Perseus Books Group Plans Layoffs in 2007

Perseus Books Group recently announced that approximately thirty employees of the recently acquired Consortium Books Sales and Distribution will be laid off in March 2007. Perseus, which includes the imprints Basic Books, Da Capo Press, PublicAffairs, and Running Press, bought the St. Paul-based Consortium in August and is integrating it with Client Distribution Services (CDS), a distributor that Perseus acquired in 2005. David Steinberger, the chief executive of Perseus, previously said that no playoffs were planned.

Consortium, which provides distribution, sales, and marketing services to independent publishers such as Akashic Books, Copper Canyon Press, and Seven Stories Press, currently has about fifty employees. While Consortium and CDS (which has been renamed Perseus Distribution Services) will continue to have separate sales and marketing teams, the integration will combine the customer service and finance departments. In addition, all distribution services will be handled by the Perseus warehouse in Jackson, Tennessee.