There is little doubt that the Macmillan name has more cachet in American publishing circles than Holtzbrinck, and beginning today the U.S. subsidiary of the German conglomerate is changing its name to Macmillan. “Macmillan is an historic name and it makes sense to put all our operations under the same name,” said John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan’s U.S. operations. Holtzbrinck’s U.K. division has been known as Macmillan ever since it acquired Macmillan in 1999, but the Macmillan name in America has been owned by Pearson following its 1998 purchase of the Simon & Schuster educational and professional group, which included various Macmillan properties.
Holtzbrinck assembled its presence in the U.S. through a series of separate acquisitions, and, as Sargent noted, the different companies fell under the Holtzbrinck label “because we had to have a name.” Macmillan will now be the corporate umbrella for all of Holtzbrinck’s U.S. activities, including its trade and college publishing operations. McGraw-Hill will continue to use the Macmillan name on products sold through its Macmillan/McGraw-Hill pre-kindergarten through elementary school division.
With publishing becoming increasingly global and with digital products becoming a bigger part of the business, Sargent said it was important that Holtzbrinck’s worldwide operations share the same brand name. With the Internet, marketing campaigns can be more international in scope, Sargent said, and Holtzbrinck executives want to be sure customers know the company has a worldwide presence.
The only Holtzbrinck imprint whose name will change is its Audio Renaissance audio publishing unit, which will now be called Macmillan Audio. Its distribution group, which used the Von Holtzbrinck Publishers Services name, is now Macmillan Publishers Services. And the company’s Web site is now www.macmillan.com.
Sargent said it will take a few weeks for the company to change all of its letterhead and other items that carried the Holtzbrinck name. “I won’t have new business cards at Frankfurt, but I should have them when I get back,” Sargent said.
