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| four speculations from the web on the image of the new merged organisation! |
As has been widely reported, plans are for two of the English speaking world's biggest book publishers, Penguin and Random House, to merge. In A/NZ there are certain to be job losses as as result, although these will mainly affect administration, sales and distribution staff. If the two together plan to keep publishing as many local titles as they do now - which is by no means certain - then publishing staff and external contractors would need to be retained.
The major part of both companies' business in A/NZ is to distribute the product published by the parent organisation in the UK and the US; local titles are seen as a means of keeping themselves in front of the public. Back in the 1980s, the then unmerged Collins decided to drop NZ publishing as being less profitable than distribution, but found out that it cost them market share. Like Hollywood movies, it is expected that not all local titles will make money, but the blockbusters - books by sports heroes, media personalities and the like - more than make up for these.
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