ROBERT S. MILLER TO JOIN HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

By Press Release - Apr 03 , 2008

NEW YORK, NY (April 3, 2008) – HarperCollins Publishers today announced it has signed publishing veteran Robert S. Miller to develop and launch a new global publishing program based on a non-traditional business model. Miller will start at HarperCollins on Monday, April 14, 2008, at the London Book Fair, and will report directly to Jane Friedman, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide.

After founding and building a very successful publishing company for Disney, Miller will join HarperCollins to develop an innovative and creative publishing “studio” that challenges conventional trade publishing standards. As President and Publisher of the yet-to-be-named entity, Miller will publish approximately 25 popular-priced books per year in multiple physical and digital formats including those as yet unspecified, with the aim to combine the best practices of trade publishing while taking full advantage of the internet for sales, marketing and distribution. Authors will be compensated through a profit sharing model as opposed to a traditional royalty, and books will be promoted utilizing on-line publicity, advertising and marketing.

“Bob Miller is one of the most talented publishers in the business, and we are thrilled have him join the HarperCollins team with the objective to re-define publishing for the 21st century,” said Friedman. “Our industry needs digital and financial innovation to match its publishing expertise to thrive in an increasingly competitive world. Combining Bob’s creativity with HarperCollins’ sales acumen and digital leadership, this new entity will create a unique publishing platform to incubate a new publishing paradigm– one that is unparalleled in the industry.”

“HarperCollins is known for its innovation and experimentation, and I will live that philosophy. Our goal will be to effectively publish books that might not otherwise emerge in an increasingly ‘big book’ environment, an environment in which established authors are under enormous pressure to top their previous successes, while new authors are finding it harder and harder to be published at all,” said Miller.

Miller joins HarperCollins from a 17 year career with ABC’s Hyperion Books division which he founded in 1991 for the Walt Disney Company. Hyperion has published such bestsellers as Richard Carlson’s “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff,” Oprah Winfrey’s “Make the Connection,” Carolyn Kennedy’s “The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,” David Halberstam’s “The Coldest Winter,” Steve Martin’s “Shopgirl,” along with humor by George Carlin, Tim Allen and Chris Rock, and cookbooks byJamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Mollie Katzen.

Prior to Disney Miller held editorial positions at Delacorte Press, Warner Books and St. Martin’s Press.

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.

Contact: Erin Crum
HarperCollins Publishers (212) 207-7223
Erin.Crum_at_HarperCollins_dot_com