Book publisher CEO steps down
Dohle to stay on in advisory capacity
NEW YORK — The CEO of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade publisher, is stepping down. Markus Dohle’s decision, effective at the end of the year, comes just weeks after a federal judge blocked the company’s attempt to buy rival Simon & Schuster.
“Following the antitrust decision in the U.S. against the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, I have decided, after nearly 15 years on the Executive Board of Bertelsmann and at the helm of our global publishing business, to hand over the next chapter of Penguin Random House to new leadership,” Dohle, 54, said a statement released Friday by parent company Bertelsmann, the German conglomerate.
Dohle, who will remain with the company in an advisory capacity, had been working under a 5-year contract set to expire in December 2025.
Dohle is also leaving his seat on the Bertelsmann executive board. His departure was made at “his own request and on the best of mutual terms,” according to the Bertelsmann announcement. A Bertelsmann spokesman said Friday that Dohle’s ill-fated push to acquire Simon & Schuster was not seen as a “mistake” by the company and did not lead to pressure for him to resign as CEO.
Dohle will be succeeded, on an interim basis, by Nihar Malaviya,
48, currently president and COO of Penguin Random House.
“I’ve partnered with many of you across functions and various countries, and I’ve experienced firsthand the abundance of talent that we have in our community,” Malaviya wrote in a company memo shared with The Associated Press. “It is an incredible honor for me to lead the premier publishing company in the world, and I look forward to working with even more of you to build on the energy and dynamic culture we have collectively created.”
A native of Arnsberg, Germany, Dohle had worked in Bertelsmann’s printing and services division before succeeding Peter Olson as Random House CEO in 2008, a time when the company’s sales were dropping. He presided over an era of enormous growth, notably the 2012-13 merger with Penguin, and such blockbuster successes as Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” and Delia Owens’ “Where the Crawdads Sing.”
In 2015, PEN America honored Dohle for his “commitment to defending free expression and access to literature.” He has since personally donated $500,000 and with PEN formed the Dohle Book Defense Fund to fight book banning efforts.
During Dohle’s acceptance speech in 2015, he cited “The Little Prince” as a favorite childhood story and recalled a scene.
“The dismayed prince walks away, dejected by this planet where he can hear nothing but himself. Can you imagine a world dominated by a single voice?” Dohle said.
One of Dohle’s biggest achievements, ironically, was avoiding an earlier government antitrust suit: In 2012, Random House was the only top New York publisher not sued by the Justice Department for allegedly conspiring with Apple to fix e-book prices. Dohle had not yet agreed to terms with Apple, which had launched an e-book store in hopes of competing with Amazon.com and otherwise shrewdly invested in printing and distribution at a time others in the industry were expecting e-books to become the dominant format.