Perseus Makes Tough Call on Avalon

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 5/14/2007

Although the Perseus Books Group was expected to integrate the Avalon Publishing Group into its operations, the scope of the consolidation surprised many in the industry, including, apparently, former Avalon CEO Charlie Winton, who sold the company to Perseus earlier this year. “I'm very disappointed in the outcome and I hope for the best for all of the people,” Winton said. But Perseus CEO David Steinberger maintained the changes were necessary to create a unified business that can compete profitably in a challenging marketplace.

Steinberger said he hoped to have the status of all of Avalon's 91 employees resolved by early this week. Forty-six employees were offered firm jobs, and another 21 were offered positions contingent on relocating or accepting new responsibilities. Twenty-four positions were eliminated outright, and while most of the cuts came in the New York office (which will be closed over the summer), several corporate-level jobs in Avalon's California offices were also eliminated, with those functions moving to New York.

The decision to dissolve the Avalon imprints Carroll & Graf and Thunder's Mouth was made, Steinberger said, because their titles overlapped too much with other Perseus imprints. After the C&G and Thunder's Mouth fall lists are published, their backlists will be placed in the appropriate Perseus imprint. Steinberger said Perseus will honor all its publishing commitments, but he did not rule out returning rights to authors if that's what the authors choose.

The creation of six business divisions came after “we took a fresh look at the business and made a strategic decision about what fit together the best,” Steinberger said. He noted that Marlowe's health and wellness line was a perfect complement to Da Capo's Lifelong series, giving Perseus a strong presence in that market. In the same vein, Counterpoint no longer fit with Perseus's long-range plans and is being sold to Winton's new company, Winton & Shoemaker, where it will be merged with Shoemaker & Hoard, a former Avalon imprint that Winton bought earlier this year. Winton said discussions to acquire Counterpoint began last year, with the sale of Avalon to Perseus, but was put on the back burner following the AMS bankruptcy and the acquisition of PGW distribution contracts by Perseus.