A Grim Week for U.S. Publishers

This week has been a tough one for U.S. publishers. Among the changes announced over the last several days are a major restructuring at Random House; jobs cuts at Simon & Schuster, Thomas Nelson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and R.R. Bowker; and salary freezes at HarperCollins and Penguin.

On December 3, Random House announced that it had restructured its adult trade divisions effective immediately.

As part of the restructuring, Irwyn Applebaum and Steve Rubin, the publishers of Bantam Dell and Doubleday respectively, are stepping down from their positions, and Random House will consolidate from five publishing groups to three. However, Rubin, who was responsible for publishing the blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, is currently negotiating for a different job at Random House, according to the Associated Press.

Among the moves announced in a letter from Chairman Markus Dohle to company employees were:

• The Random House Publishing Group, led by President and Publisher Gina Centrello, will expand to include the imprints of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, including The Dial Press, along with Doubleday's Spiegel & Grau.
• The Knopf Publishing Group, led by Chairman Sonny Mehta, will expand to include the Doubleday and Nan A. Talese imprints from the Doubleday Publishing Group.
• The Crown Publishing Group, led by President and Publisher Jenny Frost, will expand to include the other imprints from the Doubleday Publishing Group -- Broadway, Doubleday Business, Doubleday Religion, and WaterBrook Multnomah.
• The Random House Children's Books division, led by President and Publisher Chip Gibson, will continue its publishing programs without change.

At Simon & Schuster, CEO Carolyn Reidy announced in a company memo that the company had cut two percent of the staff, about 35 positions, AP reported. The memo noted that "today's action is an unavoidable acknowledgment of the current bookselling marketplace and what may very well be a prolonged period of economic instability."

According to Bloomberg News, HarperCollins plans to postpone pay increases until after July 1, 2009, as the book industry deals with a challenging sales environment. The freeze on raises is a response to the U.S. recession, said HarperCollins spokesperson Erin Crum, adding that HarperCollins hasn't decided whether to cuts jobs.

Bloomberg also reported that Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt wrote on his blog that the publisher of faith and inspirational titles was eliminating 54 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce, strictly as a result of the economic slowdown.

According to Publishers Weekly, a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt spokesperson announced that more cuts are being made at the trade and reference group, although no figures were disclosed. Houghton had previously announced a temporary halt in the acquisition of new books.

In addition, PW reported that Penguin Group chairman and CEO John Makinson sent a memo to all employees that included the announcement that the company will not give pay raises to anyone earning $50,000 or its equivalent in another currency, in 2009. In his memo, Makinson described the current economic environment as the most challenging that he'd ever experienced.

Bowker announced a restructuring that CEO Annie Callanan said eliminated 13 positions in the U.S., as reported in Publishers Lunch.