Random House and Penguin- a merger match?

Photo from Digital Book World

I recently found out about the possible merger between Random House and Penguin. It is still in the talks but it saddens me because it seems that as time goes by, there are less and less publishing houses. It breaks my heart to see bookstores close down due to financial hardships, publishing houses going bankrupt (i.e. Barnes and Nobles) and the book industry changing so much. I understand that each industry needs to adapt to the current trends, whether it is digital technology or print books, but it’s still a shocker.

I have seen what happens when news media and television companies merge and become one. The content becomes very similar and there is usually not enough voice/ opinion on what we are seeing or reading in the newspapers. There needs to be a good mixture of sources in order to have the true story heard. I get that in today’s world, everything is a lot more expensive and a lot of company’s want to do things cheaper and quicker, but in doing that, the quality is lost.

Here’s to hoping that this merger won’t do too much damage and leave the industry intact with its distinct yet small community. Readers will continue to read, however, if the quality starts to suffer or there is not enough that is differentiated between books, there will be dissatisfaction.

We’ll know all the details in two weeks according to the news sources. Lets see whether they will come up with a new name or just hyphenate it.