Why Is Jane Friedman Suddenly Not the CEO of HarperCollins?
That's the big question today in the publishing world, which was collectively stunned last night when it was reported that Jane Friedman had resigned as the CEO of HarperCollins after 10 years on the job and handed the reins of the company over to her 41-year-old deputy.
Did Ms. Friedman, who is 61, see Peter Olson's recent resignation from Random House and subsequent appointment to the faculty of the Harvard Business School and think, 'Gosh, that sounds nice"? Or did she make her exit in anticipation of a terrible fourth quarter?
Right now nobody knows, and many are puzzling over Ms. Friedman's exuberant behavior over the weekend at the Book Expo convention in Los Angeles. Ms. Friedman gave no indication over the weekend that she was planning to leave. At one point on Saturday she walked over to the Random House booth in the convention center to meet with that house's brand-new CEO, and later that night, at the height of a party she hosted on the Twentieth Century Fox lot, she pulled a reporter aside and exclaimed with no apparent irony, "I love being CEO of HarperCollins! Write that down."
As far as we can tell, not even the publishers who report to Ms. Friedman-- those are the people who run the individual divisions at HarperCollins--knew that this was coming. One told us last night, before we confirmed it with a source close to Ms. Friedman, that it was probably a joke; another said this morning, when asked to speculate about Ms. Friedman's motivations, "I wish I had an answer."
Also curious is how a rumor about Ms. Friedman's departure made its way onto Gawker.com--if so few people knew about it, the leak had to have come from pretty high up. This is strange because the leak was not supposed to happen: According to the source we spoke to last night, Ms. Friedman was not planning to announce or enact her exit so soon.
More on this later today.
Gee - maybe it's because all they publish is junk.
Wow. Wasn't it Jane Friedman who said (after making sure Judith Regan was run out of Harper Collins on an O.J. rail), that Harper didn't NEED Judith Regan or her imprint to be profitable?
Then of course Judith sued big time for wrongful dismissal and Rupert had to pay up in a huge settlment. Hmmmm...curious how Jane leaves so quickly after Judith.
Judith was (per Gawker) "an incredibly aggressive executive in an incredibly passive industry..."
Could this be a case of pitching someone overboard leading to your own drowning?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Regan
Tough day for female leaders. First Hillary gets the shaft, and now Jane...
My contempt for publishers is beyond the ability for polite language to express. Hopefully, in my lifetime I will see these bloated monsters collapse under their own lack of talent. The entire industry is broken. Packaging agencies writing things by committee and then slapping some author's name on the cover - this has become the order of the day. It's a Milli-Vanilli industry; a fraud from start to finish. And when you see the corrupt sacks of filth who run it, it's easy to see why. The only question is why does the public continue to fall for it; continue to buy the lousy books; continue to believe that "books are for smart people"?
Good god! Is that a picture of Jennifer Coolidge!
What is a publisher but a failed writer who wants revenge on the successful ones by taking control of their work. I hope her life flickers out in a cardboard box on a cold sidewalk.
From personal experience as the deposed President & Publisher of one of the world's most important illustrated houses in New York City, I can attest that the book publishing world has been run by soulless accountants for decades. It would appear that these corporate hot-shots may have never read a book other than an accounting textbook or something in connection with the necessary continuing CEU.
The concept, editing and production of high quality titles is foreign to their way of thinking. I actually had a SVP, Finance ask me, after one of our titles appeared on the NYT Best Seller list for 11 weeks, why I just didn't publish best sellers. I told her that was a good and laudable idea which I would put on a card taped to my shaving mirror. Smug and self-satisfied at my acknowledgment of her vastly superior intellect, she neglected to notice that I always had a full beard.
In the golden age of book publishing, the grand houses were subsidized by wealthy families that understood the need for cultured literature, well thought out concepts that were brilliantly executed. We pray that idealists will again take interest in such a noble effort.
In the meantime, we can only hope that Jane will resurface in even a greater capacity and prove the bean-counting bastards wrong again.
Where is Bennett Cerf when we need him>
Produce what people want and you will be a success. A smug attitude is no substitute for hard work.
Regarding Bennet Cerf...Obviously you don't watch the game show channel at 4am.
Regarding Bennet Cerf...Obviously you don't watch the game show channel at 4am.
CollinsBooks, a HarperCollins imprint, published my third book, The Best of Country: The Essential CD Guide, just before the Jane Friedman regime.
Ms. Friedman's ouster suggests Jane did little to improve on prior corporate policy: spending the big bucks to promote the books of "big name" authors whose blockbusters sell on their own.
No surprise, then, that, with promotion dollars so absurdly misdirected, the majority of published authors with whom the publishers have contracted must assume the publisher's burden of establishing a following. Only a large, loyal audience will keep both writer and publisher "in the black."
Stacy Harris
Publisher/Executive Editor
Stacy's Music Row Report
www.countrymusicreport.com/Stacyharris.htm
This termination may have more to do with finances than anything else. The figures for HarperCollins' projected revenue for FY 2007 (July 2006 to June 2007) must be really bad, to toss CEO Friedman overboard now. Now she will no longer be an A-lister, invited to all the parties, especially in the Hamptons. You can't take August off as vacation time if you are let go in June. Bummer.
To ease the axing, maybe HarperCollins will give Friedman her own imprint. Or maybe not.
there is an opening for veep with Obummer...
I agree...publishing is in a big mess..i hope they all go out of business...
All Jane did, and all Judith did, was preside over a boring and overly commercial period of book publishing - that threw out writing and good taste - for tart and bitch books. They both got what the deserved, and it looks like Judith is up late with the post two below this one.. Good night, Judy!
Feminists blame everyone but themselves.
These women will both do well on their own. It's not their fault they paid lazy authors too much money. Belt-tightening is the way to go. And choosing books people want to read.
Touche! No, I am not watching the Game Show Channel at 4:00 am .. perhaps I'll set my DVR to capture it for later viewing ... at that time I am usually making coffee before sitting down to continue writing my great American novel or scanning the newspaper and Publisher's Weekly for Executive Job postings.
Jane Friedman was always known as a "dumb publicity girl" in the world of publishing. She knows nothing about books. She has only taken credit for the hard work of others who acquire, develop, edit, design, market and sell those books. She sits ahigh her perch and kills anyone who comes close, hogging all the credit for herself. Well, she got fat doing it and the branch she was sitting on broke. All the spinning won't help her now. She may have hired PR firms to soften the blow but the truth is once the curtain was pulled open this witch of oz was revealed for what she really is: A hateful no talent bloated fraud. Have another drink. Your career is OVER.
I love all these nice snarky comments from failed writers bitter that their books will never sell to even the smallest publishers because they're BAD. "Hey, that's not true!" you say? Maybe not, but all I'm reading here is bitterness. Stop gloating over someone else's failures. If you don't like their books then fine. Buy and promote the books that you like. Stop whining about what everyone else likes just because your tastes don't mesh with the mainstream.