Random House

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Random House, Inc.
Type Subsidiary of Bertelsmann
Founded 1925
Founder Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer
Headquarters New York City, USA
Munich, Germany
London, UK
Key people Peter Olson (Chairman and CEO)
Edward Volini (Deputy Chairman, Chief Operating Officer)
Dr. Joerg Pfuhl (Verlagsgruppe Random House)
Gail Rebuck (Random House UK Group)
Industry Books, Publishing
Products Books
Revenue ▲$2.3 billion USD (2008)
Employees 5,764 (as of December 31, 2007)
Website www.randomhouse.com
Random House Tower headquarters, New York City
Random House Tower headquarters, New York City

Random House, Inc. (or sometimes referred to as The House) is the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher. It is owned by Bertelsmann, a transnational media corporation. Random House is the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing.

Contents

[edit] Random House, US

Random House US was founded in 1925[1] by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, when they acquired the Modern Library imprint. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House.[2]

Its American imprints currently include the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, the Crown Publishing Group including Three Rivers Press, the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, the Knopf Publishing Group, the Random House Audio Publishing Group, the Random House Diversified Publishing Group, the Random House Information Group, the Random House Ballantine Publishing Group, and Random House Ventures. Del Rey Manga publishes English manga in North America.

Random House entered reference publishing in 1947 with the American College Dictionary, which was followed in 1966 by its first unabridged dictionary. Today it publishes the Random House Webster's Unabridged and Random House Webster's College dictionaries, probably the main competitors for Merriam-Webster reference titles.

The distinguished American publishers Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Pantheon Books were acquired by Random House in 1960 and 1961, respectively; works continue to be published under these imprints with editorial independence, such as Everyman's Library, a series of classical literature reprints. Random House has been the distributor for Shambhala Publications since 1974. They also currently distribute Rizzoli Books, National Geographic Books, Steerforth Press, Wizards of the Coast, Vertical Books, Welcome Books, New York Review of Books, Titan Books, Other Press, Hatherleigh Press and DC Comics. In 1998, Bertelsmann AG bought Random House and it soon went global.[3]

The publisher's main U.S. office is located at 1745 Broadway in Manhattan, in the 684-foot Random House Tower, completed in 2003 and spanning the entire west side of the block between West 55th Street and west 56th. Its lobby showcases floor-to-ceiling glassed-in bookcases filled with books published by the company's many imprints.

[edit] Random House, UK

In the United Kingdom, the Random House Group Limited comprises four divisions with different publishing remits: Random House, Transworld, Ebury Publishing and Random House Children's Books. Its imprints include Jonathan Cape, Harvill Secker, Chatto and Windus, Vintage together with Vintage Classics, Pimlico, Yellow Jersey, Century, Willian Heinemann, Hutchinson, Arrow, Random House Audio Books, Random House Business Books, Ebury Press, Vermilion, Rider, Bantam Press, Doubleday, Tamarind, Corgi, Black Swan, Fodor, Time Out, WaterBrook Press and Mainstream.

It also owns Tanoshimi, which publishes English manga in the United Kingdom and Ireland. One imprint in the Random House Children's Books division is Dell Laurel-Leaf Books, which publishes young adult novels. The name is a carryover from Dell Publishing, formerly a separate company from Random House. Other subsidiaries include Mandarin Publishing, which focuses on titles in speculative fiction.

The UK Random House offices are based in Pimlico and Ealing, both in London.

[edit] Random House, Germany

Verlagsgruppe Random House is the second largest book publisher in Germany with 30+ imprints as of April 2008, including historic publishing houses Goldmann and Heyne. It is headquartered in Munich.

[edit] Random House, Canada

Random House of Canada was established in 1944 as the Canadian distributor of Random House Books. In 1986 the company established its own indigenous Canadian publishing program that has become one of the most successful in Canadian history.

[edit] Random House elsewhere

Random House also operates branches in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and South Korea.[4] In Australia offices are in Sydney and Melbourne. In New Zealand it is based in Glenfield, Auckland, while Random House's Indian headquarters are located in New Delhi.

[edit] Subsidiaries and affiliates

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ BERTELSMANN'S CLUBS GO TO RANDOM HOUSE
  2. ^ [1] Bennet Alfred Cerf Biography
  3. ^ Random House Company History, from http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Random-House-Inc-Company-History.html. Accessed April 13, 2008.
  4. ^ (Korean) Random House Korea web site

[edit] External links