Submitted by Philip Jones - The Bookseller Tue, 03/18/2014
Last week I interviewed Tom Weldon, chief executive of Penguin Random House. He is leading the biggest trade combination ever created in the UK, and is a key lieutenant in worldwide c.e.o. Markus Dohle's global team. Weldon spoke about the blueprint his group is developing for running a creative business at a time of unprecedented change in the book space. Here are a few things that blueprint does not include: selling direct; bundling; subscriptions; increased digital royalties; offering paid-for services to authors; consolidation of imprints (or offices); a total rebrand as Penguin. In short, almost all of things, I read about everyday as the things trade publishers must do 'to survive'.
Instead, at a giant sales conference held in Brighton two weeks ago, Weldon drew an analogy between the new group and the Glastonbury Festival. Recalling his speech, he said: "We need to protect and nurture the diverse centres of publishing excellence. We want them to get on and do their own thing. It lent itself to the idea of a permanent Glastonbury taking place all of the time around London, where every day fantastic things are happening on different stages."
His role, he says, is to provide a light hand on the tiller and let the divisional managing directors lead these units as they see fit. "My job is not to prevent risk, but to build the strength of the company so that we can stand up again when occasionally we fall over." Of his recent hire, Rebecca Smart, current c.e.o. of Osprey, who will join Ebury as m.d. in the autumn, Weldon said he did not know what she would do at the business, but said it needed to be part of a 20-year vision. As Smart confirmed, her brief is "to take Ebury in whatever directions I and the team feel are right for the changing publishing landscape".
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