Simon & Schuster

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Simon & Schuster
200px
Parent company CBS Corporation
Founded 1924
Founder Richard L. Simon
M. Lincoln Schuster
Country of origin United States
Headquarters location 1230 Avenue of the Americas
Rockefeller Center
New York City
Key people Carolyn K. Reidy (President and Chief Executive Officer, Simon & Schuster, Inc.)[1]
Christopher Lynch (President and Publisher, Simon & Schuster Audio)
Ian Chapman (Chief Executive and Publisher, Simon & Schuster UK and International)
Jon Anderson (President and Publisher, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division)
Jon Karp (President and Publisher, Simon & Schuster Publishing Group)
Judith Curr (President and Publisher, Atria Publishing Group)
Kevin Hanson (President, Simon & Schuster Canada)
Lou Johnson (Managing Director, Simon & Schuster Australia)
Louise Burke (President and Publisher, Gallery Publishing Group)
Rahul Srivastava (Managing Director, Simon & Schuster India)
Susan Moldow (President and Publisher, Scribner Publishing Group)
Publication types Books
Imprints Many (see below)
Official website www.simonandschuster.com

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln ("Max") Schuster. It is one of the largest English-language publishers, formerly known as the "Big 6", now known as the "Big Five". It publishes over 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.

History

Middle 20th century HQ, Broadway

Early years

Crossword puzzles first appeared in the New York World in 1913, and became a popular feature in newspapers. In 1924, Simon's aunt, a crossword puzzle devotee, asked Simon whether there was a book of these puzzles that she could give to a friend. Simon discovered that none had been published, and, with Schuster, launched a company to exploit the opportunity.[2] At the time, Simon was a piano salesman and Schuster was editor of an automotive trade magazine and together they pooled $8,000 to start the company.[3]

To attract attention, the book came with a pencil attached.[2] The advertising campaign implied that it was about to become a new fad:

The ad proved prophetic, and crossword puzzles were indeed the craze of 1924.[2] Simon & Schuster continues to be the preeminent U.S. publisher of crossword puzzle books.

Expansion

In 1939, with Robert Fair de Graff, Simon & Schuster founded Pocket Books, America's first paperback publisher.

In 1942, Simon & Schuster, or "Essandess" as it is called in the initial announcement, launched the Little Golden Books series in cooperation with the Artists and Writers Guild.[4] Simon & Schuster's partner in the venture was the Western Printing and Lithographing Company, which handled the actual printing. Western Printing bought out Simon & Schuster's interest in 1958.

In 1944, Marshall Field III, owner of the Chicago Sun newspaper, purchased Simon & Schuster and Pocket Books. Following Field's death, in 1957 his heirs sold the company back to Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster, while Leon Shimkin and James M. Jacobson acquired Pocket Books.[5]

In 1966, Max Schuster retired and sold his half of Simon & Schuster to Leon Shimkin.[3] Shimkin then merged Simon & Schuster with Pocket Books.[3]

Corporate ownership

Simon & Schuster headquarters at 1230 Avenue of the Americas, Rockefeller Center, New York City

In 1976, Gulf+Western acquired the company which was grossing about $50 million a year for $11 million, most of it in Gulf+Western stock.[3] Nine years later, Prentice Hall was brought into the company fold, followed by mapmaker Gousha in 1987. G+W would change its name to Paramount Communications in 1989.

In 1994, Paramount was sold to the original Viacom, allowing S&S to launch several new imprints in conjunction with channels owned by Viacom's MTV Networks. Simon & Schuster's first move under Viacom was the acquisition of Macmillan USA.

In 1998, Viacom sold Simon & Schuster's educational operations, including Prentice Hall and Macmillan, to Pearson PLC, the global publisher and owner of Penguin and Financial Times.

Viacom would split into two companies at the end of 2005: one called CBS Corporation (which inherited S&S), and the other retaining the Viacom name. Despite the split, National Amusements retains majority control of both firms.

As part of CBS, Simon & Schuster is the primary publisher for books related to various media franchises owned by and/or aired on CBS, such as How I Met Your Mother, Star Trek, and CSI.

In April 2012, the United States Department of Justice filed United States v. Apple Inc., naming Apple, Simon & Schuster, and four other major publishers as defendants. The suit alleged that they conspired to fix prices for e-books, and weaken Amazon.com's position in the market, in violation of antitrust law.[6]

In December 2013, a federal judge approved a settlement of the antitrust claims, in which Simon & Schuster and the other publishers paid into a fund that provided credits to customers who had overpaid for books due to the price-fixing.[7]

In October 2014, Simon & Schuster signed a multi-year partnership deal with Amazon.com in negotiations concerning the price of e-books.[8]

Personalities

Editors

Authors

North America

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United Kingdom

File:Simonschuster.png
"The Sower", Simon & Schuster logo, c. 1961

According to one source, The Sower, the logo of Simon & Schuster, was inspired by the 1850 Jean-François Millet painting of the same name.[9] According to Michael Korda, the colophon is a small reproduction of The Sower by Sir John Everett Millais. [5]

Imprints

Adult publishing

Children's publishing

  • Aladdin – initially the children's mass-market paperback imprint of Atheneum Books[13]
  • Atheneum – initially (1959) a publishing house and adult imprint, with a children's division from 1961,[lower-alpha 1] it now publishes children's titles, formerly just part of its output.[14]
  • Beach Lane Books
  • Little Simon
  • Margaret K. McElderry Books[lower-alpha 2]
  • Paula Wiseman Books
  • Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
  • Simon Pulse
  • Simon Spotlight

Audio

Former Imprints

  • Earthlight (UK science fiction imprint, discontinued)
  • Fireside Books
  • Green Tiger Press
  • Linden Press
  • Long Shadow Books
  • Minstrel Books (children's imprint)
  • Poseidon Press (operated 1982–1993)
  • Richard Gallen Books
  • Sonnet Books
  • Wallaby Books

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Alfred A. Knopf, Jr.'s Atheneum—the publisher of Pulitzer Prize winners Edward Albee, Curtis Johnson and Theodore H. White—which included a children's division set up in 1961 by Jean E. Karl.[13] Atheneum merged with Charles Scribner's Sons to become The Scribner Book Company in 1978. (This acquisition included the Rawson Associates imprint.) Scribner was later acquired by Macmillan in 1984, which was in turn purchased by Simon & Schuster in 1994.[citation needed]
  2. ↑ The children's imprint Margaret K. McElderry Books was established and led for many years by editor Margaret Knox McElderry (June 10, 1912 – February 14, 2011).
    · LCCN n79--109673 (McElderry at LC Authorities). Retrieved 2014-10-02.
    · "Remembering Margaret McElderry". Publishers Weekly. February 24, 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-25.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s, p. 165. ISBN 0-06-095665-8.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ "Announcing Little Golden Books". Publishers Weekly. September 19, 1942, pp. 991–94.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Business Timeline Archived September 16, 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Amazon signs multi-year deal with Simon & Schuster. Reuters, 21 October 2014
  9. ↑ Larson, Kay (April 16, 1984). "Poet of Peasants". New York Magazine.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Birthday Bios: Jean E. Karl". No date. Vicki Palmquist. Children's Literature Network. (c) 2002–2008. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
  14. ↑ Company history at simonsays.com.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • "Simon & Schuster Inc." International Directory of Company Histories. 4:671–672.
  • "Simon & Schuster Inc." International Directory of Company Histories. 19:403–405.
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