The Kensington Publishing Corp. will remain in the Zacharius family for at least a few more years following the promotion of Steve Zacharius to the post of chairman and CEO earlier this month. He succeeds his father, Walter, who founded Kensington, then known as Zebra, in 1975. The elder Zacharius has been elevated to chairman emeritus and will serve as a consultant to the company on such matters as acquisitions.
"In this age of consolidation, it's a nice thing to do," Steve Zacharius said about taking over the reins of the family firm. Zacharius joined Kensington in 1992 after 10 years running a print brokerage firm that specialized in printing promotional materials for many of the largest book publishers. Before starting his own company, Zacharius had been director of manufacturing for Rolling Stone. His background in production, as well as a stint with Jules Kroll Associates, during which he investigated white-collar crime in the graphics industry, helped prepare him for the "rough and tumble" world of mass market paperback publishing, Zacharius told PW.
While the company has greatly diversified since its early days as strictly a mass market house, mass market paperbacks still account for the largest part of Kensington's sales, although trade paperbacks are the fastest-growing segment, Zacharius said. Total sales for the year ended September 30 "were up a little," he said, adding that sales are now in the "low $50-million range." One reason for the slow growth in fiscal 2004 was soft sales of mass market paperbacks, particularly in the romance sector. To bring Kensington's paperback output in line with the market, the company has cut back its mass market list, with the deepest reductions coming in romance. Zacharius said he expected the company to publish about 525 titles this year, down from 600.
Zacharius sees Kensington's growth coming from acquisitions as well as from expansion of its distribution business. "It's just too hard to grow through internal growth only," Zacharius said. The company is looking to acquire companies in the $5-million to $10-million range and is conducting due diligence on one house now, Zacharius said. In distribution, Kensington is interested in publishers with at least $1 million in sales and a program that doesn't compete with Kensington's own lists or that of its existing distribution clients. He said Kensington is also in discussions with several publishers without mass market operations to create copublishing ventures. And Zacharius said he is close to re-signing one of the company's major romance writers, who has had her most recent books published by one of the largest houses.
With Zacharius committed to expanding Kensington, might a third generation of Zachariuses one day run the company? Steve wasn't making any promises, but he noted that his son, Adam, is an assistant right now at Intellectual Property Group.
