Half of C&R staff have now left Little, Brown

More than half of staff at Constable & Robinson have left the publisher since Little, Brown Book Group bought the company, it has emerged.

The formerly independent publisher was purchased by the Hachette division in February, with the Constable & Robinson team moving into Little, Brown’s Victoria Embankment offices in April.

Seventeen staff members now remain from the original Constable & Robinson workforce total of 41, which included some interns and others on temporary contracts. Twenty roles at the company were reported to be under consultation in the spring.

Among the positions understood to have been made redundant is that of digital director.

A spokesperson for Hachette told The Bookseller that “in the time between acquisition and the move to Little, Brown some people left of their own accord to go to other jobs”.

The spokesperson added: “Where positions were made redundant it was because there was a duplication of roles either within Little, Brown or within the departments that work across the HUK group. Where jobs may have been done exclusively by one member of staff at Constable & Robinson, these may now be covered as part of a wider brief by someone at Little, Brown or within the wider Hachette Group – as is the case, for example, with digital.”

A source close to the company, who preferred to speak anonymously, said that while Hachette consulted “very professionally and very well”, the redundancies were a “big loss”.

The Constable and Robinson imprints are now part of the new Piatkus Constable Robinson (PCR) division of Little, Brown, which is headed by Tim Whiting.

Whiting told The Bookseller: “It’s really exciting working with Constable & Robinson on their lists. They’re brilliant advocates for the role of publishing. I think they feel now very much at home and part of the team.” A number of Constable & Robinson’s imprints, including C&R Crime and Brief Histories, were folded into either the Constable or the Robinson imprint soon after the acquisition. Whiting said that he was keen to keep each Constable & Robinson “imprint and the identity strong”.

Former Constable & Robinson imprint Corsair, with publisher James Gurbutt, continues as a separate imprint to Piatkus Constable Robinson.

The sale of Constable & Robinson followed the death of Nick Robinson, founder of Robinson Publishing, which merged with Constable & Co.
Robinson, who was chairman of Constable & Robinson, died in August 2013.

Robinson’s wife Nova Jayne Robinson, who took over as chairman, said when the buy of Constable & Robinson was announced in February this year that the fit with Little, Brown was “rather good”.

Authors on Constable and Robinson’s lists include MC Beaton, Jennifer Egan, Joan Collins, Rosie Goodwin and Carl Rogers, as well as George Bernard Shaw, Bram Stoker and Sir Walter Scott.