Who Owns What Revisited

Most days, I know what I'm going to blog about long before I sit down to actually write my post for the day. However, today was one of those days when I just couldn't summon the enthusiasm to write about the two or three subjects I'd scribbled down as possibilities.

Then I read Miss Snark's blog for tonight. Someone had written in, wanting to know how two imprints (St. Martin's and Tor) were related.

Now, THAT's something I can sink my teeth into. I LOVE looking at who owns what. In fact, I did a lengthy post on "Who Owns What" over the Thanksgiving holiday (11/27/05). It's about time we revisited the subject.

First an endorsement. Thanks to the Columbia Journalism Review, which has a fabulous website, appropriately titled "Who Owns What." You can find their website at: http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/. It's a wonderful resource for writers.

I'm going to confine my attention to the seven biggest New York publishers and their media owners. I'm listing them alphabetically along with some of the more well-known imprints they own:

1) Bertelsmann AG (Germany): Random House (Ballantine, Del Rey, Bantam Dell, Crown Publishing, Doubleday, and Knopf)

2) Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (Germany): Macmillan, St. Martin's Press, Pan and Tom Doherty Associates (which owns Tor and Forge).

3) News Corporation (United States): HarperMorrow Publishers (Avon, HarperCollins, and William Morrow.

4) Pearson PLC (United Kingdom): Berkley, Penguin, Putnam, Viking and Prentice Hall.

5) Reed Elsevier (United Kingdom): Harcourt and Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

6) Time Warner (United States): Time Warner Book Group (Warner Books, the Mysterious Press, and Little, Brown and Company).

7) Viacom (United States): Simon and Schuster

Writers should make the effort to learn who owns what in the publishing industry.

UPDATE: Viacom and CBS have split into two companies. CBS now owns Simon and Schuster.