Meet the new Bertelsmann boss
Bertelsmann, the parent company of Random House, has announced that Hartmut Ostrowski will succeed Gunter Thielen on Jan. 1, 2008. Thielen will then head up Bertelsmann’s supervisory board. (Story here.)
Those looking for a ray of sunshine amid the publishing industry’s perpetual rain may be heartened by this quote from the story: “Bertelsmann has had a recovery under Mr. Thielen, who refocused the company on its traditional businesses, including book clubs and publishing.” Of course, merging their music division, BMG, with Sony three years ago probably didn’t hurt their bottom line, either.
