Simon & Schuster Australia has acquired Melbourne-based independent publisher Affirm Press for an undisclosed price. Founded in 2010, Affirm has a backlist of approximately 750 titles and publishes about 100 new books annually. Completion of the purchase is subject to normal customary closing conditions.
Affirm was founded in 2010 by Martin Hughes, currently CEO and publishing director, and Graeme Wise, chair of the Australian investment firm the Adidem Group, to publish books on a limited basis. It became a full-time business when Keiran Rogers, now sales and finance director, joined the company in 2013. The company publishes both adult fiction and nonfiction, and added children’s books in 2017.
The purchase of Affirm will augment S&S Australia’s expansion efforts. In recent years, the company has expanded into audiobook publishing and added more titles from Australian authors while also increasing the number of titles from overseas publishers. In addition, S&S Australia has launched the Bundyi Publishing imprint, which is focused on releasing books from First Nation authors, and added Summit Books Australia as part of S&S’s plan to revive the international imprint under Judy Clain.
Affirm’s Martin Hughes said that as the publisher has grown, it has been looking for a potential partner to improve its technological and production capabilities and give it more chances to grow internationally. “Joining a company with operational scale makes eminent sense to us, and we are looking forward to once again focusing on what we love most—creating, producing, publishing, and selling books that will leave the community better off,” Hughes said in a statement.
S&S Australian managing director Dan Ruffino said Affirm’s publishing program aligns “strategically with our vision for the future in the Australian and New Zealand markets and we cannot wait to begin working with them.”
The Affirm purchase is the second international acquisition made by S&S since it was acquired by the private equity firm KKR in late 2023. In May, S&S agreed to acquire leading Dutch publisher Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK). The two acquisitions fulfill a promise made by S&S CEO Jonathan Karp and KKR’s Richard Sarnoff to expand S&S’s international footprint as part of an overall growth plan for America's third largest trade publisher.
