'Don't underestimate threat of Penguin Random House'

Grant tells IPG: 'Don't underestimate threat of PRH'

Published March 5, 2015. By Sarah Shaffi - The Bookseller

Independent publishers shouldn't underestimate the threat of "game-changer" Penguin Random House, Hardie Grant founder and chief executive Sandy Grant told the IPG spring conference in a keynote speech this morning (5th March). 

"I see the formation of Penguin Random House with its 25% market share as a potential game-changer for all of us," he told the conference. "My first reaction [to the merger] was to think they'll be too big and too unwieldy…to make the sort of decisions and to offer the sort of micro-management that books have traditionally needed. What I am seeing is a business that is introducing skills and marketing assets that will actually transform their relationship with retail and that will transform their relationships with authors, and that's their ability to control the market and generate demand.

He added: "As the core market shrinks, I think you can be absolutely certain that they'll be targeting and winning more of the genuinely profitable publishing opportunities that are available. As small publishers, we shouldn't underestimate how big a threat they could become…. Penguin Random House is investing in specialist marketing, they are investing in social media, they're investing in analytics, they're investing in other roles too," he said. "We have to embrace that if we want to compete."

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