Serious Publishing in the Age of Conglomeracy

LOGOS 10(1) 2nd/JH 1/11/06 10:17 am Page 47

LOGOS Bottom line or public interest? Serious publishing in the age of conglomeracy

André Schiffrin Book publishing in North America and Europe has changed more in the past decade than in the pre- ceding 100 years, and not – so far – for the better. A major cause of the decline is the number of publishing houses absorbed by conglomerates whose man- agements have no experience – and often little interest – in books. These conglomerates are both the embodiment and the very vehicles of the new Managing Director and global capitalism, whose unquestioned goal is to Editor-in-Chief of Pantheon maximize profits throughout the world. Books for twenty-eight years I don’t want to paint a sentimental, pre- lapsarian picture of the bygone days of publishing. until 1990, André Schiffrin is There has never been a state of grace. Balzac’s Lost today Director and Editor-in-Chief Illusions, for example, describing the corruption of The New Press. A graduate among the Paris publishers of his time, mirrors per- summa cum laude of Yale sonalities and events in today’s publishing world. For the most part, the old school of publishers did University, Schiffrin was a visiting indeed consist of privately-owned companies that lecturer there for two years. He aimed to make money. But their profit expectations has also received a Masters Degree were limited. Family-owned firms were not listed on with highest honors from the stock exchange. Books did not have to make as Cambridge University, where he much money as other businesses. Owners as a rule were satisfied with the 4-5% profit ratios that typi- was the first American to edit fied American publishing for much of the century. Granta. Among authors with The wave of takeovers which oligopolized whom Schiffrin has worked during publishing in the latter years of the century has his career are Studs Terkel, Eric upped the stakes dramatically. US conglomerates have created new amalgams engulfing many well- Hobsbawm, E P Thompson, known and long-established imprints – sometimes Marguerite Duras, Anita only to chew them up and spit them out again as Brookner, Michel Foucault, they prove to be inadequate sources of profit. Pub- Nathan Huggins, Simone de lishers bought by media conglomerates with vast holdings in newspapers, magazines, television and Beauvoir, Noam Chomsky, Roy cable are no longer evaluated against the norms of Medvedev, Robert Frank, F R book publishing, but are required to bring in profits Leavis, Julio Cortázar, Gunnar comparable with those generated by the informa- Myrdal, Ivan Illich, George tion and entertainment media. Kennan, Sissela Bok and R D Thus we saw Rupert Murdoch naming the former head of TV Guide to be, briefly, in charge of Laing. the American branch of HarperCollins. Similarly,

André Schiffrin

Pearson appointed Michael Lynton, who grew up in My own experience as head of Random the Disney empire, to head the Penguin group, as the House’s Pantheon Books imprint in 1990 is a rele- UK’s premier purveyor of intellectual and literal vant case study. Random House had been pur- equality. The effects of such appointments are imme- chased in 1980 by Si Newhouse, whose Advance diately available in a bias towards books that link with Publications consisted mainly of magazines and the entertainment world – based on, or convertible newspapers. Robert Bernstein, President of Random to, films or TV series, star biographies, and the like. House, quickly found that he could not rely on Not all book publishing fits into the Newhouse’s promises of hands-off autonomy. This entertainment mold, however. Other corporations culminated in Bernstein’s resignation in 1989. seek to dominate the even more profitable market When leaving the company he said: “From the of professional information. Reed Elsevier, Wolters beginning I felt that Random House was a special Kluwer, Thomson International and Harcourt Gen- place where good writing and new ideas, particu- eral are hungry buyers of legal, scientific, medical larly those fighting their way into existence from and other professional publishing firms throughout dark corners of the world would always be published the world. While clear about the value of informa- just for themselves.” tion publishing, these conglomerates are cool Bernstein’s successor was Alberto Vitale, towards trade publishing. Reed Elsevier, for exam- who made it abundantly clear from the outset that ple, makes so much money from its professional ref- profit was his only concern. He boasted to the press erence and journal publishing that it looked down and to his own colleagues that he was far too busy its nose at the mere 12% profits made by its general ever to read a book. His time would be spent publishing houses in the UK – no matter that these instead examining the (financial) books. I still included some of the most distinguished names in remember his puzzled and increasingly angry look as British publishing, eg, Methuen, Heinemann or he examined the titles on Pantheon’s latest list. Secker & Warburg. Profits of 12% – still the dream Who were these Nobel-prize winners, these distin- of many an American media conglomerate – were guished historians, these social and political critics, simply insufficient, and the firms were sold for less of whose names he had never heard? All that he than one-tenth of their original valuation. The could see was that the printings of their books were same happened in Sweden, where Norstedts – a far too low to meet his blockbuster expectations. 175-year-old firm and the second most important Were we not ashamed to be publishing such books, publisher in the realm – was unceremoniously he asked. And indeed every effort was soon made to dumped by its new owners, Wolters Kluwer, who expunge such shameful titles from the Random retained only the profitable legal publishing end. House backlist. Important literary works by the Most books, however, are not primarily likes of Cortázar and Duras, not to mention scores vehicles of entertainment or information. There is, of influential scholarly volumes, were put out of or at least there was, a realm known as culture, print. The new conglomeratized Random House including everything ranging from serious history would never again make the mistake of taking on and literary criticism to avant-garde novels. What such books. Nor, in all justice, would one be likely is to become of these? Fewer and fewer of such to see such titles on the HarperCollins or Simon & books appear in the catalogs of the US’s leading Schuster lists. commercial firms. Indeed, more of the old, classic Normally, after a takeover, one tries to put titles disappear from their backlists with each pass- the best face on the situation. Reassuring statements ing year. The copyright in some of the country’s are made, smiling promises of continuity and tradi- most important works lies in the hands of publish- tion come from the new owners, and employees sit ers who judge their value simply by the number of tight, hoping for the best. Vitale’s attacks, however, copies sold every year, and who take lightly the made it very clear to my colleagues and me that obligations to authors implied by contracts signed compromise in the hope of saving what we had built by previous owners. over the years would be meaningless. In the end, all eight Pantheon editors left, in an unprecedented * * * * * protest that attracted widespread attention.