People 7/22

DK announced a restructuring internally and will lay off an unspecified number of people across different teams and departments, the Bookseller reports. Reasons cited include a decline in education and translation markets, as well as backlist; inflation; and high costs. While the total number of job cuts is not specified, the reductions are significant enough that the company will engage in consultation with unions as well as individual employees, due to “the number of roles impacted.”

CEO Paul Kelly wrote in an email to staff, “Like all successful businesses, we need to respond to wider market and economic challenges to protect ourselves for the future. After a thorough review, we are today proposing some difficult but necessary changes to our structure. This includes the proposed removal of a number of roles across different teams and departments.”

The email continues, “The reasons vary – in some areas, market conditions mean we should no longer invest; in others, we are stopping activities where the value is no longer clear; and in some cases, we are restructuring to enable us to work more smartly and in line with delivering our strategy for growth.”

“Some markets – notably educational and several of our translation markets – have seen steep decline, affected by prolonged economic uncertainty and lower consumer confidence. This is having an impact on some parts of our backlist performance. At the same time, the cost of doing business remains high. Inflation has remained stubbornly high – notably the cost of paper, freight and distribution – and we are not expecting those pressures to ease in the near future.”

Liv Turner has been promoted to associate editor.

BenBella Books has partnered with Paradigm’s The Sports Group on an initiative pairing authors with athletes “focused on developing and packaging books as launchpads for film, TV, and franchise content under each client’s creative umbrella.” First titles include THE LAST HART BEATING by WWE star Natalya Neidhart, to be published in October.