MORE RANDOM HOUSE GOSSIP - THIS FROM THE BOOKSELLER

Bertelsmann: ready for the fallout
21.05.08 Philip Jones in The Bookseller

There are revelations aplenty in the media following the appointment of the 39-year-old German Markus Dohle to the top job at Random House, including the suggestion that Random House's outgoing c.e.o. Peter Olson had wanted to "dismiss" RH's UK head Gail Rebuck. While other reports suggest that those executives passed-over for the top job might now take their careers elsewhere.The Rebuck story comes from the The New York Times and it should be noted was shot down emphatically by Stuart Applebaum, Random House's spokesman: "I wouldn’t dignify it with a comment. I would just label it as gossip."

However, the newspaper reports that a senior Bertelsmann executive said that Olson’s split with the German management began last September when he proposed dismissing Rebuck. This was vetoed by Bertelsmann's c.e.o. Hartmut Ostrowski and Thomas Rabe, Bertelsmann’s chief financial officer.

The full Bookseller piece here.