Random House facts for kids

Random House is a very large book publisher that creates and sells many different kinds of books. It's part of an even bigger company called Penguin Random House.

Random House was started in 1927 by two friends, Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. They first bought a company called Modern Library, which printed classic books. They decided to publish "a few books on the side at random," which gave them the name Random House.

Today, Random House is owned by a German company called Bertelsmann. It publishes books for adults and children, and it has many smaller publishing groups under its name.

Quick facts for kids
Random House

Logo with the 2014 Penguin Random House wordmark
Type	Division
Founded	1927; 98 years ago (1927)
Founders	Bennett Cerf, Donald Klopfer
Headquarters	Random House Tower, 1745 Broadway, New York City , U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Gina Centrello (president and publisher, The Random House Publishing Group) Barbara Marcus (president and publisher, Random House Children's Books) Nihar Malaviya (COO, Random House, Inc.)
Products	Books
Revenue	€2.142 billion (2012)
Number of employees	97,104 (as of September 30,  2020 (2020 -09-30)[update])
Parent	RCA (1965–1980) Advance Publications (1980–1998) Bertelsmann (1998–present)

Company History: How Random House Grew

Starting Out and Growing Big (20th Century)

Random House began in 1927. Its founders, Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, wanted to publish many different books.

In 1934, they published Ulysses, a famous book by James Joyce. This helped Random House become a very important publisher. They also bought other publishing companies, which brought in popular authors like William Faulkner and Jean de Brunhoff, who wrote the Babar children's books.

Random House also started publishing dictionaries. Their first big dictionary came out in 1966.

Over the years, Random House was bought by different large companies. First, RCA bought it in 1965. Then, Advance Publications bought it in 1980. In 1985, Random House started publishing audiobooks, which are books you can listen to.

In 1998, a big German company called Bertelsmann bought Random House. This helped Random House become a global company, publishing books all around the world. They also bought Listening Library, a company that made children's audiobooks.

Changes and Mergers (21st Century)

In the early 2000s, Random House made some big changes. In 2008, the company reorganized its different publishing groups. This helped them focus on different types of books.

Random House also started a part of the company called Random House Studio. This studio makes films and TV shows based on books, like the movie One Day. They also create stories for video games and social media.

Random House is one of the biggest publishers of English-language books. It's part of a group of companies sometimes called the "Big Five" in publishing.

In 2012, Random House joined with another large publisher, Penguin Group. This created an even bigger company called Penguin Random House. This merger helped them compete with online booksellers like Amazon.com and deal with changes in bookstores.

When Penguin Random House was first formed in 2013, Bertelsmann owned most of it. By 2020, Bertelsmann owned all of Penguin Random House.

In 2018, Penguin Random House combined two of its main publishing lines: Random House and Crown Publishing Group. This was done to help them grow in areas like food, health, and lifestyle books.

In 2019, Penguin Random House bought a British children's book publisher called Little Tiger Group. This added more children's books to Random House Children's Books.

Where Random House Works

Main Office in the U.S.

The main office for Random House in the United States is in Penguin Random House Tower in New York City. This tall building was built in 2009. Inside the lobby, there are huge bookshelves filled with books published by the company.

Offices Around the World

Random House has offices and branches in many countries.

• The Random House Group is a very large book publisher in the United Kingdom. It has many different publishing companies under its name.
• They also have offices in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India.
• In Germany, there's a group called Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe. It's one of the biggest book publishers in Germany and has over 40 different publishing names.
• Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial is the company's Spanish-language division. It publishes books for readers in Spain and many countries in Hispanic America.
• Random House of Canada was started in 1944 to distribute Random House books in Canada. Later, it began publishing Canadian authors.

Random House Home Video

Random House Home Video was a part of Random House that made and sold videos. It started in 1983. This division distributed videos for popular children's shows like Sesame Street, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Arthur. It stopped making new videos around 2005.

See also

In Spanish: Random House para niños

• List of English language book publishers
• List of largest UK book publishers
• Media of New York City
• Western Publishing