Publishing houses

The private equity firm KKR has completed its $1.62 billion acquisition of Simon & Schuster. KKR emerged as the winning bidder in early August after Penguin Random House's acquisition for S&S was blocked by the government in late 2022. Not many new details were disclosed about how S&S will operate that were not already revealed when the purchase was first announced.  Read more

Will Atkinson, who has just left Atlantic Books after nine years as MD, contributes to our Q&A series

In a move that some in the industry will welcome as putting at least a temporary stop to industry consolidation, the private investment firm KKR has reached an agreement with Paramount Global to acquire Simon & Schuster for $1.62 billion in an all cash transaction.

Robert Gottlieb, the great American editor who died last month at the age of ninety-two, often said that there were two ways of being a publisher: to follow, i.e., give the people what they knew they wanted; or lead: show them what you knew they ought to want. Bob was brilliant at both.  Read more

One of the perennial tensions in my time at Macmillan was that many of the board directors were always calling for greater strategic focus. They would query why we had publishing interests in Zimbabwe or three offices in Namibia or so many different education companies. But actually, the strength of a large publishing company is often in this very diversity.  Read more