David Steinberger is an American businessman, publishing executive, current Chairman of the National Book Foundation, [1] and Executive Chairman of Open Road Integrated Media Inc. His career has involved the acquisition, [2] [3] [4] [5] management and sale [6] [7] of a number of publishers and publishing-related companies as well as the application of digital technologies to publishing companies. [8] [9] [10] [11] He previously was CEO of Arcadia Publishing [12] and CEO of the Perseus Books Group, [2] following leadership roles at HarperCollins. [13] [14] In January 2021 he announced a succession plan at Arcadia, handing over day-to-day management to a successor and moving to Arcadia's board of directors. [15] In December 2021, Steinberger led an investor group in the acquisition of Open Road Integrated Media inc., which utilizes data science technology to market eBooks, with Steinberger being named Executive Chairman, along with the role of CEO to be added in January 2022. [16]
Steinberger was born in New York, attended High School in Tenafly N.J. He graduated from Columbia University's School of Engineering and earned an MBA from the Wharton School. [17]
Steinberger's career began in New York City government where he rose to become Deputy Transportation Commissioner for Bridges. [13] According to the New York Times, Steinberger's willingness to speak openly about public safety concerns contributed to his departure from the position in 1991. [18] After City Government, Steinberger joined management consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton. [13] Steinberger wrote an opinion piece, published in The New York Times , about how to manage New York City government, entitled “Governing New York: Simplify, Simplify.” [19]
In 1996 Steinberger left Booz Allen Hamilton to join the publishing industry as President of the Adult Trade Group at HarperCollins Publishers, a Division of NewsCorp. [13] [14] Steinberger became CEO of Perseus Books Group in 2004. [2] After Steinberger completed a series of acquisitions, [3] [20] [21] Perseus Books was named Publisher of the Year in 2007 by Publishers Weekly which described the company as "arguably the most important independent publishing company in the nation." [22] Perseus Books launched digital initiatives which the New York Times described as providing "hundreds of small publishers easier access to digital book technology" [8] [9] [11] [10] [23] Books published by Perseus included Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger, [24] as well as books by chess champion Garry Kasparov, [25] Nobel Physics Prize-winner Richard Feynman, [26] and Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee. [27] Steinberger sold Perseus Books in 2016 in 2 simultaneous transactions, to Hachette Books Group and Ingram Content Group, [28] [6] [7] after an earlier attempt at an exit transaction fell through. [29] [30]
In 2018, Steinberger and lead investor Michael Lynton, chairman of Snap Inc., assembled an investor group to acquire independent publishing businesses, starting with Arcadia Publishing where Steinberger became CEO. [12] The investor group includes Len Blavatnik, [12] Tony Ressler [12] and Walter Isaacson. [31] Arcadia, noted for its unique approach to publishing hyper-local titles [31] [32] subsequently acquired Pelican Publishing, [4] Wildsam [33] and River Road Press. [5] 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. [15]
Steinberger is chairman of the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards. [1] 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 [34] and launched Book Rich Environments, described by the LA Times as turning "book deserts into literary oases." [35] Steinberger is also a board member of the Fund for the City of New York. [36]
In December 2021, Steinberger led an investor group in the acquisition of Open Road Integrated Media inc., which utilizes data science technology to market eBooks, with Steinberger being named Executive Chairman, along with the role of CEO to be added in January 2022. [16] [37]
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. [38] According to the New York Times , 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 and Roger Angell. [39]
Steinberger is married to Dara Caponigro, [40] the creative director at F. Schumacher & Co., and former Editor-in-Chief at Veranda, Decoration Director at House Beautiful and Style Director at Domino. [41]
International Thomson Organization (ITO) was a holding company for interests in publishing, travel, and natural resources, that existed from 1978 to 1989. It was formed as a reorganisation of the Thomson Organization, which had been founded by Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet in 1959. It merged with Thomson Newspapers to become the Thomson Corporation in 1989.
40 Wall Street is a 927-foot-tall (283 m) neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau and William streets in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Erected in 1929–1930 as the headquarters of the Manhattan Company, the building was designed by H. Craig Severance with Yasuo Matsui and Shreve & Lamb. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP); it is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, an NRHP district.
The James Beard Foundation is an American non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City. It was named after James Beard, a food writer, teacher, and cookbook author. Its programs include guest-chef dinners to scholarships for aspiring culinary students, educational conferences, and industry awards. In the spirit of James Beard's legacy, the foundation creates programs that help educate people about American cuisine, and supports and promotes the chefs and other industry professionals.
Simon & Schuster LLC is an American publishing company owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. As of 2017 Simon & Schuster was the third largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.
Rodale, Inc., was an American publisher of health and wellness magazines, books, and digital properties headquartered in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, with a satellite office in New York City. The company was founded in 1930. In 2017, it was acquired by New York City-based Hearst Communications, a media conglomerate.
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Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Group. HBG was formed when Hachette Livre purchased the Time Warner Book Group from Time Warner on March 31, 2006. Its headquarters are located at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hachette is considered one of the "big five" publishing companies, along with Holtzbrinck/Macmillan, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster. In one year, HBG publishes approximately 1400+ adult books, 300 books for young readers, and 450 audiobook titles. In 2017, the company had 167 books on the New York Times bestseller list, 34 of which reached No. 1.
23 Wall Street is a four-story office building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, at the southeast corner of Wall Street and Broad Street. Designed by Trowbridge & Livingston in the neoclassical style and constructed from 1913 to 1914, it was originally the headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co. Since the late 2000s, the building has remained unoccupied for long periods, although it has occasionally been used for events.
Leon David Black is an American private equity investor. He is the former CEO of Apollo Global Management, which he co-founded in 1990 with Marc Rowan and Josh Harris. Black was the chairman of the Museum of Modern Art from 2018 to 2021.
Macmillan Inc. was an American book publishing company originally established as the American division of the British Macmillan Publishers. The two were later separated and acquired by other companies, with the remnants of the original American division of Macmillan present in McGraw-Hill Education's Macmillan/McGraw-Hill textbooks, Gale's Macmillan Reference USA division, and some trade imprints of Simon & Schuster that were transferred when both companies were owned by Paramount Communications.
Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley in 1997.
Open Road Integrated Media or ORIM 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 literature and nonfiction. In addition to its ebook publishing business, Open Road Integrated Media is the parent company of book publisher Open Road Media and content brands Early Bird Books, The Lineup, The Archive, Murder & Mayhem, A Love So True, and The Portalist.
David Michael Solomon, known as DJ D-Sol, is an American investment banker and DJ. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Goldman Sachs, a position he has held since October 2018. He has also been chairman of the bank since January 2019. Before assuming his role as CEO, Solomon was president and chief operating officer from January 2017 to September 2018, and was joint head of the investment banking division from July 2006 to December 2016. Solomon formally succeeded Lloyd Blankfein, the previous CEO, on October 1, 2018, and was named chairman after Blankfein's retirement.
Linda Zecher Higgins is an American executive who is the managing director of The Barkley Group since January 2017. She most recently served as the president, CEO and director of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a global education and learning company. In the past she had worked as the corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector business unit until September 2011. Additionally she had served as the president and CEO of Evolve Corporation, as the senior vice president of Oracle, as a very early vice president of PeopleSoft, and in several senior positions in Bank of America. She began her career as a geophysicist with Texas Instruments.
Dane Joseph Neller is an American businessman and entrepreneur. He is best known as former chief executive of Dean & DeLuca, On Demand Books, and Shakespeare & Co.
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Markus Dohle is a German businessperson. He was the chief executive officer of Penguin Random House from July 2013 to December 2022.
Demos Parneros is an American businessman who was previously the chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble and president of North American retail and online at Staples Inc.