Random House Announces Internal Reorganization
Posted on December 3, 2008
Random House is undergoing a major reorganization. The heads of two of the publisher's divisions are resigning: Irwyn Applebaum, publisher of Bantam Dell, and Steve Rubin, publisher of Doubleday Publishing Group, will both be leaving. Random House is owned by Bertelsmann, the German media conglomerate. Berteslmann put Markus Dohle -- who used to run the printing unit -- in charge of Random House, so some changes were expected.
In a memo to staff, Mr. Dohle announced changes that elevated the roles of Gina Centrello, head of the company's so-called Little Random unit, Sonny Mehta, head of the venerable Alfred A. Knopf group and Jenny Frost, president of the Crown Publishing Group, publisher of two memoirs by president elect Barack Obama.No layoffs have been announced yet, but Doubleday has already laid off 10% of its staff in October.In the new organization, Ms. Centrello will now oversee the Random House Publishing Group, which includes the Ballantine division, as well as the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, the Dial Press and a relatively new imprint of Doubleday, Spiegel & Grau. Mr. Mehta's empire will expand to include the Doubleday and Nan A. Talese imprints....Ms. Frost will take over several imprints from the Doubleday Group, including Doubleday Business, Doubleday Religion and WaterBrook Multomah.
In his memo, Mr. Dohle said that the Ballantine, Bantam Dell and Random House imprints would maintain separate editorial departments. Mr. Dohle said that each imprint could continue to bid on new books independently at auctions and would remain autonomous in decisions about what and how to publish. Mr. Dohle noted that "because of the current economic crisis, our industry is facing some of the most difficult times in publishing history."