The clichés abound—better the devil you know... check; careful what you wish for... check; if it ain't broke.... Well, not every proverb applies.
When Random House announced early last week that Markus Dohle would take Peter Olson's job as the RH chairman and CEO, the response was quick and, in that very human (and publishing) way, perverse. Suddenly Olson's leaving seemed like a loss, even for people who'd complained bitterly as recently as last month about some of his acts and edicts and, most, about his standoffish ways. At least he was a “book guy,” the sentiment went, translating “standoffish” into the more benign “laissez-faire.” The “father of the modern Random House,” as one executive called him, Olson's great accomplishment, for better or worse, was to bring together a hodgepodge family and then sit back and let the sibling rivalry flourish, in the hope that competition among the parts would be good for the whole.
It seemed, as they say, a good idea at the time. But that was then, and this is now, and it may be that those independent fiefdoms are at the center of the “Random House problem.” That's where Dohle comes in: at 39, he's a career Bertelsmann exec who made his bones in the very unsexy and unbookish printing side of the company. Still, the public line—via Stuart Applebaum, natch —is that “the editors' autonomy is not under review.... [Dohle] is the Chief Executive, not the Chief Reader.”
Fair enough, but while Hartmut Ostrowski, chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann AG, told us that there were “no layoffs expected,” it's hard to believe there won't eventually be some—and/or plenty of consolidation—especially in beleaguered editorial imprints and divisions and back offices; such is nearly always the byproduct of torch passing, and probably overdue besides. But if Dohle, like a good presidential candidate, surrounds himself with—and/or retains—people who know the parts of the business he doesn't know, he has a better chance of a long, successful reign in BookLand. And according to Applebaum, who met him only recently, as well as some German press I've read, Dohle is that kind of guy: someone who knows what he doesn't know and what he needs to learn, someone who will take his time before making changes. (Which is why we probably won't be hearing from him directly any time soon.)
Agents, of course, are understandably concerned about the integrity of the various Random House divisions and imprints, although some have conceded to me that they could accept a change in the bidding process if it “built a better company,” in the words of one. Many Random Housers are a lot less sanguine, worrying for their jobs. But maybe the best of them need not worry so much; for others it may be time to leave the house that Olson built.
After all, this is publishing, and there's plenty of schadenfreude, at least on the editorial side. “I don't envy him the challenge,” says one honcho at a rival house. “[But] if he goes about [a reorganization] like a bean counter, the rest of us will be like sharks smelling blood, waiting to pick off the most disaffected good people.”
Agree? Disagree? Tell us atwww.publishersweekly.com/saranelson
