PRH unveils centralised rights restructure

Penguin Random House UK has moved to a centralised rights team for the adult trade business, “in order to drive international rights growth across its portfolio and ensure that it maximises opportunities for authors”, boosting the team by two and announcing a number of senior promotions.

The changes to the team’s structure follow a consultation process revealed last month, alongside the appointment of Chantal Noel as group rights director and the departure of Transworld’s rights director Helen Edwards, who leaves later this month. Alex Elam, head of rights at Penguin, will also leave after 14 years amid the centralisation, it was announced this morning (Wednesday 4th December).

The new centralised team is effective from 2nd January 2020, representing rights for both offices in Vauxhall Bridge Road and Embassy Gardens, following the move in 2020.

The team will represent each of the publishing houses based in those locations, with one group to represent Ebury, Cornerstone, Penguin General and Penguin Press, and another group for Transworld, Michael Joseph and Vintage. The children’s rights team remains unchanged following a restructure last year and continues to be led by Penguin Random House UK Children's rights director Zosia Knopp, reporting to Noel.

Echoing its aims for the rights centralisation proposed last month, PRH is hoping a larger, more nimble rights structure will drive greater growth – building the team from 23 to 25 members.

“By moving to a more adaptable, entrepreneurial structure, Penguin Random House wants to create a stronger and more strategic platform to explore the best rights opportunities on behalf of its authors and unlock growth potential,” the publisher told The Bookseller. “In support of this it is investing in its rights function by increasing the size of the team to 25 people. Included within this is the creation of a new specialised illustrated books rights team and a new role for a dedicated in-house media and entertainment specialist (for which the team will be recruiting in due course), both of which will work across the breadth of Penguin Random House.” 

There will also be a number of senior promotions. Sarah Scarlett is promoted from Penguin adult international rights director to PRH rights director (adult) in an overarching group role for the PRH adult trade divisions. She will report to Noel.

Jane Kirby, Vintage rights director, is promoted to the new role of rights director for Transworld, Vintage and Michael Joseph, reporting to Scarlett.  Also for these three divisions, Lucy Beresford Knox, formerly Penguin senior rights manager, is promoted to the new role of head of translation, and Josh Crosley from the Transworld team is promoted to senior rights manager.

Meanwhile Amelia Evans, Cornerstone rights director, is promoted to the new role of rights director for General, Press, Ebury and Cornerstone, reporting to Sarah Scarlett. She is joined by Monique Corless who is promoted from Vintage senior rights manager to head of translation for these divisions with Ann Katrin Ziser from the Transworld team assuming the expanded role of senior rights manager.

Additionally Catherine Wood is promoted from senior rights manager for Penguin to rights director for Penguin Random House Illustrated Books.

PRH said it will be looking to recruit for a number of roles in the near future.

“The new centralised team will create a larger, more experienced Penguin Random House Rights team with colleagues embedded within each division to ensure strong partnerships with editors and the divisional publishing teams,” the publisher told The Bookseller. “This structure aims to deliver the best of being small and specialist whilst leveraging size and scale at the same time: prioritising the distinctiveness of divisions yet also bringing together Rights colleagues to work more collaboratively and effectively in order to drive growth.” PRH said that the transformation is being made “in order to drive international rights growth across its portfolio and ensure that it maximises opportunities for authors”.

Noel said: “I feel incredibly honoured to have the opportunity to help shape the rights business for Penguin Random House and to set us up for further success in the future. We believe this new structure enables us to take a nuanced approach to new and existing authors, whilst also maximising the strength and scale of our rights sales team. It allows us to preserve our close working relationships with editors and the publishing teams as well as our connection to the fantastic expertise within the business around reaching new audiences and readers and to develop deep international market expertise and global reach for our books.

She added: "I’m much looking forward to building on our collaborative partnerships with agents, literary scouts and international publishers to provide the best author representation that we possibly can.”

Following the reorganisation, Edwards will leave as will Elam who has decided that this is the right time for her to pursue new opportunities, PRH said. Elam can be contacted at elamelam1@googlemail.com.

“Alex joined in 2005 and headed up Penguin’s domestic rights business, expertly managing serialisation and film & TV rights, which has seen her skilfully navigate innumerable major serialisation deals for authors ranging from Clare Balding to Mrs Hinch. Her brilliant work in selling translation rights across Asia and Brazil, as well as key markets in Europe, has driven significant success, particularly in China.  Her contribution to the Penguin team is hugely valued and she will by much missed by friends and colleagues. We thank her warmly and wish her the very best of luck in her future career.”