{"id":3226,"date":"2022-11-14T03:59:15","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T03:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/?p=3226"},"modified":"2022-11-15T23:06:11","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T23:06:11","slug":"latest-publishing-news-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/articles\/2022\/11\/14\/3226\/latest-publishing-news-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest publishing news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Court blocks PRH acquisition of S&S<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bertelsmann, the parent company of Penguin Random House (PRH), will appeal a ruling by a US federal court blocking its proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster (S&S).<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0two-page order<\/a>, judge Florence Pan found: \u2018the United States has shown that the effect of [the proposed merger] may be substantially to lessen competition in the market for the U.S. publishing rights to anticipated top-selling books,\u2019 reports\u00a0Publishers Weekly<\/em><\/a>. \u2018Accordingly, judgment shall be entered in favor of the Plaintiff and the merger shall be enjoined.\u2019<\/p>\n

Pan\u2019s full\u00a080-page written decision<\/a> blocking the acquisition was published a week after the decision was revealed, and after confidential redactions were made. Pan found the Department of Justice (DoJ) had \u2018properly defined a relevant market\u2014focused on publishing rights for anticipated top-selling books\u2014that encompasses 70 percent of the advances that publishers pay to authors\u2019. DoJ attorneys had defined \u2018anticipated top selling books\u2019 as those with advances over $250,000. Pan dismissed PRH and S&S\u2019s arguments that the government\u2019s focus on books with advances over $250,000 was incorrect on both the facts and the law.<\/p>\n

Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe said: \u2018We do not share the court\u2019s assessment any more than we previously shared the Department of Justice\u2019s position. Both are based on incorrect basic assumptions, including an inaccurate definition of the market. A merger would be good for competition. We remain convinced that Bertelsmann and Penguin Random House would be the best creative home for Simon & Schuster\u2014with a wide variety of publishers that could operate independently under one umbrella. We will be filing a motion to appeal with the DC Court of Appeals.\u2019<\/p>\n

As previously reported by\u00a0Books+Publishing<\/em>, in 2020 Bertelsmann\u00a0announced its plans to acquire S&S from media company ViacomCBS<\/a>\u00a0for US$2.175 billion (A$2.95b). It expected the deal to settle in 2021. However, the US Department of Justice\u00a0sued to block the acquisition<\/a>, alleging the move would \u2018enable Penguin Random House, which is already the largest book publisher in the world, to exert outsized influence over which books are published in the United States and how much authors are paid for their work\u2019.<\/p>\n

The merger has\u00a0previously been cleared in the UK<\/a>\u00a0by the Competition and Markets Authority.<\/p>\n

Pham wins Heyman Mentorship Award\u00a0unpublished manuscript award; other awards news <\/strong><\/p>\n

Kim Pham is the winner of the 2022 Heyman Mentorship Award for her novel manuscript \u2018Bird Hands Beaver a Fishmint Bouquet\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Set in the suburbs of Western Sydney, the book is described by the publisher as \u2018a comical coming-of-age story with an unsettling twist\u2019, and by the author as \u2018if\u00a0The Breakfast Club<\/em>\u00a0was directed by Bong Joon Ho\u2019. The novel follows 13-year-old Bridget Bui, who has only one goal this year: to ace Australia\u2019s KRAPLAN tests and claim her rightful place as star pupil. Maybe then her parents will love her.<\/p>\n

The Heyman Mentorship Award is for a writer over 26 years of age from a background of social or economic disadvantage, writing full-length prose \u2018which engages in some way with issues of class and economic disadvantage\u2019. It offers the winner a year of mentoring by Heyman and a full editorial report from Catherine Milne at HarperCollins, with the publisher holding the first option to publish the work.<\/p>\n

The award received over 40 applications in its third year. \u2018I wish it were possible to offer more than one award\u2014there are many stories which will stay with me,\u2019 Heyman said. For more information about the award see\u00a0Heyman\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also announced in the past month were shortlists for the Prime Minister\u2019s Literary Awards<\/a>, the Dymocks Book of the Year<\/a> and Australian Political Book of the Year Award<\/a>, while longlists were also announced for the Tasmanian Literary Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To stay up to date with all the latest awards news, subscribe to Books+Publishing <\/em>here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Court blocks PRH acquisition of S&S\u00a0 Bertelsmann, the parent company of Penguin Random House (PRH), will appeal a ruling by a US federal court blocking its proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster (S&S). In a\u00a0two-page order, judge Florence Pan found: \u2018the United States has shown that the effect of [the proposed merger] may be substantially<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3226"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3239,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions\/3239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booksandpublishing.com.au\/independentpublishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}