Holtzbrinck Publishing Group () is a

privately held A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

German company headquartered in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, that owns

publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

companies worldwide. Through

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

, it is one of the Big Five English-language

companies. In 2015, it

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

most of its Macmillan Science and Education unit (including

Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio (formerly known as Nature Publishing Group and Nature Research) is a division of the international scientific publishing company Springer Nature that publishes academic journals, magazines, online databases, and services in scien ...

) with

Springer Science+Business Media Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

, creating the company

Springer Nature Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...

. Holtzbrinck owns 53% of the combined company.

History

The history of Georg von Holtzbrink's publishing activities during the Nazi years 1933-1945 has been controversial. After World War II, Georg von Holtzbrinck, a former member of the Nazi party, reestablished a group in 1948, beginning as a German book club. In the 1960s, it purchased the German publishing companies Droemer, Kindler, Rowohlt and S. Fischer Verlag. In 1985, it acquired the retail book division of

Holt, Rinehart and Winston Holt McDougal is an American publishing company, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, that specializes in textbooks for use in high schools. The Holt name is derived from that of U.S. publisher Henry Holt (1840–1926), co-founder of ...

, naming it the Henry Holt Book Company. One year later, the company acquired ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

for $52.6 million. In 1994, it purchased a

majority interest A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting Share capital, stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds les ...

Farrar, Straus & Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

from retiring Roger W. Straus, Jr. A year later, it purchased a 70% majority interest in

, and then the remaining shares in 1999. In 2001, Pearson sold the Macmillan trademark in the United States (gained with the acquisition of

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

educational and professional division, which included the assets of former Macmillan Inc.) to Holtzbrinck. In March 2006, Holtzbrinck forced

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

, which is owned by Holtzbrinck, to stop making its books available as

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

s via Baen Ebooks because of concerns regarding the lack of

digital rights management (DRM) Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures, such as access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM ...

. The policy was later changed and Tor titles became available as DRM-free e-books in 2012. The Tor UK label in Britain (and hence the EU) does the same. The company also received a good deal of attention when it bought the then leading German social networking platform StudiVZ in January 2007. Holtzbrinck has total annual sales of 2.1 billion euros (as of 2005); 49% of sales are in Germany and 23% in North America. It had 2005 earnings before taxes of 142 million euros, and a total of 14,000 employees. The current chairman of the group is Stefan von Holtzbrinck. Don Weisberg is CEO of Macmillan, the company that unites the US-based businesses of the group. Previous CEOs of Macmillan include John Sargent.

Subsidiaries and imprints

In Germany: * S. Fischer Verlag ** FISCHER Krüger ** ** FISCHER Scherzhttps://www.fischerverlage.de/verlage/fischer_scherz, 24 April 2020 *

Rowohlt Verlag Rowohlt Verlag is a German publishing house based in Hamburg, with offices in Reinbek and Berlin. It has been part of the Georg von Holtzbrinck Group since 1982. The company has been dissolved and restarted twice since its creation in 1908. Hi ...

* Kiepenheuer & Witsch (85%) * Verlagsgruppe Droemer Knaur (50%) ** O.W. Barth * (50%) In the United States:
Using the Macmillan name: *

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer P ...

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

(formerly; ended partnership in 2015) *

Henry Holt and Company Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt (publisher), Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. The company publishes in ...

Holt Paperbacks Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. The company publishes in the fields of American ...

** Metropolitan Books ** Times Books ** Owl Books *

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

Picador A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bull ...

* Roaring Brook Press ** Neal Porter Books **

First Second Books First Second Books is an American publisher of graphic novels. An imprint (trade name), imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck, Holtzbrinck Publishers, First Second publishes fiction, biographies, personal memoirs, history, visual e ...

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishe ...

Thomas Dunne Books Thomas Dunne Books was an imprint of St. Martin's Press, which is a division of Macmillan Publishers. From 1986 until April 2020, it published popular trade fiction and nonfiction. History The imprint signed David Irving, a scholar, for a Joseph ...

* Tom Doherty Associates **

Forge Books Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be o ...

* Bedford, Freeman and Worth Publishing Group ** W.H. Freeman ** Bedford-St. Martin's ** Worth Publishers ** Macmillan Learning *

Hayden-McNeil Hayden-McNeil Publishing is a privately held company and subsidiary of Macmillan Learning headquartered in Plymouth, MI, and a publisher of college and university level custom educational materials in the United States. History Founded by Patr ...

Former in the United States: * Renaissance Media - was based in Los Angeles when its catalogue was acquired by Holtzbrinck in 2001 **Renaissance Books - assets and back catalogue fully merged into Holtzbrinck's St. Martin's Press, which formerly provided the book printing service for Rennaissance **Audio Renaissance - renamed Macmillan Audio when Holtzbrinck switched to Macmillan name in the United States In the United Kingdom: *

Pan Macmillan Pan Books is a British publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. History Pan Books began as an indepe ...

*** Macmillan ***

Pan Books Pan Books is a British publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. History Pan Books began as an indepe ...

***

*** Macmillan Children's Books *** Campbell Books *** Priddy Books *** Boxtree ***

Sidgwick & Jackson Sidgwick & Jackson was an imprint of book publishing company Pan Macmillan. Formerly it was an independent publisher; as such, it was founded in Britain in 1908. Its early authors include poet Rupert Brooke and novelist E.M. Forster. In m ...

Macmillan Education Macmillan Education is a publishing imprint and business which has been owned by various divisions and companies of the Macmillan publishing group and, more recently, the Springer Nature Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a Germa ...

(53%) **

Digital Science Digital Science (or Digital Science & Research Solutions Ltd) is a technology company with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The company focuses on strategic investments into startup companies that support the research lifecycle. Overl ...

Notes and references

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holtzbrinck Publishing Group Book publishing companies of Germany Newspaper companies of Germany Magazine publishing companies of Germany Multinational publishing companies Publishing companies established in 1948 1948 establishments in Germany Mass media in Stuttgart German companies established in 1948

History

Subsidiaries and imprints

See also

Notes and references

External links