Parent company | News Corp |
---|---|
Status | Active |
Founded | 1989 |
Country of origin | United States United Kingdom |
Headquarters location | 195 Broadway New York City |
Distribution | Global |
Imprints | Numerous |
Official website | harpercollins |
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the world's largest publishing companies and is part of the "Big Five" English-language publishing companies, alongside Hachette, Holtzbrinck/Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp. The company name is a combination of several publishing firm names: Harper & Row, an American publishing company acquired in 1987, whose own name was the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers (founded 1817) and Row, Peterson & Company; together with UK publishing company William Collins, Sons (founded 1819), acquired in 1990.
The worldwide CEO of HarperCollins is Brian Murray. HarperCollins has publishing groups in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and India. The company publishes many different imprints, both former independent publishing houses and new imprints.
In 1989, Collins was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and the publisher was combined with Harper & Row, which NewsCorp had acquired two years earlier. In addition to the simplified and merged name, the logo for HarperCollins was derived from the torch logo for Harper and Row, and the fountain logo for Collins, which were combined into a stylized set of flames atop waves.
In 1999, News Corporation purchased the Hearst Book Group, consisting of William Morrow & Company and Avon Books. These imprints are now published under the rubric of HarperCollins.
HarperCollins bought educational publisher Letts and Lonsdale in March 2010.