Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational

publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63

languages Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

. It is part of

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase ...

, a subsidiary of German media conglomerate

Bertelsmann Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...

. Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including DK Eyewitness travel), history, geography, science, space, nature, sports, gardening, cookery and parenting. The worldwide co-CEOs of DK is Paul Kelly and Rebecca Smart. DK has offices in New York, Melbourne, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto, Madrid, Beijing, and Jiangmen. DK works with licensing partners such as

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

LEGO Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocki ...

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...

, the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking show television format created by Franc Roddam, which originated with the UK version in July 1990. The format was revived and updated for the BBC in February 2005 by executive producers Roddam and John ...

, and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

. DK has commissioned Mary Berry,

Monty Don Montagu Denis Wyatt Don (born George Montagu Don; 8 July 1955) is a British horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer who is best known as the lead presenter of the BBC gardening television series '' Gardeners' World''. Born in Germany and rais ...

, Robert Winston, Huw Richards, and

Steve Mould Steve Mould (born 5 October 1978) is a British educational YouTuber, author, and science presenter who is most notable for making science-related educational videos on his YouTube channel. Early life Mould was born on 5 October 1978 in Gatesh ...

for a range of books.

History

DK was founded in 1974 by

Christopher Dorling Christopher Dorling is the co-founder of Dorling Kindersley, a publishing company, along with Peter Kindersley. He was educated at Leighton Park School Leighton Park School is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils ...

and

Peter Kindersley Peter Kindersley (born 1941) is the co-founder of the publishing company Dorling Kindersley and ran it with Christopher Dorling from 1974, until he sold his family stake for £105m in 2000. The firm's illustrated non-fiction reference books for a ...

in London as a

book packager Book packaging (or book producing) is a publishing activity in which a publishing company outsources the myriad tasks involved in putting together a book—writing, researching, editing, illustrating, and even printing—to an outside company calle ...

. Its first book as a publisher in the UK was ''First Aid Manual'' for the British voluntary medical services. DK Inc. began publishing in the United States in 1991. That same year,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

bought a 26 percent stake in DK. In 1996, DK hired Neal Porter, Richard Jackson and Melanie Kroupa from

Orchard Books Grolier was one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including ''The Book of Knowledge'' (1910), ''The New Book of Knowledge'' (1966), ''The New Book of Popular Science'' (1972), ''Encyclopedia Americana'' (1945), ''Acade ...

to start the DK Ink imprint, but Grolier sued the trio. DK and Grolier settled the lawsuit. In 1999, DK overestimated the market for ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

'' books and was left with millions of unsold copies, resulting in crippling debt. As a direct result, DK was taken over the following year by the

Pearson plc Pearson plc is a British multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London, England. It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s but switched to publishing in the 1920s. Spender, J. A., ''Weetman Pearson: F ...

media company and made part of

Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initia ...

, which also owned the

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headqua ...

, the

and the

British Red Cross The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with mor ...

BradyGames

BradyGames was a publishing company in the United States operating as a DK

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

, which specializes in

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

strategy guides Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the latter. St ...

, covering multiple

video game platforms Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback ...

. It published its first strategy guide in November 1993 as a division of MacMillan Computer Publishing. In 1998,

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publi ...

(which acquired Macmillan in 1994) divested BradyGames as part of its educational division to

. BradyGames has grown to publish roughly 90-100 guides per year. On 1 June 2015, BradyGames merged with

Prima Games Prima Games is a publishing company of video game strategy guides in the United States. Formerly, Prima was an imprint of Dorling Kindersley, a division of Penguin Random House, and produced print ''strategy guides'', featuring ''in-depth walk ...

, and future strategy guides made by the publishing company were published under the Prima Games label, which was sold to Asteri Holdings in 2019.

Young adult

DK commenced publishing books aimed at teens with the release of ''Heads Up Psychology'' in 2014.

References

External links

DK website
{{Authority control Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Travel guide books Publishing companies established in 1974 Penguin Random House Kindersley family Former Microsoft subsidiaries

History

BradyGames

Young adult

See also

References

External links