Dover Publications--which in recent years has expanded beyond its traditional areas of classics reprints, adult coloring books and children’s titles--is restructuring its frontlist publishing program to return to those roots. The reorganization, the company said, will be accompanied by realigning its cost structure.
According to three sources, those efforts will involve eliminating 22 of the 37 positions in Dover’s Mineola, N.Y., office. The cuts will extend across the acquisitions, editorial, art, sales, and marketing departments. The layoffs are expected to occur in February.
LSC Communications, the printing company that acquired Dover in 2015 when it bought the publisher’s parent company Courier Corp., did not comment on the scope of the job cuts. However, Rajeev Balakrishna, president of the LSC publishing group and deputy general counsel, alluded to the layoffs in a press release. He said: "We greatly appreciate all of the hard work and years of service of our employees affected by this restructuring." He also added: "We are taking these necessary steps today to preserve Dover as a successful publishing house for the future.”
Balaskrishna said that, moving forward, Dover's frontlist will focus on adult coloring books and children’s books. He said the publisher will also dabble “opportunistically on other categories such as math and crafts.”
Founded in 1941, Dover has a backlist of over 10,000 titles. The bulk of the company's backlist is reprinted public domain titles packaged in an array of formats.
