Saturday, November 29, 2003

More on the US book industry  Time-Warner seems to have pulled its Time-Warner Book Group off the market, after bidders like Bertelsmann and Pearson’s offers fell far short of the desired cash needed to help pay off Time Warner’s debt. That means a temporary stay in what has been the relentless concentration of the US book publishing industry. A recent article by Steve Goldstein in the Philadelphia Inquirer (“Cover to Cover”, 6/29/03) describes the situation well: Publishing was aping a sea-change in other media industries – the concentration of power. The five major publishing houses now control scores of imprints or “brands” of books, such as Knopf and William Morrow, both of which used to be independent. Those publishing houses, in turn, are owned by giant media conglomerates, only two of which, Viacom and AOL Time Warner, are U.S. owned. We actually count six majors, including Holtzbrinck (see chart). Yes, there are independents left, including Norton, Workman, Avalon, Grove, Scientific Press (Harry Potter’s US publisher), and others. But there are far fewer than there were ten years ago. Many others were acquired or driven out of business. And it’s the old story: as more and more books are sold through megadealers, including Wal-Mart, it’s harder and harder for small companies to play the game. The effect of the consolidation is the application of a demanding new business model. As the article puts it, So what happens when media conglomerates gobble up book publishing houses? Once a genteel world of bookmen, the book industry hass become a punishing profit center. Prestige in publishing has bowed to profit. And even being in the black may not be enough. The lust for profit has publishers swinging for the fences, instead of banging out a string of hits…As with film and music, the operative word is blockbuster. Goldstein notes the story of Anne Godoff, one of the most respected editors in the US, who was fired by Random House, not for losing money, but for bringing in insufficient profits. Many in the business think she was done in by unfair accounting practices. But is typical that the heads of the book divisions want to impress corporate bosses who are used to seeing substantial returns form TV, radio, and movie revenues, for whom the piddling profits of booksellers aren’t enough. And it’s easy to see how the publishing houses are converging. While there are still distinct genres and the imprints all have their own specialties, the thinking at the top is becoming more and more uniform. The big publishing houses look more and more like each other, and they look more like their brother and sister companies, in music, film, magazines, and other media. Of course, it’s a romantic fallacy to assume that noble book publishers have been ruined by the exigencies of commerce. There are still excellent books being published now, a few of them even become best sellers, and there has been plenty of trash sold for no other motive than profit since the days of Gutenberg. Nevertheless, the book industry is in the midst of its most radical change ever, and the freedom of the press is, as win other media, more and more in the hands of a few large corporations. US publishers and imprints Owner Company Imprints Bertelsmann AG Random House Alfred A. Knopf, Anchor, Ballantine, Bantam, Broadway Books, Crown, Dell, Doubleday, Pantheon, Transworld, Vintage, Waterbrook Viacom Simon & Schuster Aladdin, Atria, Archway, Firesdie, Free Press, Kaplan, Minstrel, Scribner, Pocket, Touchstone, Washington Square, News Corp HarperCollins Access Travel, Amistad, Avco, Cliff Street, Ecco, Eos, Fourth Estate, Greenwillow, HarperTorch, Perennial, Quill, ReganBooks, Tempest, William Morrow, Zondervan TimeWarner Time Warner Book Group Back Bay, Bulfinch, Crafter's Choice, Mysterious Press, Leisure Arts, Little, Brown & Co., One Spirit, Oxmoor House, Sunset Books, Time, Warner Books, Warner Faith Pearson Penguin Putnam Addison Wesley Longman, Allen Lane, Allyn & Bacon, Avery, Berkley, Dial, Dolring Kindersley, Dutton, Frederick Warne, Grossett & Dunlap, Hamish Hamilton, Ladybird, Michael Joseph, New Riders, Peachpit, Pengiun, Plume, Prentice Hall, Puffin, Que, Riverhead, Rough Guides, Sams, Scott Foresman, Viking Holtzbrinck   Books for Young Readers, Faber & Faber, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, Forge, Henry Holt, Hill and Wang, Let's Go, Macmillan, Metropolitan, Minotaur, North Point Press, Orb, Owl, Picador, St. Martins Press, Times Books, Tor 4:11:31 PM

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