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If the deal is approved by federal regulators, Workman will become Hachette’s eighth publishing group and will be led by Workman’s CEO, Mr Reynolds, who will report to Mr Pietsch and join the company’s board of directors. Ms. Workman will retire when the transaction is closed.
A wave of consolidation has profoundly reshaped the publishing industry over the past decade. Merger of Penguin and Random House News Corp in 2013 acquisition of romance publisher Harlequinand Hachette Acquisition of Perseus Books.
This trend has accelerated in recent years as the top five publishers absorb smaller companies to expand their backlist and compete for best-selling authors. Some in the industry are concerned about the impact of even greater consolidation, which will give the largest publishing company even more advantages.
HarperCollins in March, Houghton Mifflin acquires Harcourt Books and MediaFor $349 million, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s commercial publishing division gains an extensive and valuable backlist that includes perennial vendors by JRR Tolkien, George Orwell, Philip Roth and Lois Lowry, as well as children’s classics and cookbooks and lifestyle guides. Last year, Penguin Random House struck a deal. acquired Simon & Schuster A transaction of more than $2 billion from ViacomCBS, can create the first mega publisher if based on regulatory review.
The sale of Workman will further reshape the landscape at a time when the industry is dormant. changed by the pandemic. In 2020, publishers saw an even faster transition to online retail as readers turned to Amazon and big-box stores to find books. Despite production and supply chain issues, publishers have seen their profits increase as more people turn to books for entertainment during the pandemic.
In 2020, revenue rose nearly 10 percent to $8.6 billion, and in the first five months of 2021 revenues rose 23.4 percent to $5.1 billion, according to the American Publishers Association, which tracks revenue from nearly 1,360 publishers.
In the decades since its founding, Workman has grown into a leading publisher of nonfiction, advice and how-to brands. Over 45 million hard copies of the “Brain Quest” series of educational games and workbooks are available. With its literary edition, Algonquin Books, Workman has had groundbreaking literary successes such as Sara Gruen’s “Water for Elephants”, Tayari Jones’ “An American Marriage” and Lisa Ko’s acclaimed debut novel “The Leavers.”
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