Jamie Byng

Three announcements made by three publishing businesses over the past week show how companies that have been at the coalface of traditional publishing for sometime are looking at remodelling themselves.

First up was Canongate, the independent publisher run by the charismatic and well-connected Jamie Byng, which announced that it was to spin-off its fledging events business Letters Live into a separate company, jointly owned by Canongate and Benedict Cumberbatch's production business SunnyMarch.

Edinburgh publisher Canongate Books turned around its fortunes last year, lifted by a clutch of bestsellers and soaring digital sales. The firm, which made an operating loss of about £406,000 in 2011, turned that into a profit of £976,000 in 2012.

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