Now: Penguin-Random

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The New York Times wrote today that Bertelsmann, the owner of Random House, and Pearson, which owns Penguin, said that they had reached an agreement to combine the two publishing houses to create the largest consumer book publisher in the world.

It is said, the deal would give the combined companies greater scale (and a global market share of more than 25 percent) to deal with the challenges arising from the growth of electronic books and the power of Internet retailers. Google? Apple? Amazon?

Together, Penguin Random House would have a book list that includes contemporary best sellers like Random House’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” and Penguin’s back list of classics from authors including George Orwell. Read the article about the book publishing industry “getting smaller to get stronger”.

According to Wickipedia Pearson has quite a few imprints:  Allen Lane, Avery, Dial, Dutton, Dorling, Berkley Books, Grosset & Dunlap, Ladybird, Plume, Puffin, Penguin, Putnam,Michael Joseph, Riverhead, Rough Guides, and Viking among others.

Among Bertelmanns some 2000 subdivisions, subsidiaries, and branches are Random House, RTL Group, Gruner + Jahr, Arvato, and BMG Rights Management.  Bertelsmann is majority owned (77.4%) by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a non-profit organisation and political think tank founded by the Mohn family. The Mohn family owns the remaining 22.6% of the company.

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Pingates

 

E-Book Sales

E-book sales are “far out-stripping even the most ambitious industry predictions”

Markus Dohle, chief executive of the worldwide Random House / Bertelsmann group, has reported triple-digit-percentage growth in digital-publishing sales, up 250% from the previous year. According to the company, some US fiction titles now have as much as half of their first-weeks sales in the e-book format.

The messages are clear here:

• it is publishing globally, though with local expertise
• it is investing in new emerging technologies, including apps and enhanced content
• and is working to keep the established supply chain profitable

Marcus Dohle started an e-book offensive that will make thousands of additional Random House titles available in digital form. “The digital age is now. E-books are the format of choice for a steadily growing group of people who like to read books on a screen,” believes the Random House CEO. 

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Hyper Smash