Major Reorganization at Random House

By Motoko Rich
Random HouseRandom House announced a sweeping reorganization of its publishing divisions, including the resignations of the heads of two of its largest groups

UPDATE: Motoko Rich’s full report on staff cuts across the book publishing industry can be read here.

After months of speculation, Random House, the world’s largest publisher of consumer books, announced a sweeping reorganization of its publishing divisions, including the resignations of the heads of two of its largest groups.

Irwyn Applebaum, publisher of Bantam Dell, an imprint that publishes authors including Dean Koontz and Danielle Steel, and Steve Rubin, publisher of Doubleday Publishing Group, which represents authors including John Grisham and Dan Brown, are stepping down from their posts.

The publishing industry has been awaiting news about a reorganization at Random House ever since Bertelsmann, the German media conglomerate that owns the publishing group, appointed Markus Dohle, formerly head of the company’s printing unit, to head Random House. Most people assumed that he would consolidate some imprints and make staffing changes.

In a memo to staff, Mr. Dohle announced changes that elevated the roles of Gina Centrello, head of the company’s so-called Little Random unit, Sonny Mehta, head of the venerable Alfred A. Knopf group and Jenny Frost, president of the Crown Publishing Group, publisher of two memoirs by president elect Barack Obama.

In the new organization, Ms. Centrello will now oversee the Random House Publishing Group, which includes the Ballantine division, as well as the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, the Dial Press and a relatively new imprint of Doubleday, Spiegel & Grau.

Mr. Mehta’s empire will expand to include the Doubleday and Nan A. Talese imprints, lately known as the publisher of James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces.”

Ms. Frost will take over several imprints from the Doubleday Group, including Doubleday Business, Doubleday Religion and WaterBrook Multomah.

In his memo, Mr. Dohle said that the Ballantine, Bantam Dell and Random House imprints would maintain separate editorial departments. Mr. Dohle said that each imprint could continue to bid on new books independently at auctions and would remain autonomous in decisions about what and how to publish.

Mr. Dohle noted that “because of the current economic crisis, our industry is facing some of the most difficult times in publishing history” but did not announce any layoffs. In October, Doubleday laid off 10 percent of its staff.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

J Dinman December 3, 2008 · 12:18 pm

Big deal – it amounts to a reshuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic. Rather than elevating people from within, the major publishers need to bring in people with extensive consumer marketing experience who understand how to create buzz. Publishing better wake up and realize that it is part of the ENTERTAINMENT industry, and borrow 21st century publicity tactics from their film, TV and internet brethren. Otherwise the industry is doomed to market to an ever shrinking core audience, selling bibles to Baptists, while the rest of the world watches YouTube.

benbarr December 3, 2008 · 1:01 pm

you need the sharpest people with the right instincts in the publishing business, top to the bottom

Anonymous December 3, 2008 · 1:06 pm

Oh, man, has J Dinman (#1) got it right. I’ve just had a publishing experience. The self righteous insistence on the parts of publishing professionals that they’ve got it just right, while their actions and techniques prove useless, is astonishing. More astonishing is the fact that better and more sophisticated marketing techniques, strategies, and creativity are on view all around them, and STILL they cling to narrow minded, entrenched routines.

CJ December 3, 2008 · 1:15 pm

The publishing industry will never retain the type of talent it needs – particuarly at the bottom – if it continues to pay abysmally low wages. I know of too many young people with tremendous intelligence, skills and enthusiasm who have left this industry for finance and other industries just so that they can afford to have an apartment without a roommate.

maribel December 3, 2008 · 1:17 pm

You may shuffle all you want to make the publishing business a more thriving entity, my view is that we need better authors. As a voracious reader, I am dismayed by the lousy stories and poor quality of writing that are selected by editors. Cut down on inventory and upgrade quality; and stop giving mega-deals to celebrities; its all hype, and we readers are tired of it.

John, Sterling, Va. December 3, 2008 · 1:21 pm

It would seem an exhumed Bennett Cerf would do as good a job, if not better.

oldreallyoldfeminist December 3, 2008 · 1:23 pm

What needs to happen is for educators to excite children about reading, parents to turn off the TV, computer and downsize the kids activities schedule and make time and room for reading.
The US has fewer readers than ever and the result is that we have a populous incapable of critical thinking and debate.

Jeff December 3, 2008 · 1:23 pm

Better marketing? Sharper people? Excuse me, but the only thing that will prevent the book publishing business from continually shrinking is raise new generations of people who read more than text messages on their iPhones. Note to parents: turn off the TV, unpug the computer, hide the cell phone and let your kid discover something amazing: their imaginations fueld by good books and their own brains.

Virginia Marks December 3, 2008 · 1:27 pm

There is PLENTY of grea talent inside Random House. They are the most progressive house in publishing today, and they will continue to be such if they utilize the people they have.

Anna B December 3, 2008 · 1:27 pm

Thank you, CJ and Maribel, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve had to ask my parents for money just so that my boyfriend and I can buy groceries. I never thought I’d get sick of pasta, but four times a week is pushing it. So much for graduate school, what a waste that was…

Miande December 3, 2008 · 1:29 pm

#1 is exactly the sort of mindset that will kill literacy, and hency publishing, in this country.

KMMT December 3, 2008 · 1:32 pm

The problem is not only within the publishing houses, but also extends to the hold big coorporate block stores have on the publishers. How can new, interesting authors and titles make it in the market place if there are only a very small handful of book buyers out there dictating what becomes the best seller list? With the number of small indie bookstores in decline, and the rise of Borders, B&N, and Costco as the major booksellers the off-beat and forwarding thinking voice of the indie book buyer has been all but silenced. The publishing houses need to realize this and being to more aggressively advertize titles they believe in, rather than simply churning out more of the same old thing by the same old formula authors.

c holland December 3, 2008 · 1:35 pm

ever since the midtown publishers sold out to european companies the whole industry has been slumping; their sole interest is the bottom line, not american literature, and it shows. i agree with maribel (#5)–better writers, better editors, better proofreading, better design–bring back the midlist. give up the american idol approach to books, where there’s only one winner, and use the internet and the web to develop markets and to reach readers across the spectrum. people are hungry for good writing. bring quality, pride and innovation back to american publishing and profits will follow. go simply for profit and you get schlock.

BG December 3, 2008 · 1:36 pm

“The publishing industry will never retain the type of talent it needs – particuarly at the bottom – if it continues to pay abysmally low wages…”
– I second that, CJ.

As a former worker bee for the publishing industry (albeit, academic publishing, but still), I was quite dismayed – not only with the wages, but with the low-level menial work required. I realize “someone’s got to do it,” but it seems like those clerical jobs could be better suited to interns or the like rather than wasting the time of college grads or even postgrads!

All that said, I’m still a die-hard subscriber to the turn off the TV, open a book mantra. Hopefully, truly new great work will emerge in the coming years, despite our economic crisis.

Patricia A. Guthrie December 3, 2008 · 1:40 pm

Boy oh boy oh boy.

I agree with almost everything that’s been said.
that’s unique for me.

I agree they need to pay their editors higher salaries. Then, maybe authors wouldn’t have to wait six hundred years before someone reads them–or even worse, maybe they wouldn’t be orphaned before they even begin.

I do agree that some of these stupid celebrity books shouldn’t be published, but I’d love to see some of the midlisters take their place. We’re not seeing a tremendous amount of new writing talent. That’s a shame.

Unfortunately, with the kids (and I taught school) kids tend to go with what’s new and hip. I think there will be some media merging. (books on tape and ereaders have started that off.) I believe they also are including music in some of the on-tape books, but I couldn’t swear to it.

Patricia A. Guthrie
Author

Laura December 3, 2008 · 1:44 pm

Amen, maribel! (#5) Fantastic authors are out there, but get drowned out if they do not think the world begins and ends with PR.

In response to #1, if I want fluffy entertainment alone, I won’t pick up a book. Defamer.com works nicely for me, in that regard. I don’t want the publishing industry to run on the same turf/expectations/model as the entertainment industry. If you wish to watch a book on screen, go right ahead.

Liz December 3, 2008 · 1:46 pm

It’s about time. Publishing has not practiced truly effective marketing and PR for decades. Couple that with folks not reading anymore and you have a dying industry, located in the most expensive city to run a business out of, addled with inflated salaries, absurd advances for books that will never sell and a public that could not care less.

Will book publishing cease? No. But is it due for a significant shakeup? Overdue.

Yanna December 3, 2008 · 1:47 pm

You can’t trick people into thinking a book is something it’s not. Books aren’t movies, and publishing cannot continue to rely on a business model lifted from Hollywood. Big name authors who get HUGE advances simply can’t provide the sort of big “opening weekend” (or huge pub date sales) as they Hollywood counterparts do We (yes, I’m in the industry) need to scale back drastically on the huge advances that don’t earn out & the bloated 22-city tours that stroke author egos. As for starting salaries: I’d be happy to continue to make my middling, middle-manager salary if I knew I could continue to publish quality books. Most of my colleagues would agree that this work is incredibly satisfying and worth the material sacrifice, and that the lack of talent isn’t the problem. Some of the smartest people I know work right down the hall from me—-and some of them just got fired.

wordsworth December 3, 2008 · 1:47 pm

Random House and the whole industry is a giant sinking ship, they might as well be in Detroit. The exorbitant advances that some of these so-called “celebrity books” command rarely pays off and takes money away from quality authors. The internal systems from manuscript to finished book are antiquated and so overly complicated that it’s no wonder they’re losing money. This industry needs to wake up from their ivory towers and realize that the machinery doesn’t work anymore.

Ted, Chicago December 3, 2008 · 1:47 pm

Sharp fresh writing will be the only way. The industry must be changed by books that build a legitimate buzz through their quality and insight. (Which there is actually not a shortage of, believe it or not.) It’s about time that some of the old monsters started to sway. It is exactly what happened to the other media industries, like the music industry. Or TV, which is already watching its viewership shift to the internet. Reading styles are changing, the internet is changing the way that people read and access published works.
We shouldn’t fight outside technology, we should use it to offer new opportunities to access published materials and to publish on demand. We need an itunes for the publishing world, we need a kindle that costs less than a months rent. Ebooks, graphic novels, and smaller presses with smaller print runs are opening new markets that are not yet viable for the old behemoths. They should evolve and invest or they’re going to get what’s coming to them.

Mark, Brooklyn December 3, 2008 · 1:47 pm

We are amassing a large collection of books so that our two young children will be among the few who know what these things are when our fabulous culture completes its mission to destroy all remnants of the soul and intellect.

Serdar Yegulalp December 3, 2008 · 1:49 pm

Among the things that need to go: the silly insistence on prestige and frivolous presentation that are bolstered by the booksellers. Charging $25 for a hardback right out of the gate, when the same book can be had for less than half of that in a trade paperback edition, is just plain silly. Dump hardbacks entirely — they’re a complete waste of money and shelf space.

formerknopfauthor December 3, 2008 · 1:50 pm

My first book was for Knopf and their marketing policy was to dump books after two years if it didn’t sell x copies. The book went on to another publisher and is still in print and doing well after twelve years. That’s the Random House style — big advances, hoopla and no back lists. They need to follow the lead of U. Cambridge Press and others who take their list to POD and keep it active. Cut the big advances, invest in POD printing and marketing, hire good editors at decent wages and cut back on inventory, which is bloody expensive. I agree with earlier comments that the announced changes are minimal and inconsequential.

So not true December 3, 2008 · 1:52 pm

The truth is the money and glory is in academic publishing. You will never be laid off there and you get to go to conferences in fun places like Buffalo in winter…I regret having left academic publishing because I know if I stuck with it for another ten years I could have been a senior assistant editorial assistant.

Cameron S. December 3, 2008 · 1:54 pm

The big payouts of Hollywood to stars and other people with dubious “talents” will not be around forever either. Working for a few weeks and making $30 million dollars is not healthy for movie business and there has been a long decline in this business model as well The Hollywood business model is extremely flawed. It is not a good idea to compare them or think the book business should emulate them.