 2022
Irish book publishers say it is a “very scary” time for the industry, with supply chain issues and the rising cost of paper and printing putting significant pressure on profitability.
Ivan O’Brien, managing director of O’Brien Press, said the company’s costs have risen “massively”, with increases of about 50 per cent.
“As we got squeezed from every other angle, print availability at a reasonable cost was something that we could rely on, and that is now gone,” he said.
“Timelines have also extended substantially, with another couple of weeks added to the schedule for most projects. Prices will have to go up, but it is unlikely that the market will take the level of increase required for the numbers to work. It’s very scary.”
Redfern returns to publishing to join Headline
thebookseller.com – Wednesday November 16, 2022
Martin Redfern, currently executive director at Northbank Talent Management, will be joining the non-fiction team at Headline Publishing Group as publisher on 6th February 2023.
Redfern has been a literary agent for nearly six years and is responsible for the agency’s non-fiction books representation. His clients include Iain Dale, Chris Mason, Paul Brand, Brian Cox, Anthony Seldon and Camilla Cavendish.
Before that, as editorial director at HarperCollins and BBC Books, Redfern published authors ranging from Peter Mandelson, John Major and Simon Schama to Jonathan Dimbleby, Dan Snow and Tom Burgis.
UK faces ‘serious loss of writing talent’ due to rising costs, Writers’ Guild survey finds
thebookseller.com – Wednesday November 16, 2022
The UK is facing a “serious loss of writing talent” due to the rising cost of living, a survey conducted by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) has found.
Of 250 writers surveyed by the trade union, 55% said that rising energy and food costs were impacting their ability to sustain a writing career, with other factors including having less time to work as a writer, or apply for funding, development schemes or other opportunities.
More than two thirds (67%) reported having to rely on their savings in order to manage day-to-day expenditure, while 37% said they had to rely on their partners’ earnings. Moreover, more than 70% of respondents had earned £18,000 or less for their writing work in the last financial year. The majority (over 80%) said they were freelance writers.
Get the free newsletter | Submit a news item or article | Get Writers' News for your website
