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Random Penguin
It looks as though owners of two of the world's largest publishers, Random House and Penguin, are to merge to form the biggest. It looks as though owners, Bertelsmann and Pearson will be combine to form a massive company worth several billion to see it through the oncoming times and deal with seuch things as e-books and the rise of Amazon. The new company would be responsible for about 25% of all books sold in Britain alone
At one point, it looked as though Murdoch's News Corporation was going to make a bid for Pearson, but that looks to have fallen through.
On the one hand this could see books surviving in their current form for a lot longer as they will have a lot more clout. But I bet with the slimmed down company it will be even harder for new writers to get a start with them.
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Unfortunately, as far as I can make out, the resultant company will not actually be called "Random Penguin".
I would love for something to be called "Random Penguin".
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I have a hard time seeing this as a sign of a vibrant publishing industry, no matter the spin they put on it. Hopefully they'll find a way to make physical books still compelling without being simply expensive collector's items.
There was also some disappointment at not getting to see a random penguin either.
I'd be pretty cool with "Penguin House", too.
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Would "Randy Penguin" be possible?
Please?