D&M Publishers announced late yesterday that it has agreed to sell its flagship imprint, Douglas & McIntyre, to the owners of British Columbia-based Harbour Publishing, Howard and Mary White. The deal comes a week after D&M, which has been in bankruptcy protection since October, found a buyer for its Greystone Books imprint, Heritage House Publishing.
"The successful conclusion of first the Greystone and now the Douglas & McIntyre asset sales confirms that the quality imprints of D&M are on a solid new path for the future," said founding partner Scott McIntyre. "I am particularly pleased that both imprints will go forward under new British Columbia ownership with energetic ongoing publishing programs." According to the announcement, Howard White is committed to maintaining an ongoing, national publishing program under the Douglas & McIntyre imprint as well as preserving the continuity of its backlist.
In an interview in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, White said he intends to run D&M and Harbour as separate publishing houses, maintaining D&M’s editorial offices in Vancouver, while combining marketing, distribution and production. Canadian distribution for the Douglas & McIntyre imprint will continue to be handled by D&M’s current distributor, HarperCollins Canada.
Financial details of the sale have not been disclosed, but D&M owed creditors more than C$6 million. White told the Globe, he did not know what share of outstanding author royalties he would be able to pay, but that he would try to do everything he could, “negotiating on a case-by-case basis.”
The sale is subject to court approval but is expected to close later this month.
D&M has been one of Canada’s largest independent houses and was known for producing high quality books on art and architecture, politics, native and Canadian culture, food and the environment, including many award-winners. This year, Greystone Books' nonfiction title by Candace Savage A Geography of Blood: Unearthing the Memory from a Prairie Landscape, published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation, won Canada’s biggest prize for nonfiction, the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize.
