Book Publishing Turns a Page

Monday’s announcement that German media giant Bertelsmann AG is buying America’s largest and most respected book publisher, Random House Inc., is the latest sign of how book publishing has increasingly become a global business, leaving behind its American roots in Manhattan high society.

Before the annual convention of the American Booksellers Assn. was downsized in 1996, book publishing decisions were largely based on the chemistry of planned and chance encounters between authors, publishers, editors and local bookstore owners on the convention floor. Today, these decisions are largely made between buyers for the big bookstore chains and sales reps from the major publishing houses. That system can give a buyer for a chain like Borders, which is based in Ann Arbor, Mich., an awful lot of power over deciding which books readers in Van Nuys will take to the beach next summer.

The acquisition of Random House by Bertelsmann, which already owns Bantam Doubleday Dell, would seem to remove book publishing one step further from readers, and independent bookstores will shudder at Bertelsmann’s plans to open another huge online bookseller.

The merged entity is certainly a far cry from the Random House that Bennett Cerf and Donald S. Klopfer envisioned in 1927. The two friends founded the company after buying the rights to classic books and then acquiring new books they chose rather whimsically (thus the company’s name).

However, if Bertelsmann combines its widely respected business savvy with a respect for distinct regional literary tastes throughout America, the deal need not deprive publishing of its historical vitality.