Random House

• 1. Introduction

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  Random House began with a casual remark that became a company name. In 1927, Bennett Cerf told his new partner Donald Klopfer that they were simply going to publish a few books on the side at random. That throwaway phrase stuck, and the imprint they named after it would grow into one of the largest publishers in the English-speaking world. The two men had acquired the Modern Library imprint just two years earlier, buying it from publisher Horace Liveright. Modern Library reprinted classic works of literature, which gave Cerf and Klopfer their foothold. But Random House quickly overtook its parent. What pushed a small side venture into publishing's upper tier? The answer involves a banned novel, a string of acquisitions, a television company that had no business owning books, and a merger that reshaped the entire industry.

• 2. Ulysses and Early Growth

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  James Joyce's Ulysses arrived in the United States as a problem before it arrived as a book. Random House published the first authorized edition of the novel in the Anglophone world in 1934, and the event transformed the young company. Over the two decades that followed, the prestige attached to that publication lifted Random House into serious contention among American publishers. The acquisition of Smith and Haas in 1936 deepened that prestige considerably. Robert Haas became the third partner in the firm, and through the Smith and Haas deal Random House gained a roster of writers that included William Faulkner, Isak Dinesen, Andre Malraux, Robert Graves, and Jean de Brunhoff, the author of the Babar children's books. Editors Harry Maule, Robert Linscott, and Saxe Commins joined the house and brought further authors with them, among them Sinclair Lewis and Robert Penn Warren. Reference publishing entered the picture in 1947 with the American College Dictionary, and the company followed that with its first unabridged dictionary in 1966. Haas retired in 1956, selling his share back to Cerf and Klopfer, closing the original three-partner structure that had guided the house through its most formative stretch.

• 3. Going Public and Acquiring

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  Random House went public in October 1959 at eleven dollars and twenty-five cents a share. That move rippled through the industry: it became a factor in the decisions of other publishing companies, including Simon and Schuster, to go public in the years that followed. The appetite for acquisition accelerated sharply in 1960 and 1961. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Beginner Books both joined Random House in 1960; Pantheon Books followed in 1961. These imprints continued publishing with editorial independence, and Everyman's Library, a series of classical literature reprints, is among the works that carried on under that arrangement. RCA purchased Random House in 1965 as part of a diversification strategy that had little to do with books. The company passed to Advance Publications when RCA sold it in 1980. During the RCA years and afterward, the acquisition pace continued: Ballantine Books, the paperback publisher, joined in 1973, and Random House launched its audiobook program in 1985. Crown Publishing Group was acquired in 1988, the same year that McGraw-Hill bought Random House's Schools and Colleges division.

• 4. The Bertelsmann Era

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  Bertelsmann AG bought Random House in 1998 and merged it with Bantam Doubleday Dell, pushing the company into a genuinely global operation. The children's audiobook publisher Listening Library was acquired the following year, in 1999, and the distribution division was sold that same year. When Phyllis E. Grann joined as vice chairman in 2001, a publishing insider summed up the move plainly: "I think maybe instead of buying a company Random House CEO Peter Olson bought a person." Grann had built Putnam from ten million dollars in revenue in 1976 to more than two hundred million by 1993 without increasing their title output. The 2008 financial crisis hit the publishing industry with weak retail sales. Peter Olson stepped down in May 2008 and was replaced by Markus Dohle. By October 2008, Doubleday announced layoffs affecting sixteen people, roughly ten percent of its workforce. In early December 2008, a period that became known in publishing circles as Black Wednesday, Random House restructured into three divisions: Random House Publishing Group, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and Crown Publishing Group. Susan Kamil was named editorial director for Dial Press and editor-in-chief of Random House imprints, reporting to Gina Centrello, the president and publisher of the Random House Publishing Group.

• 5. Penguin Random House

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  Bertelsmann entered talks with rival conglomerate Pearson plc in October 2012 over the possibility of combining their publishing companies. On the 1st of July 2013, the merger was completed and Penguin Random House was formed. At the start, Bertelsmann held 53% of the joint venture and Pearson held 47%. The combined operation controlled 25% of the book business, employed more than ten thousand people, operated roughly 250 independent publishing imprints, and generated about 3.9 billion dollars in annual revenues. Part of the motivation was competitive pressure: the consolidation was intended to provide leverage against Amazon.com and to counter the shrinking number of bookstores. Pearson sold 22% of its shares to Bertelsmann in July 2017, and since April 2020 the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In October 2018, Penguin Random House merged the Random House and Crown Publishing Group lines, with chief executive Madeline McIntosh writing to employees that the two lines would retain their distinct editorial identities. McIntosh cited shifting book discovery and buying patterns and growth opportunities in nonfiction categories including food, lifestyle, health, wellness, business, and Christian publishing. Penguin Random House acquired the British children's book publisher Little Tiger Group in 2019, adding it to Random House Children's Books, and announced an agreement in July 2024 to purchase Boom! Studios, which would become part of Random House Worlds.

• 6. Buildings and Global Reach

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  Penguin Random House Tower, constructed in 2009 at 1745 Broadway in Manhattan, stands 684 feet tall, or 210 meters, and occupies the west side of the block between West 55th and West 56th Streets. The building's lobby features floor-to-ceiling glassed-in bookcases filled with books published by the company and its subsidiaries. Before that address, the company had been headquartered at several locations across Manhattan, including 457 Madison Avenue, 20 East 57th Street, and 201 East 50th Street. The Random House archive and library sits in Rushden in Northamptonshire in England. The British arm of the group comprises nine publishing companies and its distribution business serves not only its own imprints but also 40 other UK publishers through Grantham Book Services. The German operation, Verlagsgruppe Random House, was established after the 1998 Bertelsmann acquisition; it is the second largest book publisher in Germany, employs about 850 people, publishes roughly 2,500 titles per year, and counts historic publishing houses Goldmann and Heyne Verlag among its more than 40 imprints, alongside C. Bertelsmann, the house from which today's Bertelsmann corporation evolved. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial serves Spanish-language markets in Spain and Hispanic America from its headquarters in Barcelona, with offices in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, and the United States; its authors include Roberto Bolano, Javier Marias, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Guillermo Arriaga.

• 7. Random House Home Video

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  Random House Home Video was established in 1984 as a home video division of the publishing company. Its releases drew on well-known properties such as Sesame Street and The Berenstain Bears, as well as direct-to-video series including Richard Scarry's Best Videos Ever! and Beginner Book Video. By December 1994, the division had secured exclusive home video rights to the then-upcoming Arthur television series. In the beginning of April 1995, Random House Home Video reached an agreement with Sony Wonder, under which Sony Wonder became its main sales and distribution agent. By the following month, Sony Wonder had become the exclusive music and home video licensee for Sesame Street. At the time, Random House's agreement for Sesame Street home video products was set to expire on the 31st of December 1995. The arrangement between the two parties was later expanded in the middle of November 1999, when Sony Wonder took over the main marketing responsibilities from Random House Home Video.