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Harbour buys D&M
The country's leading publishing trade magazine, Quill & Quire, has published this report by Stuart Woods, about the decision of Howard and Mary White to purchase Douglas & McIntyre.
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History is repeating itself in British Columbia.
Less than two weeks after the sale of Greystone Books to Heritage House Publishing was approved, another West Coast publishing house - large by Canadian standards, but which mostly flies under the national radar - has stepped up to purchase the remaining assets of D&M Publishers, which filed for creditor protection in October.
This time Harbour Publishing is playing the role of saviour. The Sunshine Coast-based company announced on Thursday that owners Howard and Mary White had reached an agreement to purchase the Douglas & McIntyre imprint. Approval of the sale by the Supreme Court of British Columbia is expected in the coming weeks.
Under the deal, Harbour acquires an active backlist of about 400 titles, effectively doubling the size of its existing backlist. White says he intends to continue Douglas & McIntyre's publishing program, including its fiction program, with as many as eight to 10 titles appearing by the end of the year.
"We haven't been at liberty to contact any authors yet, but our intention is to carry the program forward and to add as many of the postponed Douglas & McIntyre spring books to our spring list and push the others forward to later dates,"; Howard White says. "We're going to try to keep the Douglas & McIntyre list intact and publish as many of the authors as we can.";
Douglas & McIntyre will operate as a separate company based in Vancouver and maintain distribution through HarperCollins Canada. Other aspects of the company will be combined with Harbour's existing operations.
As for who will helm the revived company, White says he's hoping to hire at least some of Douglas & McIntyre's former staffers. Asked whether former publisher and CEO Scott McIntyre will be involved, White suggests it's unlikely. "We're trying to talk him into giving us his secret phone number, but I think he's ready to retire,"; he says.
The deal to acquire Douglas & McIntyre began to take shape in late December. White says he had been following the situation closely, but getting involved didn't seem feasible until the assets of Greystone were stripped out.
"I always thought of D&M as this giant publisher that dwarfed Harbour,"; White says, "but once I realized that the Douglas & McIntyre list by itself is actually a little smaller than Heritage's, it made me realize that it would be practical for us to take it over and manage it.";
Like Douglas & McIntyre, Harbour publishes a couple dozen new titles per year, mostly focused on West Coast non-fiction. The press, established in 1974, has an active backlist of about 500 titles.
"I think the synergies with Harbour are fairly obvious,"; White says. "[Douglas & McIntyre] has a strong first nations' thread in their content, and a lot of coffee-table and art books, which are books we do a lot of as well.";
However, Douglas & McIntyre brings something to the table that Harbour doesn't have: a strong national presence. "We see that as bringing something to Harbour that we don't have now,"; White says.
The final purchase price for Douglas & McIntyre is still being worked out, but White says it will likely come to less than the $480,000 reportedly paid for Greystone. The deal is being financed personally by White and his partner Mary, who share ownership of Harbour.
White says he didn't even consider approaching a bank about finanncing the deal.
"This is where all this scare talk about books really does hurt,"; he says. "We're finding people are just as interested in buying books now as they were 20 years ago, but all the death of the book talk in the financial pages has completely spooked the financial sector, and that really does impact the book industry."; -- Stuart Woods
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History is repeating itself in British Columbia.
Less than two weeks after the sale of Greystone Books to Heritage House Publishing was approved, another West Coast publishing house - large by Canadian standards, but which mostly flies under the national radar - has stepped up to purchase the remaining assets of D&M Publishers, which filed for creditor protection in October.
This time Harbour Publishing is playing the role of saviour. The Sunshine Coast-based company announced on Thursday that owners Howard and Mary White had reached an agreement to purchase the Douglas & McIntyre imprint. Approval of the sale by the Supreme Court of British Columbia is expected in the coming weeks.
Under the deal, Harbour acquires an active backlist of about 400 titles, effectively doubling the size of its existing backlist. White says he intends to continue Douglas & McIntyre's publishing program, including its fiction program, with as many as eight to 10 titles appearing by the end of the year.
"We haven't been at liberty to contact any authors yet, but our intention is to carry the program forward and to add as many of the postponed Douglas & McIntyre spring books to our spring list and push the others forward to later dates,"; Howard White says. "We're going to try to keep the Douglas & McIntyre list intact and publish as many of the authors as we can.";
Douglas & McIntyre will operate as a separate company based in Vancouver and maintain distribution through HarperCollins Canada. Other aspects of the company will be combined with Harbour's existing operations.
As for who will helm the revived company, White says he's hoping to hire at least some of Douglas & McIntyre's former staffers. Asked whether former publisher and CEO Scott McIntyre will be involved, White suggests it's unlikely. "We're trying to talk him into giving us his secret phone number, but I think he's ready to retire,"; he says.
The deal to acquire Douglas & McIntyre began to take shape in late December. White says he had been following the situation closely, but getting involved didn't seem feasible until the assets of Greystone were stripped out.
"I always thought of D&M as this giant publisher that dwarfed Harbour,"; White says, "but once I realized that the Douglas & McIntyre list by itself is actually a little smaller than Heritage's, it made me realize that it would be practical for us to take it over and manage it.";
Like Douglas & McIntyre, Harbour publishes a couple dozen new titles per year, mostly focused on West Coast non-fiction. The press, established in 1974, has an active backlist of about 500 titles.
"I think the synergies with Harbour are fairly obvious,"; White says. "[Douglas & McIntyre] has a strong first nations' thread in their content, and a lot of coffee-table and art books, which are books we do a lot of as well.";
However, Douglas & McIntyre brings something to the table that Harbour doesn't have: a strong national presence. "We see that as bringing something to Harbour that we don't have now,"; White says.
The final purchase price for Douglas & McIntyre is still being worked out, but White says it will likely come to less than the $480,000 reportedly paid for Greystone. The deal is being financed personally by White and his partner Mary, who share ownership of Harbour.
White says he didn't even consider approaching a bank about finanncing the deal.
"This is where all this scare talk about books really does hurt,"; he says. "We're finding people are just as interested in buying books now as they were 20 years ago, but all the death of the book talk in the financial pages has completely spooked the financial sector, and that really does impact the book industry."; -- Stuart Woods
Submitted on April 24, 2013 in By David.
