Hachette Book Group updated their office plans due to the Omicron variant, telling employees the company still “has not set a date” for a full return to their offices, ceo Michael Pietsch announced in a letter on Wednesday. As has been the case since August, employees who work in the offices will be required to be fully vaccinated, now amended with the note, “where permitted by law.” “We intend to return as soon in 2022 as we feel confident that we can bring people back to all of our offices safely, and we will provide at least four weeks’ notice […]
News
Scribner Will Stop Distribution of Sebold Memoir
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Scribner and Simon & Schuster announced that they would stop publication of Alice Sebold’s memoir LUCKY after the rape conviction at its center was overturned: “Following the recent exoneration of Anthony Broadwater, and in consultation with the author, Scribner and Simon & Schuster will cease distribution of all formats of Alice Sebold’s 1999 memoir Lucky while Sebold and Scribner together consider how the work might be revised.” Sebold also released a statement on Medium: “40 years ago, as a traumatized 18-year-old rape victim, I chose to put my faith in the American legal system. […]
PRH Employees Get Additional Time Off for Holidays
For most Penguin Random House office employees, the last day of work for 2021 is December 17, multiple employees confirmed to PL. In addition to previously scheduled vacation days, the company added December 20 through 23. (PRH has usually been closed for at least part of Christmas Eve, if not the whole day.) The extra rest is welcome in a year in which employees across the industry have struggled with burnout, and one employee attributed the move to “a job well done the other 50 weeks of this year.” Other large publishers did not respond to our queries about any […]
Assault Conviction Described in Sebold Memoir Overturned
The man convicted of the rape depicted in Alice Sebold’s 1999 memoir LUCKY was exonerated after 40 years this week. Anthony J. Broadwater, 61, had served 16 years in prison and then was registered as a sex offender for the crime, but always maintained his innocence. On Monday, a New York state judge overturned all of his charges, and his classification as a sex offender, due to flaws in the original trial—misconduct by the prosecution, now-discredited hair analysis, and Sebold’s misidentification of Broadwater. Timothy Mucciante, the former executive producer of the forthcoming Netflix film adaptation of LUCKY, helped bring the […]
AAP Expands Sustainability and DEI Work
The Association of American Publishers announced it is expanding its work into climate and sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in public policy, as voted on by its board of directors. AAP president and ceo Maria A. Pallante said, “By focusing AAP on diversity and sustainability challenges, the board is not only acknowledging the potential impact of change management within its own ranks, but also acknowledging its responsibility to future generations of publishers, authors, readers, and leaders.” AAP board chair Brian Napack, Wiley president and ceo, led the initiatives, creating working groups with representatives from across the industry “to […]
Scholastic Is No Waystar Royco
The NYT has an odd, meandering, meta piece on the succession of Iole Lucchese as the controlling owner of Scholastic and the paper’s efforts to cover that development, apparently timed to match the return of HBO’s show Succession rather than relating to the actual news from late July. Lucchese tells the paper the news that she was to inherit Dick Robinson’s controlling Class A shares in Scholastic, delivered the day after learning of his death, “was overwhelming.” She was told by Scholastic general counsel and co-executor of Robinson’s estate, Andrew Hedden. Not explored in the story is whether the company […]