Houghton Mifflin Harcourt cuts jobs; Penguin, HarperCollins freeze wages

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/12/2008 (6472 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK – There was more bad news from the book industry Thursday with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announcing the “streamlining” of its educational business and the elimination of jobs in both its education and general divisions.

In addition, HarperCollins and Pearson, part of Penguin Group (USA), are freezing wages and considering layoffs.

“This is the most challenging economic environment that any of us has ever experienced,” Penguin Group chairman John Makinson wrote in a company memo, circulated Thursday.

In it, he said raises worldwide would be held off for Pearson employees making $50,000 or more and said he could not promise there would be no job losses in 2009.

“In this financial climate that would be plain foolhardy,” he said.

This week alone, Random House Inc. announced a massive consolidation that will likely result in layoffs, Simon & Schuster cut 35 jobs and Thomas Nelson Publishers fired 54 workers.

A top executive at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Becky Saletan, quit in apparent protest of a freeze on the acquisition of new books.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the world’s leading education publishers and home to such authors as Philip Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer, announced Thursday that it would combine “various of its businesses into a new K-12 organization comprised of School Publishers, Holt McDougal” and others.

“The streamlining of the business will result in the elimination of some positions, even as new roles are created that will let the company serve educators and students in new and unique ways,” according to Thursday’s statement.

“These actions are consistent with those occurring within other companies across a full spectrum of businesses, and include the reduction of some positions in the company’s Trade and Reference and Riverside Publishing divisions.”

Houghton did not immediately say how many jobs were affected, or which employees would be be involved.

“The company is proceeding carefully and thoughtfully to assure that it is making the best, most productive use of its resources,” the publisher said in a statement.

“Overall, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt anticipates that the changes being announced will better position the company to realize its long-term strategic objectives while taking into account the current economic environment.”

Caught in a credit vise related to the 2007 merger of Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt, the publisher has denied rumours that it’s up for sale but has not ruled out potential offers.

At HarperCollins, whose authors include Oprah Winfrey, Wally Lamb and David Wroblewski, spokeswoman Erin Crum said that pay raises had been delayed until next July and that “no decisions had been made” on job cuts.

“We’re doing everything we can to manage in this tough environment,” she said.