Markus Dohle told The Associated Press on
Wednesday that Simon & Schuster would retain
its editorial independence and that individual
imprints within Penguin Random House and
Simon & Schuster could continue to compete
with each other for book deals.
Simon & Schuster’s current president and chief
executive, Jonathan Karp, will continue to lead
the publishing house, Bertelsmann said.
Under the new company, authors would range
from John Grisham and Stephen King to Barack
Obama and Bill Clinton. Every living former or
current American president, from Jimmy Carter
to Donald Trump, will have published a book
with the new company. So will first ladies such
as Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and
Michelle Obama.
Dohle declined to say whether there would be
any layoffs, saying it was too soon to speculate.
The German conglomerate, which was founded in
1835 and also owns a broad portfolio of broadcast,
music and online businesses, has been the sole
owner of Penguin Random House since April.
ViacomCBS put up Simon & Schuster,
founded in 1924, for sale earlier this year as
the entertainment company tries to sell off
“non-core assets” to pay down debt, please
shareholders with dividends and stock
buybacks, and invest in streaming.
ViacomCBS owns cable networks Nickelodeon,
MTV, BET and Comedy Central as well as
broadcast network CBS and movie studio
Paramount. It is trying to navigate consumers’
shift from watching live TV on a television set to
streaming shows and movies on the internet.