Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, the St. Paul, Minn.—based independent distributor, has been sold to Donn Linn, a former Wall Street investment banker. Owner Bill Brinton had put the company up for sale earlier this year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
For the past 13 years, Linn, who has an MBA from Harvard, has been living in Indianola, Miss., and managing a diversified family business that includes banking, agriculture, and adult assisted-living facilities. Linn comes to Consortium through a chance meeting with author Po Bronson (The Nudist on the Late Shift), Consortium's current chairman of the board. Bronson met Linn while researching a book on business people who undertake serious life changes, and Bronson later hooked Linn up with Bill Hammond of Publishing Strategy International, who was brokering the sale for Brinton.
Linn said he's had "a long and abiding love for books and literature," adding that "living out here in the boondocks" he's developed an appreciation for independent booksellers and independent publishers. He told PW: "I was looking around for something interesting to do that I could really care about, and from my first visit up there in October I felt a real affinity for what Consortium is all about. They've got a great management team, as well as a terrific name and franchise in place, so I certainly don't think anything drastic is going to happen; there's not going to be any major management shift or change. This is not a turnaround—I'm just hoping to have some fun and keep things moving forward."
Linn will be moving to the Twin Cities next year. "This is job one for me now," he said. "My intention is to spend virtually all of my time on this company. This is obviously my first foray into publishing, but I think I can bring some management skills to the table."
The sale caps a year of change for Consortium, which was founded in 1985 and distributes more than 70 independent publishers; longtime president and CEO Randall Beek announced his resignation in October and was replaced by co-presidents Julie Schaper and Peter Hegee (News, Nov. 5). Linn's purchase includes Beek's minority stake in Consortium. And earlier this month, Graywolf Press, one of Consortium's best-known publishers, announced it was moving its distribution to Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
