Macmillan Publishers
Template:Short description Template:For-multi Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox publisher Macmillan Publishers (Pan Macmillan in the UK and Macmillan Publishers in the US) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the "Big Five" English language publishers (along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster).
Founded in London in 1843 by Scottish brothers Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, the firm soon established itself as a leading publisher in Britain. It published two of the best-known works of Victorian-era children's literature, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Harold Macmillan, grandson of co-founder Daniel, was chairman of the company from 1964 until his death in December 1986.
Since 1999, Pan Macmillan and Macmillan Publishers have been wholly owned subsidiaries of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group with offices in 41 countries worldwide and operations in more than thirty others.
History
Macmillan was founded in London in 1843 by Daniel and Alexander MacMillan, two brothers from the Isle of Arran, Scotland. Daniel was the business brain, while Alexander laid the literary foundations, publishing such notable authors as Charles Kingsley (1855), Thomas Hughes (1859), Francis Turner Palgrave (1861), Christina Rossetti (1862), Matthew Arnold (1865) and Lewis Carroll (1865), with the latter first meeting Alexander in London on 19 October 1863.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Alfred, Lord Tennyson joined the list in 1884, Thomas Hardy in 1886 and Rudyard Kipling in 1890.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Other major writers published by Macmillan included W. B. Yeats, Rabindranath Tagore, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Seán O'Casey, John Maynard Keynes, Charles Morgan, Hugh Walpole, Margaret Mitchell, C. P. Snow, Rumer Godden and Ram Sharan Sharma.
Beyond literature, the company created such enduring titles as Nature (1869), the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1877) and Sir Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy (1894–99).
George Edward Brett opened the first Macmillan office in the United States in 1869 and Macmillan sold its U.S. operations to the Brett family, George Platt Brett Sr. and George Platt Brett Jr., in 1896, resulting in the creation of an American company, Macmillan Publishing, also called The Macmillan Company (later known as Macmillan Inc. or Macmillan US). Even with the split of the American company from its parent company in England, George Brett Jr. and Harold Macmillan remained close personal friends. Macmillan Publishers held stake in the American company before divesting it in 1951, and later re-entered the American market in 1952 under the name St. Martin's Press.<ref name=":02">Template:Cite book</ref>
Macmillan of Canada was founded in 1905; Maclean-Hunter acquired the company in 1973. Following numerous mergers, Macmillan Canada dissolved in 2002 after John Wiley & Co. acquired it.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Harold Macmillan, grandson of company co-founder Daniel, became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (10 January 1957 – 18 October 1963). Earlier, he had been with the family firm as a junior partner from 1920 to 1940 (when he became a junior minister, as Under-secretary of State for the Colonies), and working with Macmillan Publishers again from 1945 to 1951 while he was also in the opposition in Parliament. After retiring from politics in 1964, he became chairman of the company until 1974, when he handed on the chairmanship to his son Maurice Macmillan.<ref>'Who's Who' 1981 edition page 1678</ref> The latter, having been Paymaster General in the defeated government of Edward Heath, also left the government, but within the company took on the more honorary position of president<ref>'Who's Who' 1985 edition page 1848</ref> until his death in December 1986.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Macmillan became the sole owner of Pan Books in 1986, and by 1990, Pan formed with the trade division of Macmillan to form Pan Macmillan.
21st century
Pearson acquired the Macmillan name in America in 1998, following its purchase of the Simon & Schuster educational and professional group (which included various Macmillan Inc. properties and trademarks).<ref name="pw">Template:Cite news</ref> Holtzbrinck purchased it from them in 2001.<ref>Bookseller, Allbusiness.com</ref> McGraw-Hill continues to market its pre-kindergarten through elementary school titles under its Macmillan/McGraw-Hill brand. The US operations of Holtzbrinck Publishing changed its name to Macmillan in October 2007.<ref name="pw" /><ref name="pw0">Template:Cite news</ref> Its audio publishing imprint changed its name from Audio Renaissance to Macmillan Audio, while its distribution arm was renamed from Von Holtzbrinck Publishers Services to Macmillan Publishers Services.<ref name="pw" />
Pan Macmillan purchased Kingfisher, a British children's publisher, from Houghton Mifflin in October 2007. Roaring Brook Press publisher Simon Boughton would oversee Kingfisher's US business.<ref name="pw1">Template:Cite news</ref>
By 2009, some estimates put e-books at 3 – 5 percent of total book sales, and are the fastest growing segment of the market.<ref name="nyt091029">Template:Cite news</ref> According to The New York Times, Macmillan and other major publishers "fear that massive discounting [of e-books] by retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony could ultimately devalue what consumers are willing to pay for books." In response, the publisher introduced a new boilerplate contract for its authors that established a royalty of 20 per cent of net proceeds on e-book sales, a rate five per cent lower than most other major publishers.<ref name="nyt091029" /> Following the announcement of the Apple iPad on 27 January 2010—a product that comes with access to the iBookstore—Macmillan gave Amazon.com two options: continue to sell e-books based on a price of the retailer's choice (the "wholesale model"), with the e-book edition released several months after the hardcover edition is released, or switch to the agency model introduced to the industry by Apple, in which both are released simultaneously and the price is set by the publisher. In the latter case, Amazon.com would receive a 30 per cent commission.<ref name="nyt100131">Template:Cite news</ref> Amazon responded by pulling all Macmillan books, both electronic and physical, from their website (although affiliates selling the books were still listed). On 31 January 2010, Amazon chose the agency model preferred by Macmillan.Template:Citation needed In April 2012, the United States Department of Justice filed United States v. Apple Inc., naming Apple, Macmillan, and four other major publishers as defendants. The suit alleged that they conspired to fix prices for e-books, and weaken Amazon.com's position in the market, in violation of antitrust law.<ref name="washington post DOJ sues">Template:Cite news</ref> In December 2013, a federal judge approved a settlement of the antitrust claims, in which Macmillan and the other publishers paid into a fund that provided credits to customers who had overpaid for books due to the price-fixing.<ref name="usatoday settlements rolling out">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2012, parent company Holtzbrinck reorganized; Macmillan's consumer publishing operations in the US were now led by John Turner Sargent from New York City.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2018, Pan Macmillan announced it would move from its current location in King's Cross to a "larger and distinctive" new eight-storey headquarters in London's Clerkenwell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In November 2019, Macmillan Publishers announced that libraries would be able to buy only one copy of e-books for the first eight weeks after publication, in an effort to boost sales by creating long waits for borrowers at large library systems. This prompted complaints and some libraries boycotted the company; the policy was reversed in March 2020.<ref>Publisher Macmillan Backs Off Policy Restricting E-Book Sales To Libraries</ref>
In 2020, Pan Macmillan was named Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards for the third time in six years.
In September 2020, Macmillan announced that CEO John Sargent will be leaving at the end of the year due to "a disagreement regarding the direction of Macmillan." According to Holtzbrinck spokesperson Erin Coffey, the decision was made by Stefan von Holtzbrinck, CEO of the Holtzbrinck group.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In September 2021, it was announced that Joanna Prior would succeed Anthony Forbes-Watson as CEO of Pan Macmillan in the UK, described by Publishing Perspectives magazine as "a major move for women in book publishing leadership."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In an interview with The Bookseller magazine in October 2023, Prior said “Women have proved they are more than capable of running publishing companies. I feel it is entirely right and appropriate that these senior seats should be taken by women. I hope to bring the women up behind me.”<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2022 it was announced that Jon Yaged would become CEO of Macmillan Publishers in the US, replacing Don Weisberg.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2023, Pan Macmillan acquired business books publisher Harriman House.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Harriman House was founded by Philip Jenks and Stephen Eckett in 1992.
Divisions
American publishing divisions with imprints
Other American divisions
- Macmillan Publishers Services, formerly Von Holtzbrinck Publishers Services, distribution unit for independent publishers:<ref name="pw" />
- Bloomsbury USA
- The College Board
- Drawn & Quarterly
- Entangled Publishing
- Graywolf Press
- Guinness World Records
- Macmillan UK
- Page Street
Pan Macmillan British imprints
See also
References
Further reading
External links
- Template:Official website
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- The Macmillan Story: Bringing authors and readers together since 1843
- Template:Open Library publisher
Template:Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group Template:Big6 publishers USA Template:Harold Macmillan Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control
- Pages with broken file links
- Macmillan Publishers books
- Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom
- Publishing companies based in London
- Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
- 1843 establishments in England
- 1843 establishments in Scotland
- Publishing companies established in 1843
- 1999 mergers and acquisitions
- British companies established in 1843