Kiplinger Inks Book Deal With Dearborn Trade

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 1/3/2005

As part of its decision to get out of the book business, Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc. has reached an agreement with Dearborn Trade Publishing for the Chicago publisher to publish and distribute 10 Kiplinger personal-finance titles. Dearborn will begin distributing the titles this month and plans to revise all 10 over the next few years, said Cindy Zigmund, v-p and publisher of Dearborn Trade.

Three titles set for revisions this year are Retire Worry Free, Financing College and Raising Smart Money Kids. Zigmund said Dearborn will revise and publish two to three new books per season. "We really want to build this brand," Zigmund said. Dearborn will use the Kiplinger name on the line, but is not creating a separate imprint. Authors for the series will continue to be drawn from Kiplinger's various publications, and Dearborn will also work with other writers in the personal-finance area, Zigmund said.

David Harrison, who had directed Kiplinger's book unit, said that while Kiplinger gave book publishing "a good try," the book program "didn't have the success we hoped." He said switching distributors twice in the 1990s (from NBN to Random back to NBN) probably hurt the company's chances of establishing an identity in the market. In addition to personal-finance books, Kiplinger published business-management books and had a total backlist of about 25 titles, although it did not publish any new books in 2004. Harrison is now director of custom publishing for Kiplinger, using the content from its newsletters and magazines to create specialized publications.