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In a big shake up, Penguin Random Home, the most important publishing home in the US, introduced on Monday that the publishers of two of its most prestigious literary imprints had been let go.
The departure of Reagan Arthur, the writer of Alfred A. Knopf, and Lisa Lucas, the writer of Pantheon and Schocken, doubtless got here as a shock to many within the firm — together with, it appeared, to Lucas.
Lucas posted on X, previously known as Twitter, that she had realized of her dismissal at 9:30 a.m. on Monday morning. “I’ve some regrets about spending the weekend working,” she wrote.
In a memo to staff, Maya Mavjee, the president and writer of Knopf Doubleday, acknowledged the information would doubtless be unsettling to many, however famous that restructuring the imprints was “needed for our future progress.”
Mavjee mentioned within the memo that Pantheon’s editorial division will now report back to Doubleday, whereas Knopf will probably be led by Jordan Pavlin, the editor in chief of Knopf, who will turn into its writer, taking up two roles. Pavlin has edited best-selling and award-winning authors together with Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi and Maggie O’Farrell.
An individual in publishing acquainted with the choice, and who requested anonymity with a view to share particulars concerning the restructuring course of, mentioned the departures have been a part of a cost-saving measure. No writer will exchange Lucas at Pantheon, the particular person mentioned.
The departure of two outstanding publishers comes at a second when Penguin Random Home and different huge publishing homes are dealing with monetary challenges, with rising provide chain prices and sluggish print gross sales. Publishers’ gross sales have been flat within the first quarter of 2024, in response to a current report from the Affiliation of American Publishers.
The final two years have been an particularly turbulent time at Penguin Random Home.
The corporate has struggled to keep up its dominance within the trade after its bid to purchase a rival, Simon & Schuster, was blocked on antitrust grounds, a loss that value the corporate a $200 million termination charge. Within the aftermath, Markus Dohle, then the chief government of Penguin Random Home, resigned, adopted quickly after by its U.S. chief government, Madeline McIntosh.
Its new chief government, Nihar Malaviya, has moved to chop prices by downsizing and restructuring, and to develop by buying smaller publishing firms. Final yr, the corporate supplied voluntary buyouts for longtime staff, and laid off about 60 folks.
Lucas and Arthur have been each splashy hires dropped at the corporate in recent times. Lucas, the primary Black writer at Pantheon in its 80-year historical past, was employed in 2020 from the Nationwide Ebook Basis, the place she was the group’s government director. In her time at Penguin Random Home, she printed titles together with “Chain-Gang All Stars,” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, which was a Nationwide Ebook Award finalist, and signed a two-book cope with LeVar Burton.
Arthur, who had been writer on the imprint Little, Brown, took over as writer of Knopf in 2020, shortly after the loss of life of Sonny Mehta, who led the imprint for greater than three a long time. At Knopf, she oversaw the publication of Cormac McCarthy’s closing two novels and the big greatest vendor “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin, and personally edited greatest sellers together with Bono’s memoir, “Give up,” and “Classes,” a novel by Ian McEwan.
“It was an honor to get to lastly, briefly work in publishing!!” Lucas wrote on X Monday afternoon. “As for what’s subsequent: Who is aware of! Free agent! I suppose I’ll take into consideration that tomorrow?”
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