You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Helen Fraser, outgoing managing director of Penguin, has said that a "phalanx of 40-plus talent" is ready to drive the company forward for the next 15 years, with her successor Tom Weldon set "to lead the next Penguin revolution".
Speaking to The Bookseller after announcing her own retirement, amid a wider restructuring that will see 100 jobs cut at Penguin UK, Fraser said: "The company is being re-shaped for the future, and often that does involve painful decisions about jobs."
But she added that a new generation needed space to take the business on. Fraser, who joined Penguin at the beginning of 1997 from Reed Books, highlighted in particular those managers she had either hired, or worked with through her time at Penguin. These included Weldon and Michael Joseph head Louise Moore who came with her from Reed; Penguin Press chief Stefan McGrath; Joanna Prior who will run Penguin General; and Suzi Brennan, Penguin's finance director, as well as its group operations director Deborah Wright. "It is the right moment for them to have their chance" she said.
"With the sort of challenges book publishing is facing at the moment, it is better to have the younger generation in charge—a management team in their 40s, rather than 60s." Of Weldon, she said that she and John Makinson, chief executive of the Penguin Group, has seen for some time that he was "absolutely a c.e.o. in the making".
Fraser also picked out the appointment of Anna Rafferty to a new position of digital managing director: "We need somebody who is completely immersed [in that world], to lead us through the next five years".
Her views were echoed by Makinson, who told The Bookseller: "Clearly there has been a need for a response to the changing environment, digital, and the reference publishing market, as well as taking the opportunity to promote a new generation of leadership."
In a statement Weldon commented: "Helen has been my boss for twenty years. I find it almost impossible to describe what I owe her. She has taught me everything I know about publishing. And she has been the most extraordinarily generous and supportive of mentors and friends. I feel incredible gratitude to her."