Random House, Inc.

File:Random House Corporate Logo 2011.jpg
Type	Division of Bertelsmann
Industry	Books, Publishing
Founded	1925
Founder(s)	Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer
Headquarters	Random House Tower, New York City, NY, USA
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Markus Dohle (Chairman & CEO, Random House Worldwide/Random House, Inc.) Núria Cabutí (CEO, Random House Mondadori) Anne Davis (Executive Vice President & CFO, Random House Worldwide) Brad Martin (President & CEO, Random House of Canada) Dr. Frank Sambeth (Chairman & CEO, Verlagsgruppe Random House) Gail Rebuck (Chairman & CEO, The Random House Group) Frank Steinert (Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer, Random House Worldwide)
Products	Books
Revenue	€1.828 billion Euros (2010)
Owner(s)	Bertelsmann
Employees	5,262 (as of December 31, 2010)
Website	www.randomhouse.com

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films, of which the most recent release was One Day. The company is also currently developing a division responsible for creating story content for media including video games, social networks on the web, mobile platforms, in print and on film.^[1] Random House is considered one of the "Big Six" publishing companies, along with Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster^[2].

Random House, U.S.A.[link]

Random House Tower headquarters, New York City

Random House was founded in 1927 by Americans Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House.^[3]

Its American divisions currently include the Crown Publishing Group, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, the Random House Publishing Group, and Random House Children's Books.

Random House entered reference publishing in 1947 with the American College Dictionary, which was followed in 1966 by its first unabridged dictionary. Today it publishes the Random House Dictionary of the English Language and Random House Webster's College dictionaries, probably the main competitors for Merriam-Webster reference titles.

The American publishers Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Pantheon Books were acquired by Random House in 1960 and 1961, respectively; works continue to be published under these imprints with editorial independence, such as Everyman's Library, a series of classical literature reprints. Random House has been the distributor for Shambhala Publications since 1974. They also currently distribute Rizzoli Books, National Geographic Books, Steerforth Press, Wizards of the Coast, Vertical Inc., Welcome Books, New York Review of Books, Titan Books, Other Press, Kodansha Manga, Hatherleigh Press, North Atlantic Books, Monacelli Press Books, and DC Comics. In 1998, Bertelsmann AG bought Random House and it soon went global.^[4]

The publisher's main U.S. office is located at 1745 Broadway in Manhattan, in the 684-foot Random House Tower, completed in 2003 and spanning the entire west side of the block between West 55th Street and west 56th. Its lobby showcases floor-to-ceiling glassed-in bookcases filled with books published by the company's many imprints. Earlier addresses were 457 Madison Ave., New York 22, N.Y.; 20 East 57th St., New York 22, N.Y.; and 201 East 50th St, New York, NY 10022.

International Branches[link]

Random House, Inc. maintains several independently managed subsidiaries around the world.

The Random House Group is one of the largest general book publishing companies in the UK and is based in London. The Group comprises five publishing companies: Cornerstone Publishing, Vintage Publishing, Ebury Publishing, Random House Children's Books and Transworld Publishers, boasting more than 40 diverse and highly respected imprints. Its distribution business services its own imprints as well as 60 other UK publishers. The Random House archive and library is located in Rushden in Northamptonshire.

The Random House Group also operates branches in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa (as a joint venture under the name Random House Struik), and India as part of its overseas structure. In Australia offices are in Sydney and Melbourne.^[5] In New Zealand it is based in Glenfield, Auckland, while Random House's Indian headquarters are located in New Delhi.

Verlagsgruppe Random House was established after Bertelsmann's 1998 acquisition of Random House, grouping its German imprints (until then operating as Verlagsgruppe Bertelsmann) under the new name. It is the second largest book publisher in Germany with more than 40 imprints, including historic publishing houses Goldmann and Heyne, as well as C. Bertelsmann, the publishing house from which today's Bertelsmann AG would eventually evolve. Verlagsgruppe Random House is headquartered in Munich (with additional locations in Gütersloh, Cologne, and Aßlar), employs about 850 people, and publishes roughly 2.500 titles per year.

Random House of Canada^[6] was established in 1944 as the Canadian distributor of Random House Books. In 1986 the company established its own indigenous Canadian publishing program that has become one of the most successful in Canadian history. Until January 2012 it used to hold a 25% stake in McClelland & Stewart, with the remaining 75% being controlled by the University of Toronto. It is now the sole owner of McClelland & Stewart.

Random House Mondadori is Random House's Spanish-language joint venture with Italian publisher Mondadori, targeting markets in South and Central America and Spain. It is headquartered in Barcelona with locations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

In late 2009 and early 2010, respectively, Random House discontinued their Japanese joint venture Random House Kodansha, which had been established in 2003, and also divested their four-year ownership of Random House Korea. The company has since named Random House Australia managing director Margie Seale responsible for exploring and evaluating potential future business opportunities in Asia.^[7]

Divisions and imprints[link]

[edit] Random House, U.S.A.^[8]

[edit] Random House International^[8]

Fenn/M&S^{[clarification needed]}

Fenn/Tundra^{[clarification needed]}

See also[link]

Children's literature portal

• List of English language book publishers
• List of largest UK book publishers
• Media of New York City
• Publishing

References[link]

External links[link]

• Random House official website
• The Random House Group official website
• Verlagsgruppe Random House official website
• Random House of Canada official website
• Random House Australia official website
• Random House New Zealand official website
• Random House India official website
• Random House Mondadori official website in Spain
• Random House Mondadori official website in Mexico
• Random House Struik official website
• Random House Publishing Group official website

Curtis Stone
Stone in Santa Fe, New Mexico, August 2007 Photo by Joseph Trotz
Born	(1975-11-04) 4 November 1975 (age 36) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Occupation	Chef, Television Personality
Partner	Lindsay Price (2009–present; 1 child)
Website
curtisstone.com

Curtis Stone (born 4 November 1975) is an Australian celebrity chef, author and television personality, nicknamed "The Quiet Terminator"^[1][2] by fans following his performance on The Celebrity Apprentice 3.

Background[link]

He was born in Melbourne, Australia. Stone began cooking with his grandmother at the age of five. He attended Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School. His father, Bryan Stone, is an accountant.

Career[link]

Stone was studying for his Bachelor of Business before deciding his heart was in food.^[3] He worked at some top Australian restaurants before leaving to work at various restaurants in London. In Australia, he debuted his cooking career at age 18 at the Savoy Hotel.^[4] On completing his qualifications as a chef, Stone began cooking in London under Marco Pierre White at the Café Royal and Mirabelle.^[5] He went on to become head chef at White's Quo Vadis.

Television[link]

Stone returned briefly to Australia to make the traveling cooking show Surfing the Menu (on ABC TV) with another chef, Ben O'Donoghue.^[6]

No stranger to television, Stone had appeared in a number of cooking programs in the UK, including Dinner in a Box, Good Food Live and Saturday Kitchen. He also hosted the first season of My Restaurant Rules in Australia. Beginning in May 2006, Stone hosted Take Home Chef on TLC in the United States,^[7] which went on to become an international hit for TLC.

Stone appears regularly on NBC's Today. His second appearance in 2007 featured him visiting the home of host Meredith Vieira to teach her how to cook, as her children had complained that she did not know how.^[8] On 14 January 2011, Stone co-hosted the fourth hour of Today with Hoda Kotb.^[9] He has also appeared on Martha Stewart's show Martha, also on NBC, Access Hollywood, Lopez Tonight and The Nate Berkus Show. On 7 June 2011, Curtis was a guest on Conan, where he taught Conan how to prepare the perfect date night meal.^[10]

He has appeared on Food Network's Iron Chef America in the episode "Battle Skipjack Tuna," where he lost to Iron Chef Bobby Flay.^[11] Stone has also appeared on several episodes of The Biggest Loser.

Stone was also a candidate on The Celebrity Apprentice 3, which premiered in March 2010 and was the third installment to the Celebrity version of The Apprentice. The show premiered on 14 March 2010, and Stone was fired on 16 May 2010, placing fourth out of 14 contestants. Stone has also made appearances on The Ellen Degeneres Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Stone appeared on a segment of Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventure, a four-day television event that aired 18–22 January 2011. Stone threw the talk show host a beach barbecue on Hamilton Island's Whitehaven Beach using Australia's best seafood, meats and produce.^[12]

In June 2010 it was announced that Stone would join the judging and investment panel on NBC's new series America's Next Great Restaurant alongside Bobby Flay, Steve Ells and Lorena Garcia.^[13] The first season aired Sundays from 6 March – 1 May 2011 directly followed by the fourth edition of The Celebrity Apprentice, where Stone made a guest appearance on the first episode.^[14]

In 2011, Stone became host of the third season of Bravo's Top Chef Masters, replacing Kelly Choi.^[15] In January 2012, Bravo announced Stone would co-host a new culinary reality show called Around the World in 80 Plates with fellow celebrity chef Cat Cora, set to premiere in May 2012. The series follows 12 chefs competing in a culinary race across 10 countries in 44 days.^[16]

In addition, Stone does TV commercials for Coles Supermarkets, Hy-Vee^[17] and Great Grains cereal. In 2011, Stone described to GQ Australia[2] his relationship with big supermarkets. "I never even thought about working for a supermarket. But there’s that feeling you get when you walk down the street and someone comes up and says, ‘You know what? We never used to cook fish in our house. Since we’ve tried that salmon recipe we have it once a week.’ The feeling that gives you is worth a million other things".^[18]

Other projects[link]

In 2007 Stone hosted the Great Barrier Feast Culinary Masterclass event on Hamilton Island featuring other notable Australian chefs, Geoff Jansz, Shannon Bennett, and Justin North.^[19]

In 2008 Stone developed "Kitchen Solutions by Curtis Stone,"^[20] a line of kitchen utensils, accessories and glassware. He also has written a series of cookbooks, including Surfing the Menu: Two Chefs, One Journey: A Fresh Food Adventure and Cooking With Curtis: Easy, Everyday and Adventurous Recipes for the Home Cook. His latest book, Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone: Recipes to Put You in My Favorite Mood, was released in April 2009.^[21]

Stone’s cookbook, Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone (ISBN 9781741669718), was published by Random House Australia in November 2009. It is a collection of recipes that are fuss free and tasty.^[22]

In 2010, Stone gave a cooking class and demonstration at the Singapore Sun Festival.^[23] In October 2010 it was announced that Stone had created recipes for in-flight meals for United Airlines.^[24]

Curtis Stone is also creating recipes for West Des Moines, IA-based Hy-Vee grocery stores.

In 2011, he was appointed as an Ambassador for Cottage by the Sea, alongisde Big Wave Surfer Jeff Rowley and Olympic Champion Cathy Freeman. These high profile Australians have been enlisted by Cottage by the Sea as Ambassadors, who give up their own time to support the charity to raise needed funds and share why children in need deserve to have the experience of their lifetime. Cottage by the Sea is one of Australia's oldest charities and each year provides short-term beachside holidays and respite care for more than 900 children and families in need.

In summer 2011, Curtis Stone launched a kitchenware line including cookware, kitchen tools and cutlery called Curtis Stone Kitchen Solutions exclusively at CHEFS Catalog. In 2012, the line will be available at Curtis Stone Shop, Dillards and will premiere on HSN.

Personal life[link]

Stone was listed as one of the sexiest men alive in People magazine in 2006 alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Stone is also a life long fan of the Geelong Football Club.

Stone has been dating actress Lindsay Price since late 2009.^[25] The couple have a son, Hudson, born on 6 November 2011.^[26][27]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Curtis Stone Official Website
• Curtis @ Lifestyle Food
• Cooking With Curtis Stone at KitchenDaily
• Interview with Curtis Stone (13 June 2007)
• Interview with Curtis Stone (18 June 2008)
• YourSingapore - Singapore Sun Festival
• About Curtis Stone Kitchen Solutions at CHEFS Catalog