Last year Random House ceo Markus Dohle sent employees an e-holiday card rather than a year-end holiday letter (after providing RH US employees with a special $5,000 bonus as a “thank you payment” — accompanied by a brief note — after record earnings from Fifty Shades and other successes). This year, in his first as ceo of the merged Penguin Random House, Dohle has sent a year-end note to staff worldwide. He celebrates that “merger distractions have proven no match for your passion for our books and authors…. We haven’t changed what we did separately – we are now just […]
Archives for December 2013
IMG Sales Near Finish; Latest Lagardere Asset Sale
The long-running auction for talent and sports agency IMG may be limping to a conclusion rather than leaping there. Final bids were due on Friday, from William Morris Endeavor (and their private equity backer Silver Lake) and the partnership between Peter Chernin and CVC Capital. (By some accounts ICM dropped out already, but the NYT thinks they are still bidding, with financing from the Carlyle Group.) But all accounts speculate that the price will fall well below the $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion that the owners were looking for. Sources are indicating the bids are in the range of $2 […]
The Latest of The Best of The Best of 2013
We’ve logged another dozen lists on our aggregated Best of the Best of 2013 lists — most recently the Wall Street Journal’s favorite fiction and nonfiction; and picks from Lucas Wittmann and the annual can’t-miss from our own very well read Sarah Weinman. In fiction, the favorites continue to pull away from the rest, but the competition remains very tight — with an unprecedented five titles all among the top selections of the year. (Usually by this time a particular book — Bring Up the Bodies, The Tiger’s Wife, or Freedom — has pulled away from the pack.) Best of the […]
People: On Richard Gallen, 80
Longtime publishing attorney and investor Richard Gallen, 80, died on December 3 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He began his career in 1961 as an attorney with Dell Publishing. In the 1970s and 1980s, Gallen ran a wide variety of publishing enterprises and he provided financial backing and counsel to Baen Books, Tor, Publishers Group West, Carroll & Graf, and, most recently, in 2008, The Experiment. He also cofounded GSL Publishing Associates, in 1996, with Tony Schulte and David Lamb, which operated until 2011. Those wishing to make memorial gifts are asked to considerthe Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research or the […]
The January Library Reads List
The new library initiative from 2013 announced the Library Reads list of recommended titles for January 2013: The Dead In their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World, by Rachel Cantor The Wind Is Not a River by Brian Payton Orfeo by Richard Powers The Kept by James Scott Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart The First True Lie by Marina Mander In other lists, Shelf Awareness posted their top books for […]
People
At Holiday House, Kelly Loughman has been promoted to associate editor and Sally Morgridge moves up to assistant editor. Samantha Ferguson has joined Insight Editions as international sales director and vp, business development. Previously she was director of animation sales at VIZ Media. Colin Wilson, author of over 100 books of fiction and nonfiction who remained best known for his first book, The Outsider, died on December 5 from complications of pneumonia. He was 82. To correct yesterday’s item, Zack Clark has been promoted to associate editor at Scholastic. On Wednesday, Robin Desser at Knopf was presented with the Center […]