Publishing News, August 2021
Madeline McIntosh, CEO of Penguin Random House US, has announced plans to reopen offices gradually beginning September 13, 2021 “assuming all goes well health-wise.” She said the company will require “full vaccination” from COVID-19 for employees and visitors entering their offices: “We understand that not everyone is vaccinated, and, as a reminder, it is completely ok to continue to work in full-time remote mode. The requirement only applies to those entering the offices.”
Hachette Book Group also plans to reopen its offices in September, but won’t require vaccination, though they strongly recommend that employees to get vaccinated as soon as possible. They are reopening under a hybrid model, with staff present a minimum of two predetermined days a week. CEO Michael Pietsch said, “Changing from working entirely from home to working two fixed days a week in the office is intended to be a manageable transition.” The New York offices will open September 13, 2021, with other offices opening later. Employees will also be permitted to work entirely from home for four weeks a year under a new “Flex Four” program. Employees who wish to work fully remote can apply for permission from their managers. This hybrid model is a six-month pilot program: “We will watch closely over the months ahead to see and hear how well this hybrid approach works for all of us, and for our authors and customers, with the understanding that we may change our approach based on what we learn together.” Pietsch says, “We are a publishing company, and that second word really matters: we are better and stronger in each other’s company, and we serve our authors and customers best when we have the full benefits of the close work we are able to do in person.”
Don Haase, founding editor of the Series in Fairy-Tale Studies at Wayne State University Press, has stepped down from running the line, which has been renamed the Donald Haase Series in Fairy-Tale Studies in his honor. WSU professor Anne E. Duggan is taking over as series editor. Upcoming titles include Women Writing Wonder: An Anthology of Subversive Nineteenth-Century British, French, and German Fairy Tales, edited and translated by Julie L.J. Koehler, Shandi Lynne Wagner, Anne E. Duggan, and Adrion Dula.
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