Revolving Door Newsletter: 05.06.08

A Non-Random Exit Atop a Publishing House

May 6, 2008
No more Mr. Nice Guy -- Random House CEO Peter Olson is stepping down under pressure, having been nudged out, evidently, by the same cold, profit-driven logic that once justified his firing of editor Ann Godoff. Olson may also be the only subject of a textbook Lynn Hirschberg takedown story who wanted to come across looking like a jerk. In any case, the new CEO at Bertelsmann, Hartmut Ostrowski, wants his own man running the underperforming publisher, and Olson's successor might not be anyone you've ever heard of...