St. Martin's Press Acquires Golden Books Adult Publishing Division

Posted on April 26, 1999

Golden Books Family Entertainment and St. Martin's Press has announced the acquisition of Golden Books Adult Publishing Group by St. Martin's Press. St. Martin's presently distributes all of Golden Books' adult titles to the trade.

The transaction will include the Golden Field Guides, Whitman Coin Guides and such successful titles as Stephen R. Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families, Maria Shriver's What's Heaven? and Parents' Magazine Parents Answer Book. Some employees of the Golden Books Adult Publishing Group will move to St. Martin's Press.

"The members of our Adult Trade Division deserve great credit for starting a company in this environment and seeing it through so successfully in terms of the quality of its publications, the significance of its author list, and the achievement of meaningful sales," said Richard E. Snyder, Golden Books Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "It is, therefore, with mixed emotions that we consummated this sale to ensure that the strategic mandate of Golden Books is fulfilled. We thank our colleagues, our authors and their agents for all of their efforts. We wish them well in what we hope is a bright future at St. Martin's."

Sally Richardson, President and Publisher of St. Martin's Press Trade Division, stated, "We learned about the enormous strength of the Golden Field Guides and the Whitman Coin Guides through our distribution arrangement with Golden Books. In addition, we have been pleased to see the development of their strong media-friendly, family-based publishing program. We are delighted to have the opportunity to add all of these titles to the St. Martin's list. This acquisition fits perfectly with our plans to strengthen the St. Martin's Press backlist publishing program and offers us some exciting frontlist titles as well."