Random House

As of 2022, approximately 80% percent of the United States trade market for books was controlled by the "Big Five" publishing houses: Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.^[27]

an 11 22

...For example, his administration appears to be reversing a decades-long status quo and embracing vigorous antitrust enforcement.

This is a vital step in reducing inequity and breaking the hammerlock the wealthy currently have on policy and public life.

With the threat of authoritarianism looming, the reinvigoration of antitrust policy could be one of the few positive signs of democratic renewal.

The biggest recent victory for the administration’s tougher trust-busting approach was in the book industry. The Biden Justice Department brought a lawsuit to block the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.....

===

MERGER:

Penguin Random House (PRH) is a company formed by the merger of book publishers Random House, (owned by Bertelsmann), and Penguin Group(owned by Pearson PLC).^[1][2] Penguin Random House markets itself as "the world's first truly global trade book" publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House andPenguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively.

Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India; Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and South Africa; Dorling Kindersley worldwide; and Random House’s companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile.

Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across five continents. It comprises almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.^[3]

History

Penguin Random House was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin. The creation of the company has been referred to as the publishing industry's response to the increasing dominance of Amazon.com in the book market.^[4] PRH relaunched Book Country, Penguin's languishing online unit in July 2013.^[5]

In September 2014, Random House Studio signed a first look production deal with Universal Pictures, under which Random House would be producer on the projects developed and filmed based on Penguin Random House books. This buttresses the existing Universal subsidiary Focus Features' deal with Random House Films.^[6] Having spearhead the creative on PRH Children's Puffin Rock animation, Richard Haines to head up PHR Children's TV development strategy with the assistance of licensing publishing and TV development executive Emily Campan. Haines would report to PRH Children’s managing director, Francesca Dow.^[7]

With the blessing of Penguin Random House’s Portfolio imprint,which bills itself as providing nonfiction for “ambitious people” and also published Epstein’s previous book, Fossil Future offers a newer, more reassuring flavor of doubt regarding the consequences of human-influenced climate effects. Oil and gas and coal aren’t actually ruining Earth’s habitats for all forms of life, and they’re also not neutral—in fact, fossil fuels are making things better for all of us, thanks to their natural density and economic efficiency. But even if they do lead to rising carbon levels and emissions, it actually won’t be that bad, at least not as horrific as the economic fallout of transitioning away from fossil fuels would be. Epstein argues that fossil fuels will actually protect us from their own adverse side effects, that phenomena like mass human displacement and ocean acidification won’t really be issues, and that all government standards meant to stem greenhouse gas emissions must be done away with. To retain the standard of living billions of Earthlings enjoy, and to bring this “flourishing” to the billions more Earthlings who don’t yet enjoy it thanks to influence by “anti-human” climate activists, unlimited fossil fuel production is the only way forward.

Penguin Random House (PRH) is a company formed by the merger of book publishers Random House, (owned by Bertelsmann), and Penguin Group(owned by Pearson PLC)

Random House, Inc. is one of the largest general-interest trade book publishers in the world.^[citation ^needed] It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has an entertainment production arm for film and television, Random House Studio, of which the most recent release was One Day. The company is also creating story content for media including video games, social networks on the web, and mobile platforms. Random House is considered one of the "Big Six" publishing companies, along with Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster^[1].

Bertelsmann AG is a German multinational media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,983 workers (as of December 31, 2009). In 2008 the company reported a €16.118 billion consolidated revenue and an operating EBIT of €1.568 billion.^[1] Among its some 2000 subdivisions, subsidiaries, and branches are Random House, RTL Group, Gruner + Jahr, Arvato, and BMG Rights Management.

Bertelsmann is majority owned (77.4%) by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a non-profit organisation and political think tank founded by the Mohn family. The Mohn family owns the remaining 22.6% of the company.

Random House, Penguin Publishing Houses To Merge

by Lynn Neary

October 29, 2012 3:00 P

Listen to the Story

All Things Considered

Executives of the publishing giants Bertelsmann and Pearson announced on Monday that they will pursue a merger of their publishing houses, Random House and Penguin. The united publishing companies are set to become a large and influential force in publishing.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

We got news today of a wedding of sorts between two titans of the publishing industry. The European conglomerates that own Random House and Penguin have agreed to join forces. The new effort will be called the Penguin Random House.

NPR's Lynn Neary reports that the agreement comes as the publishing business struggles to turn a profit in the age of eBooks and Amazon.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE: Under the consolidation agreement, the German company Bertelsmann, which owns Random House, will control 53 percent of the new company. The British conglomerate Pearson, which owns Penguin, will control the remaining 47. The agreement brings together two of this country's biggest publishing houses. Random House alone is home to some of the most popular authors in the world.

Sentinel

Overview

Sentinel was established in 2003 as a dedicated conservative imprint within Penguin Group. It publishes a wide variety of right-of-center books on subjects like politics, history, public policy, culture, religion, and international relations. The name Sentinel symbolizes a tough-minded defense of America’s fundamental values and national interests.

Some of Sentinel’s most noteworthy bestsellers include *Do the Right Thing* and *A Simple Christmas* by Mike Huckabee; *A Patriot’s History of the United States* by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen; *An American Son* by Senator Marco Rubio; *Unintimidated* by Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin; *The Secret Knowledge* by David Mamet; *Keeping the Republic* by Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana; *Roger Ailes: Off Camera* by Zev Chafets; *The Tyranny of Clichés* by Jonah Goldberg; and *George Washington’s Secret Six* by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger – a runaway New York Times bestseller for more than three months.

Meet Sentinel

Adrian Zackheim

Founder, President, and Publisher

Adrian Zackheim joined Penguin Group in September 2001 as Publisher of Portfolio. He then took on the additional challenges of starting Sentinel in April 2003 and Current in March 2010. Previously, he was the Associate Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of HarperInformation, a division of HarperCollins that included HarperBusiness. His editorial career has also included positions at William Morrow, Doubleday, and St. Martin’s Press, and his first job was as Phyllis Grann’s editorial assistant at Putnam.

Among the many bestselling books he edited and published before joining Penguin Group were Good to Great by Jim Collins; Die Broke by Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine; The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams; The HP Way by David Packard; andSwim with the Sharks without being EatenAlive by Harvey Mackay. He also has a long track record of publishing books by important conservative leaders, including Margaret Thatcher, Newt Gingrich, and Bob Dole.

Will Weisser

Vice President, Associate Publisher, and Marketing Director

Will Weisser joined Portfolio as Marketing Director in 2002, before the imprint’s first book was published. In his current role as VP, Associate Publisher, and Marketing Director for Portfolio, Sentinel, and Current, he is deeply involved in all aspects of the publication process, from acquisition to packaging to budgeting. He also oversees the combined marketing and publicity department that serves all three imprints. He began his career as an intern at Simon & Schuster, and went on to various publicity and marketing positions at Pocket Books, Grove/Atlantic, Times Books, and Crown Business. Among the many prominent authors he worked with before joining Penguin Group were Larry Bossidy, Michael Hammer, Marlin Fitzwater, Juan Enriquez, and P.J. O’Rourke.

Eric Nelson

Executive Editor

Prior to arriving at Portfolio and Sentinel in 2014, Eric Nelson was an agent with Susan Rabiner Literary, where he represented Bruce Schneier’s New York Times bestseller Data and Goliath and Nicholas Carlson’s Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo. He also blogged about book publishing for the literary magazine Ploughshares. Now his Portfolio and Sentinel projects include works by Brent Adamson, Matt Dixon, Dana Loesch, David Mamet, Simon Sinek, Zeynep Tufekci, and Michael Wolff. He also worked for ten years at John Wiley and Sons selling more books about baseball stats and the philosophies behind TV shows that anyone thought possible. He began his career as an intern at Viking publicity, and is happy to be back in 375 Hudson Street after all those years.