Penguin Random House has completed the integration of Boom! Studios into its Random House Worlds group. PRH acquired Boom! in July 2024 and has steadily brought the publisher into Random House Worlds, which also includes its RHWorlds, Disney, Inklore, and Del Rey divisions.
Under the latest restructuring, Michael Kelly—the former VP of global publishing at Hasbro who moved to Boom! shortly after the PRH acquisition—has joined the Random House Worlds leadership team and will continue to lead Boom! as VP and publisher. Kelly will report to Keith Clayton, SVP and publisher of the Random House Worlds group.
In other moves, Julie Leung, VP and deputy publisher of Random House Worlds, will expand her purview to include Boom! with a focus on “connecting publishing, operations, and business planning across the RHW portfolio,” Clayton wrote in a memo. Boom! publishing manager Olivia Dontsov will now report to Leung.
Also as part of the reorg, Boom!’s direct-to-consumer and business development efforts will expand to support all Random House Worlds imprints under the direction of Bryce Carlson, who was named VP of business development and special projects. In that role, Carlson will oversee the group’s Kickstarter and DTC initiatives.
Sales and distribution for Boom!, Inklore, and direct-to-consumer programs are now being overseen by Josh Hayes, who was named sales director, reporting to Cynthia Lasky, EVP and group sales director for RHPG. The BOOM! marketing team—marketing manager Alya Kronsberg and marketing associate Grecia Martinez—have joined the RHPG marketing group, reporting to David Moench, VP and senior director of marketing and publicity for Random House Worlds.
The restructuring also resulted in a few layoffs, according to the Beat, including associate marketing manager Anthony Mauro and executive editor Kwanza Osafjeyo.
