Penguin Random House announced their decision to shutter publishing imprint Spiegel & Grau, best town for its best-selling works on nonfiction. The move comes as another part of the effort to streamline Penguin Random House following the merger 2013 between publishing titans Penguin and Random House.
Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau, the imprint’s co-founders, will leave the company.
Spiegel & Grau’s closure comes on the heels of one of its most successful years, a shock to employees and the publishing world at large. Started in 2007 at Doubleday before shifting to Random House the next year, Spiegel & Grau is perhaps most readily recognized for its publishing of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ bestselling autobiography “Between the World and Me,” which won the National Book Award in 2015. Spiegel & Grau also published Daily Show host Trevor Noah’s memoir, “Born a Crime” and Jay-Z’s “Decoded.”
The decision from Penguin Random House, by far the largest of the five major publishing houses, follows a recent trend. In 2017, Penguin shuttered Blue Rider Press, which published works by Roberto Duran, R.A. Dickey, Jewel, Mike Tyson and Bill Maher during its years in operation. Last year, Hachette consolidated its nonfiction line.
Penguin Random House publisher Susan Kamil said the now-shuttered Spiegel & Grau would see its authors moved to other imprints.
While the S & G list will no longer exist as a stand-alone imprint,” said Kamil “its amazing authors will be fully and proudly supported by Random House, The Dial Press and One World.”