McGraw Hill has announced it had entered into a transaction support agreement that would extend its debt maturity through late 2024. Its revolving credit facility would also be extended, to November 2023. “The Transaction will address upcoming maturities and reduce First Lien leverage without materially increasing total leverage or cash interest expense,” according to a company report. The refinancing plan still requires additional approvals from first lien term loan holders. The company’s annual report, released in June, noted “substantial indebtedness” as a risk factor, “restrict[ing] our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry and expos[ing] us […]
Education
People, Etc.
Kelsey Nolan has joined Ze Books and Unnamed Press as a publicity and marketing manager. She previously worked at the Los Angeles Times as the events programming manager. Cindy Kim has been promoted to associate editor for Little Simon. Andree Abecassis, 81, died November 4 at home in Berkeley, CA, following a brief struggle with cancer. For many years she worked at Ann Elmo Agency, founded by two of her aunts, and recently she had started working with Heyday Books. Best of 2020 The New York Public Library released their Best Books package, which includes top 10s for adults, poetry, […]
News Corp CEO Says PRH Would Face Antitrust Fight Over Simon & Schuster
News Corp. ceo Robert Thomson said in answer to a question at the company’s annual meeting he has no doubt that Penguin Random House would face major regulatory issues in the US if they were to prevail in the bidding to acquire Simon & Schuster. “It will clearly be a serious antitrust issue if Bertelsmann acquires Simon & Schuster,” Thomson said. “However cute and clever the structure, if Bertelsmann is a beneficiary, it will be a book behemoth. And this will certainly be a profound antitrust issue for the entire book industry and no doubt for authors around the world.” […]
Briefs: New Books From Franzen and Bridges, Chronicle Expands In Games and Toys
Forthcoming FSG will publish a new novel by Jonathan Franzen, titled CROSSROADS, the first in his trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies, in October 2021. The publisher writes that the novel is “the beginning of a story that encompasses all the ‘mythologies’—the political, religious, and intellectual crosscurrents—that have animated and troubled American life in recent decades.” FSG president Jonathan Galassi said, “Franzen has been universally recognized as the leading novelist of his generation, an inheritor of Steinbeck and Faulkner. He has been telling us the inner history of contemporary America in novel after novel, from The Twenty-Seventh City to The Corrections to Freedom, culminating now […]
Denver’s Publishing Institute Will Go Online This Summer
The University of Denver’s Publishing Institute (DPI) summer program is going online for the 2020 session, the institute announced Tuesday, “in order to balance student health with the need to preserve the DPI student experience.” The program itself is “mostly unchanged,” with the same instructors, curriculum, and assignments. Most classes will be taught live, but “the online format allows for pre-recorded sessions that students may view when it is most convenient to them.” The application period is open through June 1, and tuition remains unchanged at $4810. The institute is enhancing the program’s networking component “by taking advantage of technology […]
McGraw-Hill Shifts Fiscal Year
On the heels of its cancelled merger with Cengage, McGraw-Hill today issued a limited “preliminary Q4 and full-year report”– or otherwise put, announced that it is delaying full financial reporting for the quarter until mid-June, and changing their fiscal year. The company already reported a fourth quarter, ending December 31, back in early March — but the new report reflects a shift to a fiscal year ending March 31, which they say will better align with seasonal industry cycles. The preliminary report, which lacks full financials, touts their digital growth and provides minor updates on how COVID-19 has affected the […]