Random House

Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House.[4] In 1934 they published the first authorized edition of James Joyce's novel Ulysses in the Anglophone world.[5] Ulysses transformed Random House into a formidable publisher over the next two decades. In 1936, it absorbed the firm of Smith and Haas—Robert Haas became the third partner until retiring and selling his share back to Cerf and Klopfer in 1956—which added authors including William Faulkner, Isak Dinesen, André Malraux, Robert Graves, and Jean de Brunhoff, who wrote the Babar children's books. Random House also hired legendary editors Harry Maule, Robert Linscott, and Saxe Commins, and they brought authors such as Sinclair Lewis and Robert Penn Warren with them.[6]

Random House entered reference publishing in 1947 with the American College Dictionary, which was followed in 1966 by its first unabridged dictionary.

In October 1959, Random House went public at $11.25 a share. This move drew other publishing companies, such as Simon & Schuster, to later go public.[7] American publishers Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Beginner Books were acquired by Random House in 1960 and Pantheon Books in 1961; works continue to be published under these imprints with editorial independence, such as Everyman's Library, a series of classical literature reprints.

In 1965, RCA bought Random House as part of a diversification strategy. Random House acquired the paperback book publisher Ballantine Books in 1973.[8] RCA sold Random House to Advance Publications in 1980.[7][9]

In 1988, Random House acquired Crown Publishing Group.[10] Also in 1988, McGraw-Hill acquired Random House's Schools and Colleges division.[11] In 1998, Bertelsmann AG bought Random House and merged it with Bantam Doubleday Dell and it soon went global.[12] In 1999, Random House acquired the children's audiobook publisher Listening Library.[13] Phyllis E. Grann joined Random House as vice-chairman in 2001.[14] Grann was the CEO for Putnam and had grown that house from $10 million in revenue in 1976, to over $200 million by 1993 and without increasing their title output.[14] A publishing insider commented that then CEO Peter Olson was, "I think maybe instead of buying a company he bought a person."[14] Coinciding with the 2007–2008 financial crisis, the publishing industry was hit hard with weak retail sales. In May 2008, Random House CEO Peter Olson stepped down and Bertelsmann replaced Olson with Markus Dohle.[15] By October of that year, Doubleday, a division of Random House announced that they would lay off 16 people or about 10% of its workforce.[16]

In early December, what became known as Black Wednesday in publishing circles, many publishers including Random House took steps by restructuring their divisions and laying off employees.[17] The reorganization consolidated and created three divisions—Random House Publishing Group, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Crown Publishing Group.[18][19]Susan Kamil, was named editorial director for Dial Press and editor-in-chief of Random House imprints reporting to Gina Centrello, the president and publisher of the Random House Publishing Group.[17] There were layoffs in the Doubleday imprint (now part of Knopf Publishing Group) and Dial Press, Bantam Dell, and Spiegel & Grau were moved from Doubleday over to the Random House imprints. Random House also has an entertainment production arm for film and television, Random House Studio; one release in 2011 was One Day. The company also creates story content for media including video games, social networks on the web, and mobile platforms. It is one of the largest English-language publishers, along with the group formerly known as the "Big 6", now known as the "Big Five".[20] In October 2012, Bertelsmann entered into talks with rival conglomerate Pearson plc, over the possibility of combining their respective publishing companies, Random House and Penguin Group.

The merger was completed on July 1, 2013, and the new company is Penguin Random House.[21] When founded, Bertelsmann owned 53% of the joint venture while Pearson owned 47%.[22] Pearson sold 22% of its shares to Bertelsmann in July 2017, and since April 2020, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann, making Random House division again wholly owned by German parent. At the time of the acquisition the combined companies controlled 25% of the book business with more than 10,000 employees and 250 independent publishing imprints and with about $3.9 billion in annual revenues.[22] The move to consolidate was to provide leverage against Amazon.com and battle the shrinking state of bookstores.[22] In October 2018, Penguin Random House merged two of its most known publishing lines, Random House and the Crown Publishing Group. According to Madeline McIntosh, chief executive of Penguin Random House U.S., the two lines "will retain their distinct editorial identities."[23]

McIntosh explained some of the motivation behind the merger in a memo to employees, writing, "Book discovery and buying patterns continue to shift, resulting in growth opportunities in the nonfiction categories in which Crown in particular already has a strong foothold: food, lifestyle, health, wellness, business, and Christian."[23] "We must invest even more aggressively in title-level and scaled marketing programs, capabilities and partnerships," she added.[23] Detailing additional growth strategies, McIntosh explained of the merger, "We will need to do two things simultaneously. First, we must expand and strengthen the expert publishing teams who are specialized in and dedicated to each category. Second, we must invest even more aggressively in title-level and scaled marketing programs, capabilities, and partnerships. This will ensure that we not only maximize the sales for each individual book but also keep pace with consumer trends."[24]

In 2019, Penguin Random House acquired British children's book publisher Little Tiger Group (including American subsidiary Tiger Tales Press) and added it to Random House Children’s Books.[25]

• Western Publishing
• List of English language book publishers
• List of largest UK book publishers
• Media of New York City

• Official website
• Mary H. Munroe (2004). "Bertelsmann Timeline". The Academic Publishing Industry: A Story of Merger and Acquisition. Archived from the original on June 7, 2010 – via Northern Illinois University.
• Finding aid to Random House records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
• Who Speaks for the Negro Vanderbilt documentary website