For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, the Perseus Books Group exceeded its financial goals while continuing to invest in the future, CEO David Steinberger wrote to the publisher’s 675 employees in a letter summarizing highlights of the year.
Those investments included a host of digital initiatives including the joint venture with the U.K house Faber & Faber to create the U.K-based digital platform Faber Factory Powered by Constellation that now has more than 100 clients. Perseus’ own digital platform, Constellation, added more than 100 new clients in the year, Steinberger wrote. The company’s Argo Navis operation, which enables authors repped by literary agencies to self publish their titles, has contracts with 27 literary firms. To improve day-today operations, Perseus invested in research and development on a range of social listening platforms and in next-generation metadata optimization “that hold the promise of revolutionizing digital discovery for our authors and clients. We invested in digital workflow, improving our flexibility to create books in a range of digital and print formats and versions, a key to future success for our authors and clients,” Steinberger wrote. There year also saw Perseus sign a 10-year lease for a new company headquarters in New York and a new lease for its Jackson warehouse.
Perseus also brought new people on board to help the company navigate the changing market with David Bronstein appointed chief talent officer and Patrick Kirk named v-p, program office whose duties are to “strengthen our people’s skills at planning and executing the large complex technology-related projects that are increasingly central to launching new services, products and businesses,” Steinberger wrote.
Steinberger’s letter acknowledged some of the changes the company made in the year, including the decision to phase out Vanguard as well as the promotion of key people into new executive roles. Among those joining Perseus in the year were Georgina Levitt and Amanda Murray as publishing director and editorial director, respectively of the revamped Weinstein Books.
On the distribution side, Steinberger said its client publishers had 28 New York Times bestsellers (14 at Perseus Distribution, 13 at PGW and 1 at Consortium) while added a host of new publishers. Consortium, Steinberger noted, “had another award-filled year,” while PGW had “strong financial results.”
Steinberger closed by noted the death of Perseus founder Frank Pearl in May, while thanking new chairman John Schwieters and the executive committee of Perseus LLC “for their insightful guidance and steadfast support throughout the year.”
