HarperCollins Publishers and RR Donnelley Expand Relationship To Drive Distribution Efficiencies and Improve Services
New York, NY and Chicago, IL (November 5, 2012) - HarperCollins Publishers and RR Donnelley (NASDAQ:RRD) today announced that they have expanded their agreement to create a global print platform and supply chain for titles that are published by all HarperCollins U.S. divisions, including Zondervan and Thomas Nelson.
The expanded relationship provides a number of benefits for authors and booksellers. For the first time, all HarperCollins U.S. books, including those published by Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, will be available to ship from a single, centrally located facility to allow for rapid deployment to booksellers across the country. With this combination, booksellers will be able to order, track, and receive books through a common system; save time and money receiving fewer consignments from HarperCollins divisions; minimize freight costs; and benefit from increased fill rates through on-site manufacturing capabilities. RR Donnelley will balance print runs across offset and digital presses to provide fast delivery of hot titles, thus getting authors' books into stores faster. Additionally, U.S. authors and booksellers in Europe will benefit from RR Donnelley's digital presses co-located at HCUK's Glasgow facility. RR Donnelley will also provide a central digital archive in order to support HarperCollins's print on demand workflow needs in Australia.
"Our U.S. publishing companies have experienced a rapid transition from a print-only to a print and digital world. This relationship with RR Donnelley, and the new capabilities it enables, results in a world-class global print platform that is ideally suited to meet the current and future needs of HarperCollins authors and booksellers," said Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers. "We have taken a long-term, global view of our print distribution and are committed to offering the broadest possible reach for our authors. From our 'Digital-to-Print at Retail' partnership with On Demand Books to our supply chain agreements with RR Donnelley, we are retooling the traditional distribution model to ensure we can competitively offer the entire HarperCollins catalog to customers regardless of location."
It is anticipated that starting summer 2013, warehousing, as well as pick, pack, and ship services for all HarperCollins U.S. titles will be combined into a single workflow at a centrally located RR Donnelley distribution facility. HarperCollins will continue to manage customer service, credit, collection, IT, and freight services going forward. A dedicated customer support team will be maintained for the HarperCollins Christian Publishing Division. All returns will continue to be handled through its LaPorte, IN facility.
"We are very pleased to expand our relationship with HarperCollins Publishers, stated Thomas J. Quinlan III, RR Donnelley's President and CEO. "Our global platform continues to evolve in order to support our customers as they bring content to audiences through a variety of media. From our exclusive ProteusJetSM print-on-demand lines to our sophisticated logistics network we're able to support publishers and others across the breadth of the supply chain."
In May 2011, HarperCollins Publishers and RR Donnelley announced a global supply chain agreement for which RR Donnelley would handle the fulfillment of all HarperCollins new releases and the Zondervan front list and backlist titles, as well as provide international Print on Demand (POD) services.
About HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, HarperCollins Christian Publishing HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com .
About RR Donnelley
RR Donnelley (NASDAQ:RRD) is a global provider of integrated communications. The company works collaboratively with more than 60,000 customers worldwide to develop custom communications solutions that reduce costs, drive top-line growth, enhance ROI and ensure compliance. Drawing on a range of proprietary and commercially available digital and conventional technologies deployed across four continents, the company employs a suite of leading Internet based capabilities and other resources to provide premedia, printing, logistics and business process outsourcing services to clients in virtually every private and public sector.
For more information and for RR Donnelley's Corporate Social Responsibility Report, visit the company's web site at www.rrdonnelley.com .
Media Contacts:
Erin Crum, Vice President, HarperCollins Publishers
(212) 207-7223
Erin.Crum@HarperCollins.com
Doug Fitzgerald, Executive Vice President, RR Donnelley
630-322-6830
doug.fitzgerald@rrdonnelley.com
