And then there were 4?
Posted: November 21st, 2012, 3:04 pm
On the heels of the deal to combine Random House and Penguin, News Corp has announced that it is in negotiations to buy Simon & Schuster from CBS to combine with its own HarperCollins.
According to a Wall Street Journal graphic, Penguin Random House would account for about 28% of US trade book sales, while HarperCollins/Simon & Schuster would account for about 21%. Applying some simple arithmetic skills, we find that the two behemoths would control just about 1/2 of the US trade book market between them.
[Hachette accounts for 11%, and apparently Macmillan is too small to bother being broken out from "others".]
According to a Wall Street Journal graphic, Penguin Random House would account for about 28% of US trade book sales, while HarperCollins/Simon & Schuster would account for about 21%. Applying some simple arithmetic skills, we find that the two behemoths would control just about 1/2 of the US trade book market between them.
[Hachette accounts for 11%, and apparently Macmillan is too small to bother being broken out from "others".]