Knopf Random House Canada is splitting apart: beginning in 2021, Knopf Canada and Random House Canada will operate independently again (they were combined in 2009). Publisher Anne Collins will become executive editor and vice-president of Random House Canada on January 4, 2021. CEO Kristin Cochrane says, “I believe the time is right to have space for each to build on its past successes and pave the way for the future. In an increasingly crowded marketplace, with even more challenges upon us to reach readers with our authors’ books, the need to sharpen the focus of our publishing and clear its path to the reader is greater than ever.”
Two of the best-known publishers of New York’s Big Five scene are promising a media-spanning concept at their new independent press.
Cindy Spiegel, left, and Julie Grau. Image: Spiegel & Grau, Eric Borman
Topping Out at 20 Books Per Year
With the clock ticking down on a year that’s seemed interminable, many in the United States’ publishing industry have been cheered by today’s news (December 18) that Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau are back as Spiegel & Grau.
In social channels, you can feel the smiles as the news gets around among a quarter-century’s fans of their work.
Grau and Spiegel’s work in the past has included:
Spiegel and Grau Launch Indie House By Rachel Deahl | Dec 18, 2020
The new venture, under the same name of Spiegel and Grau, will, the company said in a release, be an innovative business with books at the center of it. The headline founders are co-CEOs, joined by an impressive roster of industry veterans. Liza Wachter, co-founder of the book-to-film agency RWSG, is president. Amy Metsch, former associate publisher and editorial director of Penguin Random House Audio, is associate publisher and editorial director. And Jacqueline Fischetti, formerly of Penguin s lecture bureau, is partner and COO.
S&G, which said its model is designed to support authors across multiple media formats, will aim to continue the work the duo were doing at Random House.to an extent. Spiegel said that a shifting media landscape has, over the past decade, created new ways to amplify stories across multiple formats, then adding that the power of stories to effect change, to