MARKUS DOHLE
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
MEMBER OF THE BERTELSMANN MANAGEMENT SE EXECUTIVE BOARD
July 1, 2013
To Our Literary Agents,
Today, I am proud to write to you from the officially united Penguin Random House.
Over the past few months, we have been working through the many financial, legal, and logistical arrangements necessary for the merger to become a reality. But despite the tasks already accomplished, we are really still just at the starting line when it comes to building our new company. The process of creating a unified Penguin Random House platform of systems and operations will be gradual, providing plenty of time for us to learn and evaluate from all sides of our company the best ways to bring together our programs, resources, skills, talents, and ideas in order to best serve authors, booksellers, readers, and all of our marketplace partners.
I realize that you are eager to understand how our merger will affect you and your clients. The answer is that we will continue to work with you together just as we have separately. Our publishers will continue to be encouraged to publish in the independently entrepreneurial way they always have. You and your clients will continue to benefit from an extraordinary breadth of publishing choices, editorial talents, and experience. Our publishing leadership remains endowed with tremendous autonomy and financial resources to decide which books to publish, and how to publish them. We expect this to continue in our new business, as we seek new books from both the established and the debut authors you represent.
I am sure that, over time, as we learn from each other, and continue to invest in our print and digital publishing, marketing, sales, and distribution programs, there will be changes for us to consider and to discuss with you and our other partners. That is, however, for the future.
Today, I thank you for your many and ongoing contributions to our success. Your authors and their books have been, and will remain, at the heart of everything we do.
All my best,
