Daniel Menaker has been named editor-in-chief and senior VP of Random House, the flagship imprint of book giant Random House Inc.
Appointment, which was accompanied Thursday by a slew of promotions at the famous imprint -- known internally as Little Random -- ends weeks of speculation about Random's future following the Jan. 16 ouster of editor-in-chief Ann Godoff.
With Godoff out, Little Random was combined with Ballantine Books, an imprint known for popular fiction, under the authority of Ballantine publisher Gina Centrello. Rival houses promptly accused the company of dumbing down the august imprint, started in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. Godoff, who was quickly hired by Penguin Putnam, has sought to lure some of her star authors away from the Random fold.
Menaker, who was an executive editor of HarperCollins, and who spent 25 years at the New Yorker, will restore a measure of literary cachet to the imprint. At the New Yorker, he was first to publish writers Michael Cunningham and Michael Chabon. In 1995, he left the magazine to become a book editor, joining Little Random as a senior literary editor. The first novel he edited was "Primary Colors." Menaker has also published three books of his own fiction, including the novel "The Treatment," issued by Knopf in 1998.
Random spokesman Stuart Applebaum said Thursday the imprint has also promoted Jonathan Karp to editorial director of Random House, reporting to Menaker, and longtime editors Bob Loomis and Kate Medina to divisional exec VPs, reporting to Centrello.
Menaker, who also reports to Centrello, will oversee the editorial divisions of Little Random, Villard, Modern Library and Random House Trade Paperbacks – a list comprising hundreds of new titles each year – while acquiring and editing his own list of fiction and nonfiction.
"These appointments prove that the Random House group of imprints are as vital and as progressively positioned as they have ever been within the 76 years they've been publishing great books," Applebaum said.
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