Archives for July 2022

As Congress’s January 6 hearings start to wind down, just four-tenths of a mile away at the District Court of Columbia Federal Court publishing’s own must-follow trial is due to start on August 1. The Department of Justice’s suit to block Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster — henceforth to be called A3 for brevity (August/Antitrust; three weeks of trial) — can be viewed by many in publishing in a similar vein as J6: A laborious investigation culminates with a public airing of findings that few expect to alter the course of the events, no matter what they […]

The A3 trial begins on August 1, in the Washington District Court of Columbia Federal Court, at 333 Constitution Avenue. The nearest landmark is the National Gallery of Art’s East Building, which just reopened after a renovation. Teams PRH and S&S and their counsel are reported to all be staying at the St. Regis, right near the White House (with a DC outpost of PJ Clarke’s right across the street). Consider it the Frankfurter Hof of the trial — though agents and executives called by the government as their witnesses may keep their distance. It’s a long walk (1.7 miles) […]

It’s no surprise that experts tell us the case may really come down to the judge more than the minutiae of the case. As a relatively novel allegation of monopsony rather than monopoly, with very little relevant or controlling decisions on the books, the verdict rests on whether Judge Florence Pan winds up moving the court’s position forward (and away from decades of primarily Bork-based reading of antitrust.) A longtime local judge on the Washington, DC Superior Court, Judge Pan is new to the Federal bench, but very much a rising star. Appointed by President Biden, she joined the DC […]

Over the weekend, preliminary witness lists were filed for the upcoming trial. Perhaps most notable is that the government intends to call longtime Scribner/S&S marquee author Stephen King early in the proceedings. (He is likely to follow HBG USA ceo Michael Pietsch*, and literary agent Ayesha Pande). Following the revelation on Friday that PRH has hired former literary agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh as an “expert witness” — now listed as their first witness — the publisher also expects to call agent Andrew Wylie among others (cue comical UK headlines about “The Jackal”). Here is a broader look at industry people […]

Yes, the pending trial is serious business, with a lot of money and the power structure of big publishing on the line, but for many of us, it’s a first-time encounter with understanding (and having to explain to your family) “monopsony”– which, after a weekend spent with hundreds of pages of legal documents, starts sounding a lot like the unforgettable Sesame Street song. In their original complaint, the DOJ alleges that allowing PRH to acquire S&S “would likely result in substantial harm to authors” by “leaving hundreds of authors with fewer alternatives and less leverage.” They suggest that the combined […]

An open question for everyone following along — and a critical issue for agents and authors whose deals will be discussed — is how the court will treat the “highly confidential” information that was garnered and discussed during discovery and deposition, with promises that key details would not be revealed at trial. In pre-trial filings, the government indicates that, “Confidential exhibits will be kept out of public video during in-court testimony (i.e., turning off gallery monitors) and kept under seal until the end of trial. Partially confidential exhibits may be publicly displayed with the confidential portions redacted; confidential portions will […]