As part of a group of NYU Master of Science in Publishing students eagerly gathering in the lobby of Random House last Friday, I marveled at the display cases that enclosed hundreds and hundreds of Random House books, old and new, of every category and representing a myriad of international editions. I was one of 30 students lucky enough to ride the elevator up to the twenty-fifth floor conference room to meet with the company’s Chairman and CEO, Markus Dohle, and hear his viewpoints on book publishing.
When the elevator doors opened and we piled out into the hallway, it came as no surprise that more bookshelves lined the walls outside the conference room, which was adorned with yet more bookshelves.
While most of these books featured the name of a single author on the cover, one of the major points I took away from Dohle’s talk is that publishing a book is a team effort. After Andrea Chambers, director of the program, introduced Random House’s chairman, he jumped right into revealing the way in which he leads Random House, which has over 120 publishing imprints worldwide —through “shared values, a collaborative spirit, and teamwork.” [Read more…] about Meet Random House’s Markus Dohle