Penguin Random House aims to bookend Amazon's rule

Almost overnight, the New York book publishing landscape got a lot smaller—or bigger, if you happen to work for Random House or Penguin, which last week became the publishing industry behemoth Penguin Random House. With more than 10,000 employees, the new global publisher will control 25% of the market for general-interest books, putting out more than 15,000 titles—from Dan Brown's thrillers to Khaled Hosseini's best-sellers—from nearly 250 imprints and houses.Random House parent Bertelsmann, the German media giant, holds 53% of the new company, while Penguin's London-based parent, Pearson, maintains 47%. For the foreseeable future, Random House will stay put in midtown and Penguin will continue operating down on Hudson Street.The move to consolidate comes as publishers look for more bargaining power with Amazon, which dominates retailing while competing as a publisher. The New York houses are also looking for efficiencies in their two businesses—physical books, which require warehousing, and ebooks, which demand innovation.The Penguin Random merger was completed just days after Hachette Book Group announced its purchase of Disney's Hyperion, an essentially defunct adult general-interest imprint. Hachette gets a catalog of 1,000 titles and 25 yet-to-be published books, Disney can focus on children's books and television-related franchise titles, and Hyperion becomes a Hachette imprint. Continue reading at 'Crains New York'

[ Crains New York | 2013-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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