2/25/2023 0 Comments Penguin oasisAnd their contention was if there are fewer publishers competing for these books, they don't have to pay as much. So in a way, the authors are the suppliers of the books to the publishers, and the publishers are buying them. They were looking at authors and author earnings. But the Justice Department here made no allegation of harm to consumers. That's sort of where the government tries to step in to make sure that prices don't go up for consumers when companies get too big. Just briefly lay out what the Justice Department's case was.ĪLTER: So their case was pretty unusual because, you know, antitrust for decades has really been focused on harm to consumers. They had Stephen King there testifying as a witness for the government. Let me focus on what the Justice Department case was because, as you note, they were all about the harm that this merger, in their view, would do to authors. And she had a lot of kind of detailed questions and pointed ones for Penguin Random House, as they tried to defend this deal as something that would be great for authors and would actually help them. But during the three-week trial in August, it was pretty apparent to people who were following it closely that the judge, Florence Pan, was pretty sympathetic to the Justice Department's arguments that this deal would be terrible for competition and the industry and could ultimately harm authors. And nothing has been challenged for a long time by the government. It's completely transformed the industry. There has been a ton of consolidation in publishing happening for decades. Alexandra Alter, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.ĪLEXANDRA ALTER: Thanks so much for having me.ĪLTER: The ruling was extremely surprising for anyone who maybe hadn't been paying attention to the trial. And before we jump in, I should mention that I have published two books with Simon & Schuster, but I am now with a different publisher. Well, Alexandra Alter covered the trial for The New York Times. Yesterday a federal judge blocked Penguin Random House from buying its rivals, Simon & Schuster, arguing the merger could substantially hurt competition. A deal between two of the nation's biggest book publishers will not go through.
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