Bertelsmann’s magazine division Gruner + Jahr — which they sold to Bertelsmann-controlled TV division RTL in 2021 — will retrench significantly, RTL Deutschland announced Tuesday. The company plans to close or sell 23 publications “against the background of the rapidly changing media landscape and the challenging macroeconomic situation” and focus on their core brands. Approximately 500 jobs will be eliminated at the Hamburg, Germany offices over the next few years, and they expect another 200 jobs to be transferred to new owners, from a total workforce of about 1900 people. “Costs will be reduced in all areas, especially in the […]
Archives for February 2023
Non-Union Harper Employees Discuss Workload, In-House Morale, and Solidarity
As the Harper Union marks its 64th business day picketing outside of the company’s financial district headquarters, many non-union employees inside the building feel similarly disheartened and burned out as they take on the jobs of striking colleagues in addition to their own hefty workloads, and process the news that 5 percent of their number will be laid off by the end of June. PL spoke to non-union (and non-executive) Harper employees in various book-facing departments, who asked to remain anonymous, about their experiences during the months of the strike. Employees report that they’ve been working late nights and on […]
People 2/7
Linda Ewing has joined Coffee House Press as interim executive director.
Obituary: Jack Macrae III
Renowned editor and publisher John “Jack” Macrae III has died. He worked at Henry Holt for 35 years, where he published authors including two-time Booker winner Hilary Mantel and ran an eponymous imprint. Prior to that, he was publisher from 1968 to 1981 at “the family business,” E.P. Dutton, lead for nearly 100 years by Macraes (his grandfather and then his father) following the passing of Dutton himself. Dutton publisher Christine Ball and editor in chief John Parsley, who both worked at Holt in the early 2000s when Macrae ran his imprint there, said “Jack inspired all of us to […]
New Books Publishing February 7
This week’s fiction releases include novels by Salman Rushdie and Jojo Moyes. Mark Pomerantz’s Trump tell-all leads nonfiction, along with releases by Priscilla Gilman and Alex Prud’homme. And Tahereh Mafi, Nic Stone, and Dhonielle Clayton all publish new YA titles this month. Also out this week is Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong, which is excerpted in our Buzz Books 2022: Fall/Winter anthology. 34 works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-february-7 14 nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-february-7 26 children’s and YA titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-children-s-titles-publishing-in-february We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming three months through this reference page. But if […]
Forthcoming: Streisand Memoir ‘My Name is Barbra’
Barbra Streisand’s long-awaited memoir MY NAME IS BARBRA will be published by Viking on November 7. Titled after her 1965 album and television special, the deal was first announced in 2015. Streisand, who is 80, told Jimmy Fallon in 2021 that she had already written more than 800 pages.