Ann Godoff, one of the most influential publishers in the book industry, was forced out on Thursday as president of the Random House Trade Group, home to Salman Rushdie, EL Doctorow and William Styron, after her division was merged with an imprint better known for publishing mass-market paperback editions of thrillers, romances and science fiction.
The decision of Random House, a division of Bertelsmann and the largest book publisher in the world, to merge the trade group with its sister Ballantine Publishing Group, startled the literary world. The Random House Trade Group, along with its rival sister house, Knopf, has been one of the few publishers that combine literary prestige, financial resources and marketing clout. Gina Centrello, the president of the Ballantine Publishing Group, will now lead the combined Random House Ballantine Publishing Group.
Insiders said Godoff's departure followed a period of growing friction between her and some of the other publishers at the company's sister divisions, and, ultimately, with the company's chairman, Peter Olson, over her group's lagging financial performance.
"Despite the many core strengths of the Random House Trade Group and their numerous best sellers," Olson said in a statement, "they have been the only Random House Inc. publishing division to consistently fall short of their annual profitability targets."
Godoff's ouster and the internal merger revived long-standing fears among authors and agents about the growing consolidation of the publishing business. And one author, John Berendt, whose non-fiction tale of Savannah, Georgia, Midnight in the garden of good and evil, was a best seller for Random House Trade Group, said he might leave the fold when his current book is finished.
"In my limited experience as a book author," he said, "it seems to me that the whole thing has to do with relationships between author and editor. Over a period of time those are very strong relationships, which create a feeling of trust. So I kind of feel that I've been fired, too."
The reorganization comes at a time when Bertelsmann, like many other media companies, is taking a closer look at costs. Last year, the company's chairman Thomas Middelhoff, who engineered the acquisition of Random House from the Newhouse family, left as chairman of Bertelsmann after a power struggle with the Mohn family, the private company's major shareholder. Middelhoff's replacement, Gunter Thielen, has reined in some of Bertelsmann's more expansive forays into the Internet and technology, while re-emphasizing the company's commitment to giving its operating units significant autonomy.
Many authors, editors and agents were surprised by the moves at Random House on Thursday, in part, because the Random House Trade Group published more hard-cover and paperback best sellers than any other house within Random House Inc, including Knopf, Doubleday Broadway, Bantam Dell, or Crown. And until recently, Godoff appeared to have the support of Olson, who backed her in high-priced bids for the rights to new books, like the US$8 milion bid for the next book by Charles Frazier, author of the best-selling literary novel Cold Mountain.
Some who worked with Godoff called Olson's condemnation unfair, noting that Godoff long contended that her house suffered a disadvantage compared with other divisions because it published mainly hardcover books without the stability of revenue from a library of previously published paperback titles.
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