Dohle hails 'successful' 2019 for PRH in year end letter to staff

Penguin Random House c.e.o. Markus Dohle has hailed the company's acquisitions and investments and called on the firm to leverage its "unique role in the world as a force for good", in a year end letter to staff. 

The annual letter to employees highlighted acquisitions including global publisher Little Tiger Group; the book-publishing assets of India’s Duckbill Books, and the intellectual property world rights for Eric Carle and noted the deals have helped "expand its leadership" in the children's market. PRH also made a 45% investment in US indie Sourcebooks and acquired Spain's Salamandra in May. 

Running with the global theme, Dohle also highlighted the purchase of Catalan-language publisher La Campana Llibres in July and PRH making its début as a South East Asia publisher with the first list from Penguin Random House in Singapore. The company also increased its ownership stake in Brazil’s Companhia das Letras.

Dohle said: "What is most notable about these acquisitions is that the founders and leaders of these companies wanted to become part of Penguin Random House because of our performance and our culture. Since our earliest days as the world’s largest trade publisher, I have said that sheer size in and of itself is not a competitive advantage. Rather, what’s key to our success is leveraging our scale as a force for greater good and demonstrating to our authors that we can connect them to more readers than any other publisher. We all need to continue to be ambassadors of our unparalleled publishing, unmatched global reach, and first-in-class operations. And we want to embrace and leverage our unique role in the world as a force for good and a creative and entrepreneurial community of book lovers." 

Turning to books, Dohle hailed the success of bestsellers and award winning titles which saw PRH authors win the Nobel Prizes for Literature and Economic Sciences, won by Olga Tokarczuk, and Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, respectively, as well as the Booker Prize for co-winners Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo, and Canada’s Scotiabank Giller Prize for Ian Williams.

Dohle said: "The accolades earned by our authors bring their publishing teams great pride we all can share."

Signing off, Dohle thanked staff for "another successful year for Penguin Random House globally". He added: "Let us continue to implement our local growth strategies—both organically, by publishing the very best and most successful books, and by welcoming new companies and their respective colleagues to our family of imprints around the world."