The Bookseller.com

29th August 2008

GAYLE FELDMAN

Gayle Feldman is The Bookseller's US correspondent.

Blogging BEA - Dohle arrives

02.06.08

1

Newly appointed Random House CEO Markus Dohle flew from Germany to Los Angeles on Friday. After arriving in the afternoon he  made it to the "little Random" cocktail party that evening to mingle with the likes of Salman Rushdie, Ethan Canin and other authors, along with a great many staffers who were anxious to meet the tall, smart-but-casually dressed Dohle. Whatever jet lag he might have been feeling was not evident. Random's new CEO appeared energetic and eager to charm. It being California, Dohle's height, looks, energy and fluent accented English conjured up in the minds of not a few the state's current governor.

The following morning, Dohle visited the convention floor, seeking out friends he already knew (he was heard to mention  Penguin's David Shanks), and sizing up his first BEA.

Meanwhile, what has been said about his arrival on the scene is this: words like "determined" and "driven" have been used to describe him. He has clearly been brought in to enact change, and the sense is that change will not be long in coming. One source also indicated that Dohle may want to bring some trusted Arvato associates over to help him accomplish that mandate.

As for RH UK, the new CEO said that he is looking forward to visiting London later this month.

2

The biggest piece of news from BEA did not have anything to do with the fair, but its implications will affect everyone. Borders cancelled all its vendor meetings for this coming week and estimates from several publishers are that redundancies of between 150 - 200 will be announced this week. What else we be announced remains to be seen. Clearly a deal is not happening with B + N and an even darker cloud hovers above the nation's second largest chain.

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