The fall-out from the phone hacking scandal has reached other areas of Rupert Murdoch’s business empire as a leading literary agent called for an investigation into HarperCollins, the publisher owned by News Corporation.
Andrew Wylie, the US-based agent who counts Martin Amis and Philip Roth among his many clients, suggested that the company was involved in “improper behaviour”.
Wylie, nicknamed ‘The Jackal’ because of his fearsome reputation, said the crisis engulfing News International should lead to an examination of other Murdoch companies.
“It will focus attention on all parts of the business and people will perhaps turn on some lights in rooms that have been left dark previously, and look more closely at what is profitable and what is not and what is proper behaviour and what isn’t,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme, adding that HarperCollins has been “under unusual pressure for some time”.
Asked if he thought there had been “improper behaviour in the publishing side of [Murdoch’s] business”, Wylie replied: “Yes, I do. They have been - and I have explained this to the heads of the company in London and New York - unusually shrill and punitive towards authors.”
He said this had been done in an “improper way” but refused to expand on the claim. “I don’t want to go into those examples but that has been my experience,” he said.
Full piece at The Telegraph
And story in The Bookseller
Full piece at The Telegraph
And story in The Bookseller
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