David Steinberger is an American businessman, publishing executive, podcaster, current Chairman of the

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established with the goal "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America." Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: ...

, and Executive Chairman of

Open Road Integrated Media Open Road Integrated Media or ORIM (stylized as OR/M and also called Open Road) is a digital media company in New York City that was created by Jane Friedman and Jeffrey Sharp in 2009 with a focus on publishing ebook editions of older works of ...

Inc. His career has involved the acquisition, management and sale of a number of publishers and publishing-related companies as well as the application of digital technologies to publishing companies. He was CEO of

Arcadia Publishing Arcadia Publishing is an American Publishing, publisher of neighborhood, local history, local, and regional history of the United States in pictorial form.(analysis of the successful ''Images of America'' series). Arcadia Publishing also runs th ...

and CEO of the

Perseus Books Group Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in year 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. In 2005, Perseus acquired ...

, following leadership roles at

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

. In January 2021, Steinberger announced a succession plan at Arcadia, handing over day-to-day management to a successor and moving to Arcadia's board of directors. In December 2021, he led an investor group in the acquisition of Open Road Integrated Media inc., which utilizes data science technology to publish and market books, with Steinberger being named Executive Chairman, along with the role of CEO added in January 2022.

Early life and education

Steinberger was born in New York, United States, attended High School in

Tenafly, New Jersey Tenafly () is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 15,409, an increase of 921 (+6.4%) from the 2010 census count of 14,488, which in turn reflected an ...

. He graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

's School of Engineering and earned an MBA from the

Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

Early career

Steinberger's career began in New York City government where he rose to become Deputy Transportation Commissioner for Bridges. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Steinberger's willingness to speak openly about public safety concerns contributed to his departure from the position in 1991. After City Government, he joined management consultancy

Booz Allen Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American company specializing in intelligence, AI, and digital transformation. It is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washing ...

. Steinberger wrote an opinion piece, published in ''

'', about how to manage

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

government, entitled "Governing New York: Simplify, Simplify".

Publishing career

In 1996, Steinberger left Booz Allen Hamilton to join the publishing industry as President of the Adult Trade Group at

Publishers, a Division of NewsCorp. He became CEO of

in 2004. After Steinberger completed a series of acquisitions, Perseus Books was named Publisher of the Year in 2007 by ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', which described the company as "arguably the most important independent publishing company in the nation". Perseus Books launched digital initiatives that ''The New York Times'' described as providing "hundreds of small publishers easier access to digital book technology" Titles published by Perseus included ''Friday Night Lights'' by

Buzz Bissinger Harry Gerard Bissinger III, also known as Buzz Bissinger and H. G. Bissinger (born November 1, 1954) is an American journalist and author, best known for his 1990 non-fiction book '' Friday Night Lights''. He is a longtime contributing editor at ...

, as well as books by chess champion

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

, Nobel Physics Prize-winner

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...

, and Nobel Peace Prize winner

Leymah Gbowee Leymah Roberta Gbowee (born 1 February 1972) is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's non-violent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her ...

. Steinberger sold Perseus Books in 2016 in two simultaneous transactions, to Hachette Books Group and

Ingram Content Group Ingram Content Group is an American service provider to the book publishing industry, based in La Vergne, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Ingram Industries. Shawn Morin is CEO, and John R. Ingram is chairman of Ingram Industries. History Th ...

, after an earlier attempt at an exit transaction fell through. In 2018, Steinberger and lead investor

Michael Lynton Michael Mark Lynton (born January 1, 1960) is a businessman and current chairman of Snap Inc. He previously served as chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In 2017, Lynton stepped down as CEO of Sony Entertainment to becom ...

, chairman of Snap Inc., assembled an investor group to acquire independent publishing businesses, starting with

, where Steinberger became CEO. The investor group includes

Len Blavatnik Sir Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik ( Ukrainian: Леонард Валентинович Блаватник; born June 14, 1957) is a Soviet/Ukrainian-born British-American businessman and philanthropist. As of April 2025, ''Forbes'' estimated ...

Tony Ressler Antony P. Ressler (born October 12, 1960) is an American businessman. He co-founded the private equity firms Apollo Global Management in 1990, and Ares Management in 1997. Ressler is also owner of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team, acquiring them ...

and

Walter Isaacson Walter Seff Isaacson (born May 20, 1952) is an American journalist who has written biographies of Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Jennifer Doudna and Elon Musk. As of 2024, Isaacson is a profes ...

. Arcadia, noted for its unique approach to publishing hyper-local titles subsequently acquired

Pelican Publishing Pelican Publishing Company is a book publisher based in Elmwood, Louisiana, with a New Orleans postal address. - The address states "New Orleans, LA" but the physical location iin the Elmwood CDP Wildsam and River Road Press. In 2021, Steinberger announced a leadership succession plan at Arcadia, turning over day-to-day management to a successor and moving to Arcadia's board of directors. In December 2021, he led an investor group in the acquisition of

Inc., which utilizes data science technology to publish and market books, with Steinberger being named Executive Chairman, along with the role of CEO added in January 2022. In May 2023, Open Road launched Re-Discovery Lit, an imprint to publish books that had gone out of print or otherwise been reverted by publishers back to authors. According to ''

'', Re-Discovery Lit utilizes Open Road's "machine learning technology" to find readers for these republished works, which include books by authors such as

Barbara Delinsky Barbara Delinsky (born August 8, 1945, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. as Barbara Ruth Greenberg."About ...

and

Roger Angell Roger Angell (September 19, 1920 – May 20, 2022) was an American essayist known for his writing on sports, especially baseball. He was a regular contributor to ''The New Yorker'' and was its chief fiction editor for many years. He wrote nume ...

. In July 2024, Open Road launched the Open Book podcast, offering a “behind the scenes look at the world of books and publishing,” with Steinberger in conversation with industry leaders. Featured guests have included Grove Atlantic CEO

Morgan Entrekin Morgan Entrekin is the president (corporate title), president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic Inc. Books in New York City. He is one of six owners of the publishing company. He is from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee. Timeline Entr ...

, former Macmillan CEO John Sargent, journalist and nonfiction pioneer

Ted Conover Ted Conover (born January 17, 1958)Ab ...

, and former Penguin Random House leader Madeline Macintosh. Steinberger is chairman of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards. During his tenure, the National Book Foundation in 2016 appointed Lisa Lucas as executive director, the first Black person and the first woman in that role and launched Book Rich Environments, described by the LA Times as "turning book deserts into literary oases." Steinberger has also been a board member of the Fund for the City of New York .

Personal life

Steinberger is married to

Dara Caponigro Dara Caponigro is a design executive and editor of design magazines, currently Chief Creative Officer for the design house F. Schumacher & Co. and Editor-in-Chief of the design magazine, ''Frederic''. Over her career as a magazine editor she has ...

, the creative director at F. Schumacher & Co., and former Editor-in-Chief at Veranda, Decoration Director at House Beautiful and Style Director at Domino.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinberger, David Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American publishing chief executives Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Wharton School alumni