Jane Friedman Resigns as President and Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide
NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
Jane Friedman, President and Chief Executive Officer of
HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, today announced she is stepping
down after 10 years at the helm of one of the world's largest
English-language publishers.
"My 10 years at HarperCollins have been far and away the most
rewarding of my career and so it was not easy to make the decision to
step down," commented Ms. Friedman. "It has been a great privilege to
develop and lead the best and brightest team in the world of
publishing as we created and implemented innovative programs which
placed HarperCollins at the forefront of the 21st Century publishing
world. We have expanded opportunities for our authors to connect with
our readers across many different mediums, while also encouraging a
new generation to get excited about reading.
"During the past decade, we have enjoyed tremendous success while
expanding our brand on-line and around the world. Our accomplishments
include: more than doubling the company's profits over the past ten
years; launching the Publishing+ program that has made HarperCollins
an industry leader in the world of digital publishing; our authors
whose excellence was recently recognized with the awarding of two
Pulitzer Prizes and the Nobel Prize for Literature in recent months; a
company record 25 books on the New York Times best-seller list just
last week; and expansion to new markets around the world including
India and China.
"I am extremely pleased to be succeeded by Brian Murray, an
incredibly talented individual and executive, and a true lover of
books, who is the perfect person to lead our team to continued success
in the future. I wish Brian and the entire team at HarperCollins the
best of luck."
"Jane has been a terrific leader who succeeded in attracting some
of the world's most brilliant authors while, at the same time,
delivering record breaking profits," Said Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and
Chief Executive of News Corporation. "We are enormously grateful for
her contributions over the past 10 years and understand her desire to
seek new challenges at this point in her career. I have enjoyed
working with her immensely and will miss her. We wish her much
success."
Ms. Friedman joined HarperCollins in November 1997, overseeing
HarperCollins worldwide book publishing including operations in the
U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and India. Under her
leadership, the company achieved record revenues as well as countless
publishing honors.
Previously, she was Executive Vice President of Random House,
Inc., Executive Vice President of the Knopf Publishing Group,
Publisher of Vintage Books and Founder and President of Random House
Audio Publishing.
Ms. Friedman is Vice-Chair of the Entertainment, Media and
Communications Division of the UJA. She serves on the board of the
Association of American Publishers, Literacy Partners, Yale University
Press, and Poets & Writers, Inc. She is also a member of the American
Advisory Committee of the Jerusalem International Book Fair, the
Advisory Committee to the MFA program in creative writing at The New
School and The Committee of 200.
About HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in
the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX:
NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing
groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books
Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins
UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and
HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with
strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books,
children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious
and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins
has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won
numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and
National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently
at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement
HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and
create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its
authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business
opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet
at http://www.harpercollins.com.
For HarperCollins Publishers
Teri Everett, 212-852-7070
Copyright Business Wire 2008
