PRH US merges Crown, Random House divisions

Friday, 19 October 2018 Books+Publishing

Penguin Random House (PRH) US has merged two major adult divisions, Crown Publishing Group and Random House Publishing Group, reports Publishers Weekly.

Random House president and publisher Gina Centrello will head the newly created division, while current Crown president and publisher Maya Mavjee will leave the company at the end of the year. Crown staff and senior management will report to Centrello, with the change effective immediately.

In a memo to staff, PRH US CEO Madeline McIntosh said that the two divisions will retain their distinct editorial identities, with McIntosh identifying that ‘Crown in particular already has a strong foothold: food, lifestyle, health, wellness, business, and Christian’, while Random House’s imprints are known for their ‘well-earned reputations for excellence in all aspects of publishing’.

‘Book discovery and buying patterns continue to shift, resulting in growth opportunities in the nonfiction categories,’ said McIntosh. ‘To further pursue this growth, we will need to do two things simultaneously. First, we must expand and strengthen the expert publishing teams who are specialised in and dedicated to each category. Second, we must invest even more aggressively in title-level and scaled marketing programs, capabilities, and partnerships. This will ensure that we not only maximise the sales for each individual book, but also keep pace with consumer trends.’

Random House’s list includes 15 print and digital imprints, and includes bestselling authors Ta-Nehisi Coates, Diana Gabaldon and Danielle Steel, while Crown’s list includes 19 imprints, as well as Barack Obama’s bestselling memoirs and Michelle Obama’s forthcoming autobiography.

Category: International news