Penguin Absorbs Prentice Hall Press

Pearson Education is transferring the list of Prentice Hall Press into Penguin Putnam and reviewing the future of its entire Prentice Hall Direct division, which has included PHP as its trade imprint.

Penguin took over distribution of the PHP list, which has between 200 and 300 titles, two years ago, shortly after Pearson's acquisition of Simon & Schuster's educational and professional reference group. PHP's business list will become part of Adrian Zackheim's business imprint, while the health and self-improvement titles will become part of the Avery and Perigee imprints directed by John Duff. The books will bear the PHP logo initially, although Penguin is considering phasing out the imprint name over time. Approximately 15 jobs are affected by the integration, although Pearson Education spokesperson Wendy Spiegel said the company is trying to place employees in other Pearson and Penguin units.

The absorption of the PHP line by Penguin is part of a complete review of Prentice Hall Direct's place within Pearson Education. Earlier this month, PHD sold a series of business and financial titles to Wolters Kluwer. "The question we need to answer is if Pearson Education wants to be in the direct-to-consumer business," Spiegel explained. PHD has more than 1,000 titles in health, business and education, and the company is reviewing each line on an individual basis. Although PHD may not remain an independent publishing unit, its "core competencies in direct mail are relevant to other parts of the organization," Spiegel noted.