US publishing houses Penguin and Random House merged in 2013, and the resulting company accounts for one in four consumer books sold every year. The mega-publisher has been jointly owned by UK-based Pearson and Germany-based Bertelsmann until now; Pearson is selling off its remaining stake in the company to Bertelsmann. The sale was entirely expected; Pearson is focusing more on its educational business, and it also needs the cash.
Publishers Weekly reports that Thomas Rabe, chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann and chairman of the board of directors at PRH, commented: “The increase to 100 percent [ownership] is a milestone for Bertelsmann. For us and our shareholders, the transaction is commercially attractive, as the share of Bertelsmann’s shareholders in group profit will increase by more than €70 million per year.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
