Now let me introduce to you the largest publishing group in the world - Random House. Random House has published a large number of fine works. Maybe the first edition of the world famous books you are reading now is Random House. under its banner.
The world's largest publishing group - Random House
Random House, an American publishing company, played a pivotal role in the world book industry throughout the 20th century. This is not just because it is the largest publishing group in the world, but also because it has played a subtle leading role in the development of modern Western culture. And the founder of Random House, the Jew Bennett Cerf, is an out-and-out leader of Random House.
The reason why Random House was once coveted by countless publishers is that it published a large number of immortal fine works. In that special era, these masterpieces brought a non-negligible impact on the academic world and popular culture in the United States and even the entire world. Random House cannot be copied because of the era in which it existed, because of its historical background, and even more because of the uniqueness of its founder, Bennett Cerf. Bennett Cerf is a perfect combination of cultural temperament and entrepreneurial spirit. He has all the qualities a publisher should have. His accurate judgment on the development of popular culture and his jaw-dropping planning ability enabled him to interpret best-selling books into legends. Starting from a set of modern libraries; asking President Roosevelt to advertise his books; begging the customs to confiscate his books in order to break through the ban of American law? The incredible and sophisticated planning made readers interested in his books, and even remembered them Lived the Random House brand. However, Bennett Cerf is by no means a businessman who only plays the market. He is also a straightforward and responsible cultural person. Because of this, the Random House he runs can gain popularity among the public for such a long time. and generally recognized by the academic community.
Random House, Inc., known as the world's largest English-language commercial international publishing house, is a subsidiary of the world's super media group Bertelsmann Book Group of Bertelsmann AG.
Random House was founded in 1925 when Bennett Self and Donald Klopf purchased reprints of their literary works from Horace Liveright's Modern Library. In 1927, in order to expand its publishing scope, it began to use the publishing trademark Random House. Since its establishment, it has been considered an internationally renowned literary publisher, and its published books have won numerous literary awards, including the Nobel Prize and the Pulitzer Prize.
In fiscal year 2000, Random House had sales of US$2.55 billion and profits of US$257.2 million.
In 1998, Random House was merged by Bertelsmann and Bantam Group to form the new Random House, thus becoming the world's largest English-language commercial book publishing group.
Existing branches or groups of Random House
The nine major publishing brands of Random House (USA) in the United States form a publishing group of their own, with different publishing directions. For example, Bantam Dell Publishing Group has 8 publishing houses, mainly publishing popular novels; Crown Publishing Group has 9 publishing houses, mainly publishing scientific and business non-fiction; Doubleday Broadway )'s 14 publishing houses, mainly publishing high-end popular novels with high cultural content; Knopf Publishing Group's 6 publishing houses, mainly publishing high-end literary works and political books; in addition, Random House Children's Publishing Group, Random House Information Group, Random House Audio Publishing Group, and Random House Film Publishing Group.
Founder
American Random House is the largest publishing group in the world. Its founder, Bennett Cerf, is also an epoch-making iconic figure in the American publishing industry. His The memoir "Random House and Me" (translated by Peng Lun and published by People's Literature Publishing House) is a classic work that vividly reflects the changes in the American publishing industry in the twentieth century. It is also a literary memoir full of fun, humor and wisdom. . In this book, the author tells countless anecdotes about his entrepreneurial and business processes, including his interactions with many writers such as Eugene O'Neill, William Faulkner, James Joyce, etc., as well as his Contacts with other publishers in the United States. Readers can see the rise of the world's largest publishing group from the growth trajectory of a successful publisher.
Current situation
Random House is a branch of the German Bertelsmann Group. It publishes 10,000 new books every year and has annual sales of US$2 billion.
When you walk into Random House in Manhattan, you will feel the fragrance of books and ink. But don't be fooled by this illusion. The fact is that this 80-year-old book publishing company is stepping out of the pulp and ink era and moving towards the digital era.
Unwilling to let Google, Yahoo and Microsoft dominate the virtual network space, Random House, the world's largest commercial publishing company, has taken the lead among publishers. In early November, Random House first announced a per-page-view pricing service for online readers. Random House will charge a minimum fee of 4 cents per page. Half of the revenue from fiction and nonfiction oral books will go to the author. Other fees for other books, such as cooking books, will be charged as appropriate. Random House prevents copying by uploading low-resolution text.
Moreover, Random House will establish a film and television division to cooperate with Fox Film Company. Adapt his books into movies. The reason why the company wants to explore this field is that the world is changing too fast, and the company must adapt to the changing situation. The new generation may not have much connection with books when growing up. They are simply reading a lot of things on the screen that they had to read in books. Therefore, Langdon must use all means to transform books into various carriers. Transforming relevant educational content into mobile reading content is an attempt by Random House.
As for the mobile library that travels between classrooms in cooperation with the American Reading Company, and the downloadable CD service in cooperation with Audible, these are various efforts made by Random House.
Random House's per-page view pricing may be expensive for readers accustomed to free reading, but the service has been around for a year. However, this service is only used by some authors, booksellers, and other publishers. It was Google's large-scale library collection scanning program that made publishers decide to adopt this model early. Drawing on the experience of legal sanctions against piracy in the music industry, Random House and other publishing companies also filed a lawsuit against Google, objecting to Google's scanning of a large number of books and providing them to online readers for free. Although Google stated that this was a fair use permitted by law, it was still sued by the Writers Guild of America, which has more than 8,000 members.
It is still too early to discuss whether Random House’s move toward digitalization is a break from traditional book publishing. It should be noted that the retailer Barnes & Noble did not make any comment on Random House’s digital strategy. Moreover, the sales gained through digitization cannot solve the biggest problem in the book industry-the sale of used books. Authors and publishing companies never get any benefit from used book sales. Annual sales of used books in the United States have reached $2.2 billion.