Portfolio‘s Matt Malone interviewed ex-Random House CEO Peter Olson last month and no one noticed! Mr. Olson, who was given a teaching position at the Harvard Business School after German media conglomerate Bertelsmann removed him from the top of their publishing empire earlier this year, sounds like he’s pretty happy to be out of Read More
The Wall Street Journal has the story: Peter Olson’s successor at Random House Inc. has been selected, and it’s a German guy whom none of the publishers in New York have ever heard of. The name is Markus Dohle, and he comes from Arvato, the printing operation at Bertelsmann.
Mr. Dohle took over Read More
The publishing industry was vocally unsurprised on Monday when The New York Times’ Mark Landler reported that Peter Olson, the towering and strange CEO of Random House, had fallen out of favor with leadership at Bertelsmann, the German conglomerate, and would soon be relieved of his duties after 10 years at the helm. “I heard Read More
The New York Times is reporting that Peter Olson, who has been C.E.O. of Random House since 1998, will step down "in the next few weeks." Two unnamed executives from Random House’s parent company Bertelsmann tell the Times‘ Mark Landler that pressure on Mr. Olson to vacate his post is coming from Bertelsmann’s recently-appointed Read More
Since summer is slow in publishing-a few blockbusters courtesy of Hillary and Harry Potter notwithstanding-it should come as no surprise that Sunday’s New York Times Magazine piece about Random House made a sound in the forest even before it officially fell. But even by publishing’s high-decibel-chatter standards, the noise has been loud. Faxed versions of Read More
If you were wondering what might send the world’s third-largest media conglomerate into a swivet, look out the window: There’s a 7 percent vacancy rate in midtown Manhattan, and Bertelsmann A.G., the $16.4 billion German-based behemoth, is feeling the strain. They may know how to partner up with everyone from venture capitalists to Web geeks Read More
Ten weeks out of an intensive care unit, Sonny Mehta could be found in Bemel-mans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel, hunting for cashews in a silver bowl. He asked for a glass of Côtes du Rhône and popped a cashew. Mr. Mehta, the editor in chief and president of Alfred A. Knopf Inc., and president Read More
On Dec. 14, Peter Olson, Random House Inc.’s mild-mannered chairman
and chief executive, issued a memo addressed to “everyone” at the
company, having to do with Random House’s corporate parent, German
media giant Bertelsmann A.G.
“Over the weekend,” Mr. Olson began, “published reports
raised questions about Bertelsmann’s publishing program in the
30′s and 40′s Read More
