This April, the Creative Strategy team is thrilled to continue our #WelcometoArabStories initiative for Arab American Heritage Month. The campaign kicked off on April 1, highlighting the theme Home Is Where the Heart Is. We continue to celebrate the history and accomplishments of the Arab American community by highlighting works by Arab and Arab American writers and inviting readers to immerse themselves in these rich stories.
As part of the companywide DE&I effort to increase diverse representation in the content we acquire, publish, and market, Penguin Publishing Group’s Multicultural Marketing team produced the Inclusive Image Campaign from November 2022 through January 2023. This multi-title campaign focused on the use of diverse and inclusive lifestyle images to reach multicultural readers, as part of a larger series of research and development campaigns that tested strategies to reach a broader, more inclusive audience.
According to Eboni Rafus-Brenning, Manager for Diversity Recruitment at PRH, a diverse, equitable and inclusive publishing company is a major keystone for creating a receptive and productive environment for authors and their readers alike. New hires recruited from outside of publishing, like VP of Growth Marketing Anne Bono, can offer insights from other industries to help propel authors forward. Read on to learn more about why diversity matters at your publishing house—Eboni will take it from here!
At Penguin Random House, our mission—to ignite a universal passion for reading by creating books for everyone—guides us daily. It fuels our desire to not only publish with excellence, but help narrow the gap between the world today and the world we aspire to, one that is more just, healthy, and equitable.
In May, Kimberly Ayers Shariff joined PRH as EVP, Director of Strategy for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. In this newly created role, which reports directly to Madeline McIntosh, CEO of PRH US, with a seat on the U.S. board, Kimberly will lead PRH’s implementation of its company-wide DE&I Strategic Plan and help develop a broad-based vision for the company’s future, ensuring the creation of books for everyone, by everyone, out of a culture where all feel welcome and empowered to fully participate in the process. We sat down with Kimberly to ask about her vision for the company’s DE&I work, her goals for our collective journey, and what she sees as the biggest opportunities and challenges ahead.
We are pleased to share Penguin Random House’s 2020 Social Impact Report, which summarizes our 2020 global commitment to serving our communities beyond the books we publish. Read more