Penguin is taking its business imprint Portfolio international. The publisher is launching Portfolio divisions in September in all of its other major English language markets: England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa. The move comes after Penguin established an offshoot of the imprint in India in 2006.
The expansion, Penguin CEO John Makinson said, speaks to the increasing global nature of business publishing. It will also, as Portfolio founder Adrian Zackheim said, allow Penguin to have a broader reach with its business titles and offer a wider potential for its authors. As Zacheim explained: "The result, we hope, will be to develop the careers of many more writers, and to establish a much bigger footprint for Penguin in the business sections of bookstores throughout the English speaking world-and to offer writers a unique opportunity to reach a global audience."
Joel Rickett, editorial director of Viking in the U.K., will also now oversee the U.K. Portfolio list. And a communications manager also based in London, Richard Lennon, will be creating global marketing and publicity campaigns for titles. Portfolio Penguin will launch with five titles, available in print and digital formats, and the list will grow to roughly 20 new books by 2012. Most titles will be acquired through U.S. deals, and planned for simultaneous U.S. publications, but the international imprint will also provide a platform for U.K. titles and some local business books in the other markets. The first title from Portfolio Penguin will be Stuart Diamond's Getting More: How You Can Negotiate to Succeed in Work & Life. Diamond, who provides strategies for successful negotiating, settled the Hollywood Writer's Strike.
