Robert Miller Leaves HarperStudio for Workman Publishing
(PRESS RELEASE) New York, N.Y., March 17, 2010 – Peter Workman, founder of Workman Publishing, announced today that Robert Miller will join the company as Group Publisher, effective May 3, 2010. In this new role, Miller will work with the current teams at the Workman, Algonquin, and Artisan imprints to make those successful programs even stronger in the ever-changing publishing landscape.
Peter Workman will continue as President and CEO of the company, collaborating
closely with Miller.
Miller was most recently at HarperCollins, where he started HarperStudio, an imprint
that experiments with new models of author compensation, marketing, and distribution,
as well as new digital formats. In its first two years, HarperStudio—just named one of the
ten most innovative media companies of the year by Fast Company—has had three New
York Times bestsellers and has signed seventy authors.
Prior to joining HarperCollins, Miller was President of Hyperion, which he founded for
the Walt Disney Company in 1990.
Commenting on the move, Miller says, “I am very proud of what we have accomplished
at HarperStudio, and I am sorry to leave this exciting venture behind, but the opportunity
to play such a significant role at Workman Publishing is impossible to resist. I have
admired Peter Workman and his company from afar throughout my career; now I look
forward to working closely with him as Workman Publishing enters its fifth decade as
one of our country’s most innovative and successful independent publishers.”
Peter Workman welcomes Miller to Workman, saying, “I’ve reached a time in my life
when I need to look to the future of the company and to make changes. As part of our
leadership team, Bob will be a vital part of that transition, and all that lies ahead. He
shares our entrepreneurial spirit and our enthusiasm for excellence. He knows what it
means to create a company and his marvelous publishing instincts will help us take the
necessary steps to position the company for continued success.”
In addition, Workman comments: “We have prospered in the past years, and I am
enormously proud of the wonderful books—and the superb authors—the company has
published. Though I may be kicking myself upstairs, I’m not going all the way to the
attic. I look forward to continuing to work, although with different responsibilities.”
Workman Publishing, founded in 1968, is an independent publisher of adult and juvenile
trade books, as well as calendars. Known for its innovation in stretching the boundaries
of publishing, as well as intensive and creative marketing, Workman has had a string of
idiosyncratic bestsellers beginning with B. Kliban’s Cat, The Official Preppy Handbook,
and The Silver Palate Cookbooks, through the What to Expect® When You’re Expecting
series, Brain Quest®, Fandex®, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, Gallop!, Younger
Next Year, and many more. Its long list of million-copy bestselling authors also includes
Sandra Boynton, Steven Raichlen, Anne Byrn and many others.
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill is best known as a publisher of fiction (most recently,
for the bestsellers Water for Elephants and A Reliable Wife). Artisan is a publisher of
beautifully crafted books and cookbooks, such as Thomas Keller’s French Laundry and
Ad Hoc at Home. Other divisions of the company include Storey Publishing, Timber
Press, and HighBridge Audio.
- Places:
- New York, N.Y.