Senior staff desert as owner Sigrid Rausing takes much greater control of literary magazine and publisher
A slew of high-profile departures from the prestigious literary magazine and publisher, Granta, has left staff reeling as owner and philanthropist Sigrid Rausing steps up to take full control of the company.
Over the past month Granta Magazine editor John Freeman and deputy editor Ellah Allfrey have both resigned. The magazine's art director and associate editor are also leaving. Earlier this week Philip Gwyn Jones, Granta's books publisher, announced his departure, and further departures are possible.
The situation was described by one insider as a "total shit storm", and by another as a "complete bloody disaster". It is understood to boil down to a desire by Granta's owner to save money, as the company continues to make a loss.
"I really don't understand what is happening here," said the Booker prize-winning novelist Peter Carey, a contributor to the magazine. "I always assumed the owners were prepared to fund Granta out of love for literature. They got in good people and published good books, and underwrote a fabulous magazine – all regardless (obviously) of profit or loss – and then suddenly there's this purge. It's crazy because it undoes all the good work and they have to start all over again. If there's another John Freeman out there, I doubt he'll be applying. Maybe they don't know whether they want to run it for its own sake or to make money. Very strange."
The changes have perplexed the literary community, coming as the magazine had recently announced its "Best of Young British Novelists" list, and has plans for a range of new international editions. Its recently publicity has not all been positive, however. The novelists list received mixed reviews, Freeman was criticised for his comment that Leeds was "out of the literary world" and the party organised to celebrate the issue's launch was so poorly organised Granta had to issue an apology.
Freeman said in an emailed statement that "Sigrid decided a while back she wanted to run the magazine and books on a very reduced staff", and that he "didn't want to be part of that change, or the smaller ship, because I've seen us make huge reductions in our losses by growing. Working as a team".
"I decided it was a good time to get out. And I quit," he said. "I'll miss it, though, we had a lot of fun and a lot of momentum, so did the books. I got to work with great writers. Tremendous editors who would chew through steel for this magazine. It's a great magazine. But in the end it is her property and as she's showing she's going to do with it what she wants."
The new structure will see Rausing take over "full operational and executive control of the company", with the roles of magazine editor (previously held by Freeman) and books executive publisher (previously held by Gwyn Jones) "to be merged into the new single editorial-only role of editor-in-chief, a position that will be filled later this summer", said Granta, announcing Gwyn Jones's departure. The editor-in-chief will both edit the magazine and commission books for the Granta and Portobello imprints.
Gwyn Jones, who declined to speak to the Guardian about the reasons for his departure, said in a statement that Rausing "is ready now to take over the running of the team, and I wish her all luck with this next phase in Granta's illustrious history".
Asked why so many staff have left, Rausing said: "People have left for different reasons, not all of them related. John Freeman wanted to re-locate to New York, and decided to leave, which led us to the decision to close the NYC office. His deputy, Ellah Allfrey, felt that with a new London-based editor, her own job would change, and she decided that she wanted to pursue other things. Michael Salu, our art director, wanted to go freelance, which meant closing our art department. And Philip Gwyn-Jones is leaving because his role as executive publisher became redundant when I decided to take those aspects on myself."
"Closing the NYC office, and the art department, will certainly be a cost saving," she continued. "Publishing is going through rocky times – we are lucky because I can afford the subsidy, which means that we can do things that maybe harder for other publishers. The magazine I don't think will ever be profitable, but I am certainly hoping that the book side will make money."
On bringing the magazine and the publishing side closer together, Rausing confirmed this is her intention, "without making the magazine into a trade-mag for Granta books, obviously … Granta will continue to publish the great books we already do - there won't be any changes there."
Granta magazine can trace its history back to 1889, when it was founded by Cambridge students. It can count amongst its contributors AA Milne, Ted Hughes and Stevie Smith. In the 1970s it ran into money troubles, and was rescued and relaunched as a magazine of new writing, publishing names from Martin Amis to Zadie Smith. Granta Books was launched in 1989. The operation was bought by Rausing, one of the heirs to the multibillion-pound Tetra Pak empire, in 2005.
via Books: Fiction | guardian.co.uk
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