What multinational acquisitions of indie presses mean for Australian publishing

Text Publishing, an independent Melbourne-based publisher boasting renowned authors such as Helen Garner, Michelle de Kretser, and J.M. Coetzee, has been acquired by Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia. Michael Heyward, head of Text Publishing, stated that Text will operate independently under its new ownership, with no plans for staff redundancies. He told ABC Arts, "Everything that people recognise about Text Publishing, we will continue to do."

However, the move has sparked concern among some industry figures who believe that consolidation in the Australian publishing sector will further undermine a literary scene already struggling with underfunding and declining national readership. Heyward pointed out that the cost of certain print formats has risen by over 50%. Text Publishing, which was founded by Diana Gribble and Eric Beecher in 1990, has undergone several changes in ownership. Its current shareholders, Lonely Planet founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler, acquired a stake from UK publisher Canongate Books in 2011.

Heyward, 65, who joined the company in 1992, said that publishing in Australia has become more challenging due to rising costs and the rise of Amazon. However, he stated that the decision to sell was driven by a desire to protect Text Publishing’s legacy and secure its future. This acquisition is the latest example of a larger company buying a smaller independent publisher. In 2024, Simon & Schuster—one of the global “Big Five” publishers alongside Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan—acquired local independent publisher Affirm Press. A month later, mid-sized local independent Hardie Grant acquired another independent, Pantera Press.

Heyward is optimistic about Text being acquired by PRH, arguing it will provide more “muscle” for book acquisition and marketing. Dr Ben Eltham, a lecturer in media and communications at Monash University, said that small independent publishers are an important part of the Australian publishing landscape. “They play a disproportionate role in fostering young talent, bringing independent authors and new voices into our literary scene.” Dr Millicent Weber, an English lecturer at the Australian National University, said that small publishers have dominated shortlists for literary prizes and review pages in recent years.

Weber explained that the value of independent publishers to larger publishers lies in “their reputation and existing relationships within the industry and with readers; their assets, particularly the books they own the rights to; and the staff and operational assets that make up that organisation”. For example, Text Publishing has a stable of Booker, Miles Franklin and Stella Prize winners. It also owns the rights to a large backlist of Australian classics, which it launched under the Text Classics imprint in 2012. Eltham argues this provides valuable “long tail” content for the new owners, which can be sold over the long term. He believes the recent independent publisher acquisitions will lead to fewer publishing opportunities for authors. “Ultimately, I think it’s bad for readers and for Australian literature,” he said. “It will mean a lack of diversity, and it will also mean an industry that is very focused on bestsellers, a few known authors, rather than … launching interesting books, difficult books, creative fiction that might not (otherwise) be published.”

Weber agrees. “Diversity is good for the industry,” she said. “The trend of large companies acquiring independent ones is inherently a trend towards greater homogeneity and a greater focus on commercial factors.” Weber also worries about what the acquisition means for people working in the industry. “Publishing is rife with freelance and precarious labour, and while PRH and Text have said there won’t be redundancies at the Melbourne office, it’s hard to say exactly what that refers to and who that refers to,” she said.

Eltham said that the Australian publishing industry is “chronically underfunded and has low revenues”. “Unless you find a bestseller, it’s very difficult to make money. On average, a book will lose money, and on average, the author’s advance won’t be earned out. It’s difficult at the best of times, and it’s particularly difficult if you then add a rapidly consolidating global publishing industry.” This echoes the experience of Martin Hughes, co-founder and former CEO of Affirm Press, who oversaw its sale to Simon & Schuster in 2024. Hughes said he had no intention of selling Affirm when Simon & Schuster Australia first expressed interest in acquiring the company in 2023.

However, when they made an offer and guaranteed they would maintain Affirm’s vision, Hughes saw it as a lifeline. “[We realised] we would be mad if we didn’t do it. It takes away the headaches of us running a bigger company and allows us to focus on what we love, which is publishing good books and making readers happy,” he said. A major cause of those headaches was cash flow, which Hughes said plagues all small independent publishers in Australia. “If I sign a book today, I might not get a cent back from that book for months, years after publication. We have to pay all the costs upfront: author, editing, printing, publicity (and) production,” he said. “We’re expected to carry that debt for years, which is really hard, whereas the multinationals probably don’t even know what cash flow is because they can just turn on an international tap. They also have guaranteed sales from the large international brand authors that they’ve been selling in the Australian market.”

“Cash flow is not a problem for them … but for independent trade publishers, it’s a real slog, and it’s very hard.” Hughes said that when he founded Affirm in 2010, he relied on funding from the Australia Council for the Arts (renamed Creative Australia in 2023) to publish books that were culturally significant but not necessarily commercially viable. “That funding has now been removed,” he said. In 2021-22, federal funding for the literary arts was cut to $4.7 million, just 2.4% of available funding, making it the most underfunded art form in Australia. As a result, the capacity of independent publishers, which have been in a position of “trade dominance”, to shape culture has diminished.

Hughes said that without government funding, Affirm would not have been able to publish books like The Slap, the debut novel by Newcastle writer Michael Sala, which went on to win the Commonwealth Book Prize for the Pacific region in 2013. “Without that support, you have to carry that cost,” he said. Eltham, who is a spokesperson for the “Save Our Arts” campaign, argues that the recent wave of publisher acquisitions demonstrates a role for government in ensuring diversity in the industry. “If we leave it to the market, then the culture we’ll get will be determined by money, and there won’t be space for local stories, independent ideas, small pictures, the nuances of Australian life,” he said. “We don’t want to go back to the 50s and 60s when much of Australian culture was controlled by London and New York, and that’s the risk we face if we don’t have intervention from policymakers.”