The Genetics Of Publishing

Perhaps this is a sign that Barry O'Callaghan has given up on selling Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's adult trade division.

When his minnow of a publishing firm, Riverdeep, swallowed up Houghton Mifflin and then Harcourt, he acted like a man who wanted to separate the educational wheat from the trade chaff. Times being what they are in publishing, no one was buying.

The adult trade division was rudder-less since December last, when Becky Saletan jumped ship. There was talk of deals in the works, three potential buyers, but seven months on there's no takers and it's time to make something of adult trade. It's not going to go away on its own, leaving a tidy profit behind.

Bruce Nichols was downsized at HarperCollins, his role as publisher of the Collins imprint gradually snipped away until he was reduced to executive editor. A man with some pride doesn't take such an insult kindly, not one whose veins run black with ink.

The former HarperCollins publisher has been hired by HMH, to be their adult trade and reference publisher. It will be his job to take the red-haired stepchild of HMH Riverdeep Greenwood et al. and make it into a success.

Mr. Nichols was a victim of downsizing and reorganizing at HarperCollins, which might suggest that his performance was seen as lacking. He may have been on the losing end of a political squabble in spite of talent. With his new post at HMH, he can demonstrate which theory has merit.

Not only can he redeem his reputation as a publisher, but Mr. Nichols is under added pressure to do well. Turns out his grandfather was the president of Houghton Mifflin, back in the day when publishing was publishing. What could be more humiliating than failure in such a situation?