Recent acquisitions have changed the Australian publishing landscape, so what does that say about the industry?

Just last month, I recorded an episode for my podcast The Publisher and The Writer. I will need to re-record

Since then, award-winning Australian owned Affirm Press and Pantera Press have been bought out by larger companies.  

Affirm has been acquired by Simon and Schuster Australia – who in turn are owned by US private equity giant KKR.

And Pantera has been acquired by Hardie Grant, the successful Melbourne based media and publishing house helmed by Sandy Grant and Fiona Hardie.    

The timing of these two transactions reveals the points of pain for independent publishers and the appetite of larger houses to maintain turnover through acquisition.

Who are Affirm Press?

Affirm Press was founded in 2008 in Melbourne by ebullient Irishman Martin Hughes, formerly of The Big Issue, together with sales guru Kieran Rogers with backing from philanthropist Graeme Wise. With deep pockets and passionate confidence, Affirm really did make their mark.

I recall at the 2017 Bookseller’s conference in Hobart, Affirm had a large and very real snake on their stand to promote Christian White’s debut novel The Nowhere Child. It worked a treat. As booksellers lined up for a photo op with the snake draped over their shoulders, they were regaled by Kieran and Martin as to how fabulous the book was.

During covid lockdowns of 2020 they published Pip William’s The Dictionary of Lost Words (which had won an unpublished manuscript award) and it was record-breaking success. Where others had pulled their fiction releases during covid, Affirm went ahead and won the day.

They worked all parts of the market too, publishing mass market sport books which sold in Big W.

But with growth comes pain, and debt. Their original backer was bought out and the founders faced the reality of running a growing business on their own.

Big books have big advances, bestselling print runs gobble cash, retailers demanding extra margin and a warehouse full of stock is ever present nightmare.

So KKR buys Simon and Schuster who then buy Affirm.

Timing is everything in business, so just as Affirm were reaching their threshold in terms of funding the business themselves, KKR came along driving an aggressive growth strategy for their new acquisition Simon and Schuster.

And it really is the perfect fit. The founders are staying, they now have bosses to report to not bankers.

Congratulations to all involved.

And Pantera Press?

Pantera’s origin story is well known to those in the book business. Former Macquarie banker John Green could not get his Lee Child style thriller published so he set up his own publishing company to do it.

That is self-publishing with a massive flex.

Daughter Ali and son Martin were involved from day one and as a family they built the business with a social enterprise skew of ‘good books doing good things’ which balanced philanthropy with commerce.

Growth was impressive as they particularly nailed two of the most successful genres: the YA (Young Adult) fantasy trend with Lynette Noni’s Medoran Chronicles and the cosy crime bonanza with Sulari Gentill’s Rowan Sinclair Mysteries.

Their suitor Hardie Grant had already set up Ultimo Press in 2020 as a separate ‘Sydney Independent’, with former Harper Collin’s boss James Kellow at the helm. The logic being Hardie Grant wanted to add fiction to their revenue mix.

But literary fiction is hard work. It has all the fixed costs of commercial fiction but without the sales.

So, adding Pantera Press to the Ultimo mix with their more commercial skew makes sense. They will be housed alongside each other (in Ultimo, Sydney) sharing overheads and expanding revenues. And the Green family are stepping away completely from the business they started.

So, in the space of a month, we have seen the publishing landscape change.

The publishing industry has long faced the headwinds of soft revenue growth and squeezed margins. It remains challenging and a ‘’build to sell’ strategy makes a great deal of sense for independents.

Both Affirm and Pantera have published well since their inception, built up a strong revenue line and I am pleased to see they have sold well too.

And larger publishing companies will keep bolting on turnover by acquisition.  It is what they do.