Carol Publishing Group

Carol Publishing Group was an American publishing company. Lyle Stuart founded its predecessor around 1955. Steven Schragis bought Stuart's publishing business in early 1989, renaming it to Carol Publishing. Carol was a going concern from its 1989 sale to its bankruptcy in 2000; Kensington Books bought its assets after Carol liquidated. It was mainly known for salacious titles about celebrities.

Carol Publishing Group
PredecessorLyle Stuart, Inc.
FoundedJanuary 1989
Defunct2000
SuccessorKensington Books
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters location120 Enterprise Avenue, Secaucus, New Jersey, US

Early history and sale (1955–1989)

The organization that was to become Carol Publishing Group began around 1955, when Lyle Stuart established Lyle Stuart, Inc., a publishing outfit later based in Secaucus, New Jersey, known for "scandalous" titles including biographies of celebrities.[1] Stuart sold his eponymous company, and its imprints Citadel Press and University Books, to Carol Management for US$12 million, effective January 9, 1989.[1] The deal was orchestrated by Steven Schragis, then the executive vice president of Carol Management.[1] After the sale closed, Schragis took over control of the new entity, known initially as Carol Communications.[1]

Carol Management was a family business and Schragis was a member of the family that controlled it.[2] The name "Carol" was Schragis's mother's and his purchase from Lyle Stuart was financed with a loan from his parents, aunt, and Carol Management itself.[2]

Operations, litigation, and bankruptcy (1989–2000)

Carol's business model focused on marketing and publicity.[3] An encyclopedia of publishing suggests that Schragis, in his role as Carol's head, "exemplified the 'hard-sell' accountant-publisher mentality of today taken to perhaps its furthest extreme".[4] A 2001 profile of Schragis said Carol was known for its "lowbrow celebrity bios";[5] The Washington Post called Carol a publisher of "salacious star biographies".[6]

Carol published several unauthorized biographies and distributed (but did not itself publish)[2][7] a suicide manual called Final Exit by Derek Humphry, an advocate of the right to die.[3][8] An imprint named after Lyle Stuart published books by Kahlil Gibran.[2] Carol made a foray into artificial intelligence with the 1993 romance novel Just This Once, about three quarters of which was written by a computer.[9][10]

In 1990, Carol won an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that allowed it to publish A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed, a biography of L. Ron Hubbard, who founded the Church of Scientology.[11][12] The book contained quotations from Hubbard's writings totaling about 3 percent of the biography.[11] Paramount Pictures sued Carol over The Joy of Trek: How to Enhance Your Relationship with a "Star Trek" Fan, which Paramount said infringed its copyright in Star Trek.[13][14] Carol lost.[15] It lost again in Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group Inc. (1998), where the Second Circuit, affirming the trial judgment by Sonia Sotomayor,[16] found that Carol's Seinfeld Aptitude Test, a trivia book about Seinfeld, infringed Castle Rock Entertainment's copyright in the show.[17][18]

Around April 1999, a sale of Carol to LPC Group, a book distributor, appeared imminent.[19] As of that time, Carol published 100–125 new books each year and had a backlist of 1,300.[19] The deal fell through.[20] Carol filed for bankruptcy on November 15, 1999.[21] Its assets were sold in 2000 to Kensington Books.[22]

As of 1998, Carol was headquartered at 120 Enterprise Avenue, Secaucus, New Jersey. Its booklist covered most commercial categories. Its Citadel imprint was the second-largest entertainment book publisher in the United States. Carol's editor-in-chief was Hillel Black.[23]

References
  1. Blades, John (December 20, 1988). "'Gutsiest' Publisher". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on July 24, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  2. Smith, Dinitia (January 6, 1992). "The Happy Hawker: Tyro Publisher Steven Schragis's Genius for Promoting Schlock". New York. 25 (1): 40–46.
  3. Cohen, Roger (August 26, 1991). "Publicity Obsession Pays Off for Suicide-Book Publisher". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  4. Altbach, Philip G.; Hoshino, Edith S., eds. (1995). International Book Publishing: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 34. doi:10.4324/9781315073897. ISBN 978-1-134-26126-0. Archived from the original on November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  5. Cotts, Cynthia (July 24, 2001). "PR in the Blood". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  6. Harden, Blaine (January 25, 1998). "Ex-Intern's Mother Put the Soap in the Opera". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  7. Papajohn, George (August 14, 1991). "Suicide Book Stirring Controversy and Sales". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on November 15, 2019. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  8. Henry, William A. (August 19, 1991). "Do-It-Yourself Death Lessons". Time. p. 55.
  9. Lohr, Steve (July 2, 1993). "Potboiler Springs from Computer's Loins". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  10. Rifkin, Jeremy (1995). The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. G.P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 158–159. ISBN 0-87477-779-8. OCLC 30399559.
  11. "Publisher Victorious on Hubbard Biography". The New York Times. May 27, 1990. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  12. Weinberg, Steve (1992). Telling the Untold Story: How Investigative Reporters Are Changing the Craft of Biography. University of Missouri Press. p. 210. ISBN 0-8262-0873-8. OCLC 25964617.
  13. Holloway, Lynette (May 2, 1998). "Studio Sues Over a 'Star Trek' Book". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 10, 2017. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  14. Fleischer, Matt (March 1, 1999). "Paramount Aims Phasers at Trekker Prosecutor". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on September 22, 2020. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  15. Vitanza, Elisa (1999). "Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group, Inc". Berkeley Technology Law Journal. 14 (1): 51–52n44. ISSN 1086-3818. JSTOR 24115611.
  16. Pember, Don R.; Calvert, Clay (2005). Mass Media Law. McGraw-Hill. p. 524. ISBN 0-07-287928-9. OCLC 55894607.
  17. Joyce, Craig (2006). Copyright Law (7th ed.). LexisNexis. p. 643. ISBN 978-0-8205-7096-9. OCLC 71151332.
  18. "'Seinfeld' producers sue over book about series". Orlando Sentinel. February 9, 1995. Archived from the original on November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  19. Milliot, Jim (April 19, 1999). "LPC Group Agrees to Acquire Carol Publishing". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  20. Bake, John F. (August 23, 1999). "Carol Publishing's LPC Deal Fails; Seeks New Buyer". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  21. Literary Market Place. Information Today. 2001. p. xiv. ISBN 1-57387-132-X. ISSN 0000-1155. OCLC 959887548.
  22. "Kensington Publishing Corporation". International Directory of Company Histories. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  23. Herman, Jeff (1998). Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents, 1999–2000. Prima. pp. 64–66. ISBN 0-7615-1353-1. OCLC 39798658.
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