PRESS RELEASE from Random House Publishing Group

RANDOM HOUSE AND POLITICO ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP FOR INSTANT DIGITAL BOOK SERIES ON ELECTION 2012

(June 27, 2011)— The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., the largest English-language trade book publisher, announced today a new joint venture with POLITICO, the leading source for political news, to publish a series of four instant digital books on the 2012 Presidential Election. The books, which will be available exclusively in electronic form, to be published starting this fall, will give readers an unprecedented look behind the scenes of the election in real time, providing detail, color, in-depth analysis beyond the hourly headlines and commentary, and ultimately a look at the final results, and how and why it all happened.

The as-yet-untitled series will be reported and written by Mike Allen, POLITICO’s chief White House Correspondent and author of the renowned daily tip-sheet, Playbook, and Evan Thomas, award-winning writer and author. Each book will include exclusive reporting from the campaign trail and will chronicle the campaign as it unfolds.
The publishing collaboration announced today by Gina Centrello, President and Publisher of The Random House Publishing Group, and John F. Harris, Editor-in-Chief of POLITICO, provides Random House with rights to publish and license the books throughout the world and in all languages and formats.

“We are excited about our partnership with POLITICO,” said Ms. Centrello. “The strength of POLITICO’s reporting, joined together with the editorial acumen and digital marketing expertise of Random House, is an ideal journalistic and publishing collaboration for us, and hopefully also for readers. The digital format gives us the opportunity to do what we have not been able to before – release our titles almost instantly. This publishing partnership will give readers a seat on the campaign bus."

“This partnership offers a chance to honor and update for a new era the tradition of great campaign narratives,” said Mr. Harris. “Virtually every day our reporters and editors have occasion to think, ‘If only we had a way to use everything that is in our notebooks and in our heads.’ The e-book series will give us an opportunity to tell those stories in a way that is hard to do in the rush of daily business.”

Jon Meacham, Executive Vice President and Executive Editor, Random House, will edit the series.    Mr. Meacham says, “I'm very pleased we’ll be joining forces with POLITICO to create a compelling, real-time narrative of the race. This authoritative and entertaining project will take readers behind the scenes as the campaign unfolds—a kind of Theodore White for the digital age."

The partnership with POLITICO will also include support for a proposed virtual bookstore on the POLITICO website. The page will include titles from all book publishers in the areas of current events, politics, history, and biography, related to POLITICO’s news content. The planned storefront will allow consumers to purchase both physical and digital titles directly through a wide range of retailers, with more specific details forthcoming.

The Random House Publishing Group is a division of Random House, the world's largest trade- book publisher, whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG.

POLITICO is a nonpartisan, Washington-based political journalism organization that serves as the one-stop shop for the fastest, deepest coverage of the president, Congress and the 2012 presidential race. POLITICO’s journalists break news and drive conversation about the White House, Capitol Hill and Washington lobbying, plus the intersection of politics with Wall Street, the media and personalities.

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