Hachette 'actively looking' to open more offices outside of London, PRH UK 'considering'

Hachette UK has revealed it is "actively looking" to open more offices outside of London, and PRH UK has said it is "considering" regional offices, following a discussion on the importance of regional diversity and what more can be done to promote it in publishing at the Building Inclusivity in Publishing conference, organised by the London Book Fair and Publishers Association.

A spokesperson for Hachette UK said there were "numerous reasons why we want to have of offices and workspace in more areas other than London" including its desire "to be plugged into what's happening around the whole country". Meanwhile PRH UK has said regional offices are "something we are considering alongside the many initiatives we already have in place to promote regional diversity". 

During a panel on the power of regional diversity hosted by the Publishers Association on Tuesday afternoon (27th November), panellists including Emma Wright of the Emma Press urged major publishers to seriously consider opening up offices north of London to help improve access to the publishing industry for those who don't live or don't have the same connections in the capital.

"You shouldn't have to move to London if you want to change the world through books," said Wright. "There should be other options; publishing is such a powerful industry, it's ridiculous it's limited to people who have those fortunate aspects and privileges in their lives." 

She continued that "major action is need" and "unless the industry takes those big steps, then nothing is going to change."

"My instinct is there should be regional offices," said Wright. "There is a sense that if smaller publishers make it work, then maybe the bigger publishers will set up regional offices, and in my mind that's way too much pressure. The way to create change would be to create that [geographical] symbolism and say 'yes, there should be people [working in publishing] in these places' ... I think that would make the most difference. All the schemes to do with London are really brilliant—but you shouldn't have to come to London, and I think that's the really key thing." 

Noting the limited resources of smaller London-based publishers, Dr Alice Curry at Lantana Publishing chimed, "I think it would be a fantastic project for larger houses to have that face-to-face contact". Similarly, asked whether it was "realistic or just a pipedream" to expect major publishers to expand ouside of London, Sarah Cleave of Manchester-based Comma Press, another panellist, added: "There are obviously risks involved, and the big publishers will have more internal hoops to jump through to make something commercially viable, but you have to have hope."

Since launching in 2016, the Spare Room Project, a scheme asking industry professionals to offer up their homes to publishing interns who are based outside of London, has helped more than 70 interns to find free accommodation when taking up placements in the capital. Recently it relaunched with the backing of PRH UK to help even more aspiring publishers outside of London get their foot in the door. However, even previous interns on the scheme have been reported as saying: "If [publishers are] serious about the diversity they keep going on about, we'll see a future where publishers aren't all in London."

Sharmaine Lovegrove, who set up Hachette UK imprint Dialogue Books within Little, Brown, and was recently named FutureBook’s Person of the Year for 2018 as one of publishing’s leading innovators, said from the floor: "As a big publisher that is concerned about regionality, I can say we are looking really closely at what Channel 4 have just done recently where they've opened up their HQ in Leeds and a cultural hub in Bristol and in Glasgow. I think, unless we try these things, then we can't start from a cynical position of just looking at the bottom line. Although we are shareholder companies, we are looking at the culture of our company and are really clear how important it is for us to be open for everybody."

Following the event, a spokesperson for Hachette UK commented: "Hachette already has a number of offices outside London and we are actively looking for more. There are numerous reasons why we want to have offices and workspace in more areas other than London: we want to be at the centre of creative hubs and cities, to attract and retain talented staff by allowing them to work where they want to be and by being on the ground and plugged into what's happening around the whole country we hope to discover, publish and promote more authors with different voices, from different backgrounds, writing from multiple points of view."

Rebecca Sinclair, brand and communications director for Penguin Random House UK, also acknowledged publishing's "London-centric" nature and said, following feedback from colleagues, regional offices were something it was "considering".

"We know that publishing remains a London-centric industry, and that as a result we’re missing out on great talent," said Sinclair. "It’s vital that this changes, and that as an industry we focus on both removing barriers to entry and reaching out pro-actively to young people across the UK to inform and excite them about the opportunities available in publishing.
 
“Regional offices have been raised by a number of colleagues across Penguin Random House, and are something we are considering alongside the many initiatives we already have in place to promote regional diversity—including introducing paid work experience; providing subsidised accommodation for people joining us for work experience from outside London; offering a rental deposit loan scheme for colleagues; and delivering interactive careers workshops across the country."