Penguin Layoffs Hit Sales, Editorial
by Steven Zeitchik and Jim Milliot, PW NewsLine -- Publishers Weekly, 3/1/2005
As we first reported Friday, Penguin has made cuts in both its U.S. and U.K. operations in connection with its announcement of 2004 results. The U.S. staff was reduced "by more than 2%," Penguin USA CEO David Shanks said in an interview, which amounts to about 40 positions.
The cuts apparently hit hardest in the sales department, which Shanks said underwent some restructuring to accommodate a decline in sales of mass market paperbacks. Several senior editorial positions in children were known to be lost. Cuts also came in the DK division, where 44 jobs are being eliminated, all but a handful in the U.K.
The company had been warning for several months that sales and earnings for the Penguin Group would be off in 2004, and final results, as you may have heard, showed sales dropping 6.4%, to L786 million ($1.44 billion), while operating profit tumbled 41%, to L54 million ($99 million). Excluding the impact of the weak dollar, sales for the group were flat, and earnings fell 24%.
In other Penguin news, a senior editorial figure is following in Jennifer Hershey's footsteps in the direction of Random House. Jane von Mehren will depart her role as editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Penguin Books to become publisher of trade paperbacks for Little Random, reporting to Gina Centrello. She's a sort-of replacement for David Ebershoff, a Random author who was publishing director of Modern Library and Random trade paperbacks; Ebershoff is staying on at the company as Random editor-at-large.--Jim Milliot and Steven Zeitchik
